Though it’s been nearly a decade since they last won a conference crown, the Bruins are the Pac-12’s preseason victors for the third consecutive year.
No. 8 UCLA men’s basketball is the top team in the Pac-12, as voted by the media before the conference’s Men’s Basketball Media Day in San Francisco on Wednesday. The Bruins received 26 of the 33 available first-place votes, putting them ahead of second and third-place finishers No. 17 Arizona and No. 21 Oregon, respectively.
Coach Mick Cronin, senior guard/forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. and redshirt senior guard Tyger Campbell represented the blue and gold in the Bay Area. Cronin said UCLA’s expectations this season begin and end with the two players who accompanied him Wednesday.
“Somebody told me to get horses and ride them. Since I’m scared to do that, I’m just going to do it in the coaching realm,” Cronin said. “We’ve got two horses this year. We’re going to ride them.”
Jaquez and Campbell lived up to Cronin’s praise, receiving individual recognition from the league. Both players were named to the preseason All-Pac-12 First Team on Wednesday, making UCLA one of three teams in the conference with multiple players on the list.
“It always makes it nice when you’ve got two guys that could both win player of the year in the league on your team,” Cronin said.
Another first-team selection for Campbell by the year’s end would mark his third straight, putting him in elite company. He would be the first UCLA player to receive such recognition in three consecutive years since first-team and second-team designations were introduced in 2007-2008.
But despite his point guard’s already long list of conference honors, Cronin said he is expecting a different Campbell to take the court this season.
“His role is dramatically changing. … He must hunt shots for the first time in his career,” Cronin said. “I want him in Steph Curry mode.”
Campbell is coming off his best scoring season for the blue and gold, averaging 11.9 points per game in 2021-2022 on career-best shooting percentages across the board, including a 41% mark from the 3-point range that ranked fifth in the conference.
However, offseason departures, most notably guards Johnny Juzang and Jules Bernard, have left UCLA with the need to replace upward of 50% of its scoring load from a year ago, meaning Campbell will have to take another leap on the offensive end of the floor.
“Last year we had a different group of guys – guys that could put the ball in the basket,” Jaquez said. “There’s definitely a scoring hole to be filled with Johnny and Jules being gone, and Tyger has been stepping up to fill that role.”
In addition to his preseason All-Pac-12 First Team selection, Jaquez was also named to a number of national preseason All-American lists before Wednesday, getting selected as one of the five best players in the country by CBS Sports and The Athletic.
Rounding out UCLA’s official preseason recognition is junior guard Jaylen Clark and freshman guard Amari Bailey’s inclusions as All-Conference Honorable Mentions.
With the talent of four potential All-Pac-12 players on his team, Jaquez said he and Campbell have expectations that go beyond winning the conference.
“We had talked about in the offseason what our decision was going to be – he had opportunities, I had opportunities,” Jaquez said. “Ultimately, we came to the decision that we were going to come back and try to hang banner No. 12 at Pauley Pavilion.”
Big Ten controversy revisited
Weeks out from a potential resolution to the situation, George Kliavkoff is continuing to draw his line in the sand on UCLA’s move to the Big Ten.
The Pac-12 Commissioner opened Media Day on Wednesday with his introductory press conference discussing the state of the conference while fielding questions from reporters about UCLA’s and USC’s decisions to leave the Pac-12. As he has stated in the past, Kliavkoff is firmly against the decision.
“I have yet to talk to anyone in the UCLA and USC community who’s in favor of the move,” Kliavkoff said.
While USC’s move to the Midwest is all but official, UCLA is still waiting on a decision from the University of California Board of Regents. The board, which has the power to block such a move, will meet in mid-November to discuss UCLA’s decision, among other topics.
In September, Kliavkoff penned a letter to the board that cited “significant concerns” about the move. Kliavkoff wrote that it was a financial decision without sound numbers, adding that UCLA would be better off financially staying in the Pac-12 than if it went to the Big Ten.
While he said he does not know who leaked the letter to the media, Kliavkoff reiterated his opinion Wednesday.
“We believe between the travel and the coaches’ salaries and some of the other expenses you incur when you join the Big Ten, the small delta in the media rights deal will be more than offset,” Kliavkoff said. “We stand by those numbers.”
The Pac-12 is currently negotiating its next media rights deal and is officially looking to expand, according to Kliavkoff.
Cronin, meanwhile, said he is disappointed that the topic took the Media Day spotlight away from the student-athletes.
“ADs (athletic directors), presidents, commissioners make those moves, so they can talk about it,” Cronin said. “Everybody today should be talking about our players and these kids that are working so hard. … Every media day should be about the players.”
Comments are closed.