This post was updated May 31 at 10:50 p.m.
Jaylen Clark has officially donned the blue and gold for the final time.
The UCLA men’s basketball junior guard will remain in the 2023 NBA Draft and officially forgo his two remaining years of eligibility, he told CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein on Wednesday afternoon. Clark entered the draft March 29 and had until Wednesday at 9 p.m. to withdraw his name from the process.
“Thank you Ucla,” Clark wrote in an Instagram post shortly after Rothstein’s report.
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Clark’s decision comes just hours after freshman forward Adem Bona declared his intentions to withdraw his name from the draft process and return to UCLA. Bona now represents the only returning Bruin starter.
Senior guard/forward Jaime Jaquez Jr., redshirt senior guard Tyger Campbell and freshman guard Amari Bailey all previously declared their intentions to forgo their remaining college eligibility and remain in the draft process. UCLA now has just three scholarship players slated to return for the 2023-2024 campaign.
Clark was expected to miss a significant portion of UCLA’s 2023-2024 season with an Achilles injury had he returned. He sustained the injury in March and told the NCAA’s Andy Katz in April that he could be back on the court in some capacity by December or January at the earliest.
He ends his career in Westwood with career averages of 7.4 points, 4.1 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game after a breakout junior season in which he averaged 13 points, six rebounds and 2.6 steals a night. The guard won the program’s only Naismith Defensive Player of the Year for his efforts last season.
Clark – a former four-star recruit from Riverside – parlayed his energetic play and defensive chops into a bench role on 2021’s Final Four squad his freshman year. He increased his stature every season, going from spot starter his sophomore year to indispensable member of coach Mick Cronin’s rotation his junior year.
“Jaylen has been a winning player at UCLA for three years, and we are a better program because he chose to be a Bruin,” Cronin said in an emailed statement. “Jaylen is a classic case that player evaluation and a player’s intangibles matter. He has had three great years in Westwood.”
He produced a number of memorable moments for UCLA, including a game-winning free throw against Arizona State in 2021 and a game-winning 3-pointer against USC this past season.
Clark was projected to be a second-round pick before his injury and now stands to likely sign with a team as an undrafted free agent.
“We will miss him, but we wish him all the best,” Cronin said. “Jaylen will always be a Bruin and hopefully one of the more than 120-plus Bruins who were NBA Draft picks before him.”
