UCLA Basketball: Bruins Land Kentucky's Johnny Juzang
The small forward from Harvard-Westlake is coming home after a year at Kentucky.
Photo Courtesy of UK Athletics
The UCLA men’s basketball team will add small forward Johnny Juzang after the Kentucky freshman announced his plans to transfer to Westwood today. He made the announcement on Twitter.
It will be a homecoming for Juzang who grew up in Los Angeles and played his high school ball at Harvard-Westlake where he was a four-star recruit.
But he didn’t seem to get much of a chance to play for the Wildcats and, when he did, it didn’t translate into much on the scoresheet. At Kentucky this season, Juzang played in 28 games and averaged 12.4 minutes per game. He also averaged just 2.9 points and 1.9 rebounds per game.
Juzang chose Mick Cronin’s program over the likes of Arizona, Notre Dame, Oregon, and others.
It’s not yet known whether Juzang will need to sit out the 2020-21 season or if he will qualify for a waiver be eligible to play immediately.
Welcome to Westwood, Johnny!
Go Bruins!!!
This seems like a huge get! Congrats to Coach Cronin, who continues to impress even during this crazy time... and of course, welcome back to LA, Juzang!
This does present an interesting dilemma for Cronin. He potentially has a logjam at SG and SF.
He's got Singleton (6'4") and Bernard (6'6") at shooting guard. IMO, at 6'5", Jaylen Clark would appear to be destined for SG based on what I've seen on video.
He has Jacquez, Kyman, and Juzang, both at 6'6", who can play both positions. Kyman, however, seems to be locked into being a floor spacer, whether it comes as an SG or SF, as his game is pretty much based on the perimeter. If he has some competitive ball-handling skills, perhaps Cronin hasn't yet given him that responsiblity.
And then there's the Campbell and Nix issue. At the end of the season, Campbell was playing balls to the walls tough. It was apparent that he was the catalyst in the offense and in many situations, defensively, and that the team sufferered when whenever he sat for a rest. When you got the best PG in the country coming in with Nix, what happens with Campbell's minutes? I just can't see Nix taking Campbell's minutes, not when Campbell has proven himself as a floor leader.
That being the case, I could see Cronin putting Nix and Campbell together on the floor and running a two PG offense with shared ball-handling responsibilities. If this is the case, those available SG minutes for other players is going to be sparse.
And then there's always the possibility of Smith coming back or even more crazy is the possibility that Cronin lands Zaire Williams, a do everything guy who can play 2 through 4.
It's going to be an interesting season. Dammit I hope it starts on time.