Bruins climb to the top of Pac-12 despite continued COVID-19 issues, injuries

While barging its way to the top of the Pac-12 race last week, UCLA also revealed a potential obstacle that has nothing to do with basketball.

After the Bruins beat Arizona 75-59 on Jan. 25, guard Johnny Juzang sat out games against Cal and Stanford because of a random COVID-19 test he took despite being asymptomatic.

It isn’t clear if the Bruins have to randomly test all players or only unvaccinated/unboosted players — UCLA coach Mick Cronin declined to detail the school’s protocols — but the thought of losing an asymptomatic key player to a random test is something the Wildcats don’t have to deal with.

All of Arizona’s scholarship players are vaccinated and boosted, and therefore do not need to be “surveillance” tested if not symptomatic — though UA trainer Justin Kokoskie says the Wildcats have been good about reporting even minor symptoms and subsequently taking tests.

Juzang was scheduled to be tested again Tuesday afternoon and, if the result was negative, return to practice and play Thursday against the Wildcats (UCLA did not announce the result, since it is a health issue). If Juzang tested negative, he also won’t be subject to another test for 90 days unless he’s symptomatic.

Juzang’s absence was the latest COVID-19 issue for a team that already paused for more than two weeks in December, resulting in a scheduled UCLA-Arizona game being pushed back from Dec. 30 to Jan. 25.

But when asked if UCLA’s protocols could be a competitive disadvantage of sorts, Cronin did not complain. It is a public health issue, after all, he indicated.

“I love being at UCLA and with that goes whatever the rules are here,” Cronin said. “One thing I’ll say about our school: If there’s anything that errs on the side of something I don’t agree with, I know that with the way this school is run and Chancellor (Gene) Block, that the quality, health and safety will probably always go over and above what I want as a coach. That’s what drew me to UCLA.”

Even if Juzang returns on Thursday, the Bruins will be without reserve wing Jaylen Clark, who has missed their past three games because of concussion protocols, and possibly even forward Jaime Jaquez, who left after playing seven minutes against Stanford last Saturday because of an ankle injury.

“Do we play big, do we play small?” Cronin said. “We’re going to have a Plan A, B and C on Thursday night. Maybe Jaime wants to try it and give it a go and feels good — and then he gets out there and he doesn’t feel good. So there’s a lot of stuff we’re dealing with as far as what we have to plan on.”

Clark has been among the Bruins’ best defenders; but even without him, UCLA continued playing the best defense of its season in wins over Arizona, Cal and Stanford. UCLA held the Golden Bears to 28.6% shooting from 3 in an 81-57 win, and beat Stanford 66-43 while holding the Cardinal to just 3-of-20 shooting from 3-point range and 27.1% overall.

UCLA held its last six opponents to an average of just 57.8 points a game. The Bruins are 6-0 during that stretch.

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

“We’ve played more aggressive on defense,” wing Jules Bernard said. “In terms of guards … it’s trying to get a deflection, blasting through screens and things of that nature. And then just knowing everyone has each other’s back and we’re gonna play aggressive. There’s opportunity for some mistakes but that’s where we have our help, to sort of come right back.”

Lloyd details Tubelis’ injury

UA coach Tommy Lloyd initially declined to be specific about the severity of the ankle sprain forward Azuolas Tubelis suffered on Jan. 20 at Stanford, but said during his radio show Monday night that it was a “high ankle sprain of sorts.”

Typically, high ankle sprains can keep players out for three or four weeks. However, Tubelis missed only UA’s Jan. 23 game at Cal before returning in limited form against UCLA and ASU last week.

“I don’t technically know, but it’s one of those deals where you can’t get injured any worse but it takes a long time to heal,” Lloyd said. “If you have a traditional low-ankle sprain, those can get swollen and hurt, but once you get the inflammation out of there, you go from 50% to 70% and 90-98% pretty quickly.

“These high ankle sprains, they don’t swell and it’s kind of a pain thing, and you go from 50% to 55% and 57%. It’s a much slower full recovery.”

Lloyd said he didn’t know what percent Tubelis was at now, but that he wasn’t fully recovered. But he said both Tubelis and guard Justin Kier, who banged up his left wrist in a hard fall at Cal, have been willing to play through pain.

“I’ve asked (Tubelis) numerous times, and he’s like, ‘Coach, no, whatever you need me to do to help the team. I’ll come off the bench. I’ll be a role player. I’ll play 15 minutes a game. Whatever you need out of me, I’m going to give you,’” Lloyd said. “I’m really happy he’s doing that for the team. And (Kier) is handling a tough little wrist thing and it shows the character of those guys and how much they care for the program, how much they care for the team.”

Mathurin named to Jerry West list

Arizona sophomore Bennedict Mathurin was one of 10 players named Tuesday to the updated Top 10 watch list for the Jerry West Award, given to the nation’s top shooting guard.

Juzang was also named to the West list, along with Wisconsin’s Johnny Davis and former UA recruiting target TyTy Washington of Kentucky. Others named included Adam Flagler of Baylor, Izaiah Brockington of Iowa State, Ochai Agbaji of Kansas, Jaden Ivey of Purdue, Buddy Boeheim of Syracuse and Justin Moore of Villanova.