Jaquez was named conference Player of the Week, while Bailey was named Freshman of the Week on Monday.
After going nearly a month without any individual conference recognition, the Bruins had two players end that streak with their performances up in Oregon.
The Pac-12 announced its weekly performance awards Monday afternoon, and UCLA men’s basketball guard/forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. took home Player of the Week honors. Guard Amari Bailey also won Freshman of the Week, beating out Arizona’s Kylan Boswell, Arizona State’s Duke Brennan, Cal’s Grant Newell and Oregon State’s Jordan Pope.
Arizona’s Courtney Ramey, Arizona State’s Desmond Cambridge Jr., Oregon State’s Glenn Taylor Jr., Stanford’s Spencer Jones and Washington State’s Mouhamed Gueye were the other student-athletes nominated for Player of the Week, but they all lost out to Jaquez.
Jaquez only scored seven points Thursday against Oregon State, but he played just 28 minutes in the blowout win. The senior did lead the Bruins with 12 rebounds, though, and he added two assists and a steal without a turnover.
On Saturday against Oregon, Jaquez was the hero in the second half, finishing the night with 25 points and another 12 rebounds. He went 2-for-3 from deep and 7-for-8 from the line, carrying his team to a decisive win in the process.
Between the two games, Jaquez averaged 16 points, 12 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.5 steals and 0.5 blocks per game.
Bailey had an inverse weekend, exploding with a career-high 24 points Thursday against the Beavers. The freshman shot 10-for-16 from the field and 4-for-4 from the line in just 27 minutes of action.
Two days later against the Ducks, Bailey only scored eight points, but he did so on an efficient 4-for-7 shooting from the field. Bailey seemed to twist his ankle in the first half, although it didn’t cost him much playing time and he was able to help UCLA close out the win by the end of the night.
Bailey averaged 16 points and 1.5 steals per game across the two victories, all while shooting 60.9% from the field and 80.0% from the line.
The Pac-12 first introduced its Freshman of the Week award back in the 2019-2020 campaign. Both Jaquez and point guard Tyger Campbell won it that season, but the team went nearly three full years before putting forward another winner again.
UCLA accounted for five of the first nine Pac-12 Freshman of the Week winners this season, with Bailey winning it back-to-back on Nov. 28 and Dec. 5. Guard Dylan Andrews won it himself on Dec. 12, while center Adem Bona won it on both Jan. 2 and Jan. 9.
Bailey and Pope are the only players to win the award three times this season.
Jaquez is still the only Bruin to win Pac-12 Player of the Week this year, but he has now done so twice after also winning it on Dec. 19. Jaquez, Cambridge, Arizona’s Azuolas Tubelis and Colorado’s KJ Simpson have all won it twice each this season, although no one has won it three times to this point.
Both Jaquez and Bailey are squarely in contention for Pac-12 Player of the Year and Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, respectively, considering their recent weekly wins.
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