UCLA men’s basketball head coach Mick Cronin remembers watching junior Jaylen Clark as a high school prospect at Etiwanda High School in Rancho Cucamonga.
It wasn’t anything the 6-foot-5 guard did with the ball in his hands that stood out — it was the opposite. Cronin offered Clark a scholarship after watching him make an impact while doing very little scoring.
“I know he didn’t have 10 points when I went to see him play,” Cronin recalled earlier this week. “But he plays every play of the game. You have to get guys that play without the ball.”
It was Clark’s hustle and defensive rotations, competing just by sheer use of his motor.
Cronin said those types of qualities aren’t “common” when he’s out evaluating talent.
“The biggest problem with our game is the stat sheet,” he added. “When 8-year-olds and 10-year-olds play basketball and they go home, everybody asks them how many points they had. They tend to think that’s the only part of the game.”
In his first year as a starter, Clark is stuffing the stat sheet in a number of areas.
He has turned his stellar defense into offense to help the eighth-ranked Bruins get off to a 2-0 start this season. Four days after setting a career high with seven steals in the season opener, Clark added four more steals as part of another standout all-around performance Friday in a 93-69 win over Long Beach State at Pauley Pavilion.
From the field, he has made 13 of 19 shots and a handful have come off playing the passing lane for steals that turn into transition layups. Clark also has had at least four assists and seven rebounds in each contest.
No sequence embodied that motor Cronin saw as a recruit more than one defensive possession midway through the second half, when Clark made one deflection on a pass into the key, stuck with it as the ball moved beyond the 3-point line and, from the free throw line, instinctively anticipated a pass back out beyond the arc that he poked away and scored on the break to put UCLA up 69-45.
“I get enjoyment out of playing defense,” Clark said after the victory. “That’s what I take pride in. I’m pretty sure I’ll (get) the single-season steals record. I already did the math. I gave myself a good start.”
The program’s single-season mark belongs to Jordan Adams, who had 95 steals in 2014. Clark already has 11 with a whole season ahead of him. As a team, UCLA has forced an average of 19 turnovers over the two games.
On a team with Pac-12 first-team performers in seniors Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Tyger Campbell, Clark is already making an early case for that type of consideration and more. As a sophomore, he was an all-conference defensive team selection despite coming off the bench and now he’s proving he may be the most talented — or, at least most important — piece of all.
