JUZANG SELECTED TO MIDSEASON TEAM FOR 2022 NAISMITH TROPHY

Bruins’ guard Johnny Juzang has averaged a team-leading 18.1 points per game.

ATLANTA – UCLA junior Johnny Juzang has been named to the midseason team for the 2022 Jersey Mike’s Naismith Trophy, as announced Thursday by the Atlanta Tipoff Club.

The Naismith Trophy is annually awarded to the top men’s and women’s college basketball players. The midseason team includes 30 top players based upon performance this season.

Juzang, a 6-foot-7 guard from Tarzana, Calif., has averaged a team-best 18.1 points per game this season. Juzang currently ranks second in the Pac-12 in scoring. He has shot 45.5 percent from the field this season and 36.8 percent from 3-point territory. He leads all UCLA players in 3-pointers made (35) and has shot a team-best 84.9 percent from the free-throw line (45-of-53).

Juzang secured second-team All-Pac-12 acclaim as a sophomore at UCLA in 2020-21, having led the Bruins in scoring that season (16.0 points per game).

UCLA’s program has seen three of its players win the Naismith Trophy a total of five times. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (then known as Lew Alcindor) was the first-ever recipient of the prestigious national award in 1969, at the conclusion of his senior year. Bill Walton won the Naismith Trophy three consecutive seasons (1972-74), and Marques Johnson won the award as a senior in 1977.

The Bruins (17-4, 9-3 Pac-12) return to action this weekend at USC (20-4, 9-4 Pac-12). Saturday night’s game will begin at 7 p.m. (PT) at USC’s Galen Center. The Bruins’ contest will be nationally televised on ESPN.