How Jaime Jaquez Jr. became the UCLA Bruins’ toughest player

The animated voice belonged to a freshman guard who had by no means began and barely contributed earlier than that day, going scoreless in 4 of his first six faculty video games.

He introduced to his teammates, in full-throated phrases, that they wanted to compete. Be extra bodily. Rebound. Do no matter it took to beat Michigan State.

“I imply, I simply actually wish to win greater than something,” Jaime Jaquez Jr. stated in a breezeway exterior the Lahaina Civic Heart in November 2019 whereas explaining his spontaneous speech throughout UCLA’s recreation on the Maui Invitational. “I assume desirous to win is my aggressive hearth and I used to be simply born with it.”

Proper, there was that lineage to think about.

His father, who doubled as his youth coach, didn’t spare him from the cruel critiques he would possibly hear at greater ranges, getting ready him for the opportunity of taking part in for somebody just like the fractious Bob Knight. His mom, as soon as an All-American at Concordia College in Irvine, was identified for by no means backing down, gamers from the lads’s crew asking her to hitch them for pickup video games.

His grandmother opened a profitable enterprise, Petula’s Hair and Nail Salon in Camarillo, regardless of not figuring out any English when she emigrated from Mexico to america.

The Jaquezes persevere. It’s what they do. After Jaime, referred to as Jaimito by the daddy who shares the identical title, was chased off a close-by park court docket with a bullhorn through the early weeks of the pandemic, somebody later protecting the rim with a type of golf equipment used to lock steering wheels, the household put up a basket in entrance of its home.

Extra not too long ago, Jaquez powered by a face bloodied by an errant elbow, one other blow to the pinnacle after falling onto the hardwood and one ankle harm after one other to grow to be UCLA’s most dependable offensive power and grittiest participant.

His rise as a Bruin may be traced to that Hawaii harangue, even when it couldn’t save his overmatched crew from one other loss early in its rebuilding efforts below coach Mick Cronin. Jaquez grew to become a starter that day, to not point out a star teammate, roles he continued to embrace whereas UCLA reached the Remaining 4 one season later.

The fourth-seeded Bruins (27-7) will return to a different huge stage Friday evening on the Wells Fargo Heart towards eighth-seeded North Carolina (26-9) in an NCAA match East Regional semifinal, hoping Jaquez can push by his newest ankle harm to guide his crew as soon as extra.

“He went into the beginning lineup,” Cronin stated of the junior’s ascent, “and he’s helped construct this system again to the place it belongs.”

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The child was an enormous story the day he was born.

These Lamaze lessons Jaime and Angela Jaquez had taken to give attention to respiratory strategies throughout childbirth ended up being a waste as quickly because the physician introduced that the child wasn’t popping out. A c-section was going to be wanted.

Gabriela, Jaime, heart, and Marcos Jaquez embrace throughout their childhood.

(Courtesy of Jaquez household)

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Jaime Sr. was startled when the physician stated “Whoa!” through the process, solely to reassure him together with his rationalization.

“He’s like, ‘Oh, you’ve acquired an enormous one right here,’ ” Jaime recalled with amusing.

The daddy discovered simply how huge when he took the 10-pound, 3-ounce new child for a stroll and noticed one other child that appeared miniature by comparability. He was not attempting to be ironic when he gave his son the nickname Jaimito, or Little Jaime.

The youthful Jaquez performed baseball and soccer rising up however gravitated towards basketball, the game that introduced his mother and father collectively at Concordia. Jaime Sr. was a 6-foot-1 defensive stopper who, alongside together with his teammates, appreciated to hang around with their counterparts on the ladies’s crew.

That led to a friendship and ultimately a courtship when Jaime and Angela started relationship senior yr. The sports-crazed couple held comparable beliefs about competing and by no means giving up, whatever the circumstances.

Jaime, left, Marcos and Gabriela Jaquez collect for a photograph after one in all Marcos’ highschool basketball video games.

(Courtesy of Jaquez household)

Their son didn’t instantly share their identical hearth, Jaime Sr. nudging him in that course with aggressive teaching and a Jay Bilas audio e-book on resilience.

“It took him slightly bit longer to get that, that meanness, that toughness,” Angela Jaquez stated in late 2019 whereas sitting poolside in Maui together with her husband. “I imply, he will get hearth below him and you may at all times inform by his effort, however he’s even-keeled and the identical demeanor. I don’t assume the stuff folks say on the court docket or something folks do impacts him; I imply, it in all probability does, however he doesn’t let it present.”

It’s usually onerous to inform what Jaime is considering, even in exchanges together with his mother and father.

“We’re like, ‘How’s basketball?’ ” Angela stated, recalling a typical dialog.

“Good,” Jaime responded.

“How was apply?”

“Good.”

“How did you do in apply?”

“High quality.”

At that time, Jaquez ended the dialog, saying he wanted to do his homework.

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Jaquez was a well-known title within the Ventura County sports activities panorama lengthy earlier than Jaime scored 54 factors in a recreation for Camarillo Excessive.

Grandfather Ezequiel was a standout baseball and basketball participant at Santa Clara Excessive in Oxnard earlier than occurring to play each sports activities at Northern Arizona.

Ezequiel’s brother, Dick, was invited to play in rookie league for the Houston Colt 45s (now Astros) and later coached an unbeaten baseball crew at Oxnard Rio Mesa Excessive earlier than occurring to be inducted into the Ventura County sports activities corridor of fame.

The household settled within the Oxnard space after Gloria Jaquez, Jaime’s grandmother, met Ezequiel whereas touring from her dwelling in Zapotlanejo, Mexico, to go to a sister in america. They later married and he or she opened the hair salon in Camarillo, naming it after daughter Petula.

“Simply think about a woman not figuring out the English language and operating a really profitable magnificence salon,” Jaime Sr. stated. “It’s like, you don’t comprehend it on the time since you’re type of simply residing it, however as you become old you type of perceive some issues, you look again and also you’re like, wow, that’s unbelievable, you understand?”

Watching his mom’s enterprise thrive and his father hardly ever, if ever, miss a day of labor in his 30-something years of educating instilled a relentlessness in Jaime Sr. that he has handed alongside to his offspring.

He can see it when Jaime battles his youthful siblings, Gabriela and Marcos, on the basket exterior the home. Regardless of giving up seven inches to her brother, the 6-foot Gabriela assaults with the ferociousness that gained her a spot on UCLA girls’s basketball coach Cori Shut’s subsequent freshman class. Ought to Jaime keep in faculty for another yr, the Bruins might boast their first brother-sister basketball combo since Ann and Dave Meyers terrified defenses within the Seventies.

Utilizing the power that has made him a star edge rusher on Camarillo’s soccer crew, the 6-2, 250-pound Marcos doesn’t budge across the basket in one-on-one battles together with his brother.

“I don’t assume they know one other gear, if that makes any sense,” Jaime Sr. stated of his kids. “If somebody stated, ‘Hey, I want you to go 75%,’ all three of them would say, ‘I don’t know what that’s.’ ”

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One physique half after one other has tormented Jaquez this season.

A reduce above the attention. A sore head. One injured ankle, adopted by the opposite.

Tyler Lesher, the crew coach, might need felt as if he have been performing a real-life model of the board recreation “Operation.”

UCLA guard Jaime Jaquez Jr. holds his ankle after tumbling to the court docket towards Lengthy Seashore State on Jan. 6.

(Ringo H.W. Chiu / Related Press)

By means of all of it, Jaquez sat out just one recreation, towards Oregon State, after one ankle grew to become too painful to bear.

“He relishes the prospect to placed on that UCLA uniform,” Jaime Sr. stated, “so he’d principally must have a damaged leg so that you can take him off the court docket.”

In late January, Jaquez revealed that he was coping with Synovitis in his ankle, a painful situation that results in swelling. He started sporting braces on each ankles as a protecting measure.

After a few unproductive video games, Jaquez began to dominate. He took fewer jumpers in favor of extra strikes across the basket that showcased his ability and willpower, head fakes and pivots resulting in a flurry of factors.

Alongside the way in which, UCLA’s second-leading scorer additionally grew to become its late-season savior, averaging 21 factors over his final seven video games at a time when main scorer Johnny Juzang was caught in a scoring funk.

Jaquez had already scored 15 factors towards Saint Mary’s within the second spherical of the NCAA match final weekend when he rolled his ankle whereas preventing for a rebound with about seven minutes left.

After Jaquez limped off the court docket, and didn’t return, many contained in the Moda Heart puzzled if he is likely to be completed for the NCAA match. Those that knew him harbored no such doubts.

“Belief me,” Cronin stated, “if he can stroll, he’ll play.”

And if anybody tried to carry Jaquez out, at the same time as a precaution, he would certainly have one thing to say about it.