Kentucky transfer Johnny Juzang has received a waiver to play immediately next season at UCLA.
Juzang left Kentucky in late March after just one season, and committed to UCLA in early April. When he announced his commitment to the Bruins, he made it clear that he was going to pursue a waiver to play immediately.
"We've very excited that Johnny will be able to play for us next season,'' coach Mick Cronin said. "Johnny is a talented player who can definitely make an impact for us.''
A 6-foot-6 shooting guard from Los Angeles, Juzang played in 28 games as a freshman, starting two, and averaged 2.9 points and 1.9 rebounds. He saw an increased role in the final couple games of the regular season, playing a season-high 33 minutes in a comeback win over Florida in the season finale. Juzang scored in double-figures twice last season, going for 13 points at Tennessee and 10 points in the aforementioned victory over the Gators. He shot 40.7% from 3-point range in SEC play.
He was a sought-after prospect coming out of high school, ranking No. 30 in the ESPN 100 for the 2019 class. He was originally in the 2020 class but reclassified into 2019 last April and committed to Kentucky in early May 2019.
Cronin went 19-12 in his first season as the head coach at UCLA, but the Bruins won 11 of their final 14 games to finish just one game behind Oregon in the Pac-12 race. If Chris Smith withdraws from the NBA draft, Cronin will bring back nearly his entire rotation while also adding Juzang. Five-star point guard Daishen Nix announced earlier this month that he was decommitting from UCLA and entering the G-League.