SAN FRANCISCO – UCLA sophomore Jaylen Hands has been named the Pac-12 Conference Player of the Week, as announced by the league office on Monday morning.
 
This marks the first career Pac-12 Player of the Week award for Hands and the first such honor for any UCLA student-athlete this season.
 
A 6-foot-3 guard from San Diego, Hands scored a team-leading 21 points and added 10 assists (and zero turnovers) in the Bruins' thrilling 93-88 overtime win versus USC last Thursday night. He shot 5-for-10 from 3-point range in the victory, lifting the Bruins to their third consecutive win.
 
Hands has averaged 13.8 points, 3.5 rebounds and a league-leading 6.5 assists per game this season. He currently leads all Pac-12 players in both total assists (189) and assists per game (6.5), while having logged the fourth-best assist-turnover ratio in the Pac-12 (2.2).
 
Hands has scored in double figures in the Bruins' last seven games, totaling at least 20 points in four of UCLA's last six contests. He scored a career-high 29 points at Stanford two weeks ago (Feb. 16) before registering a team-leading 27 points against Oregon one week ago (Feb. 23).
 
Through 16 Pac-12 contests, Hands has averaged 15.8 points and 6.1 assists per game while shooting 40.9 percent from 3-point territory.
 
UCLA will close its regular-season schedule this week, playing at Colorado on Thursday night and at Utah on Saturday evening. Game time this Thursday at Colorado is 6 p.m. PT (7 p.m. MT). The Bruins' game at Colorado will be nationally televised on ESPN2.