No Place Like Home
4/1/2021
The following story appeared in the Spring Edition of UCLA's quarterly athletic department magazine, Bruin Blue.
By Jon Gold
The Juzang Brothers, Christian and Johnny would drive all over during those sweltering Southern California summers, looking for any chance to sharpen their basketball games.
They hailed from Tarzana, Calif., and when older brother Christian returned to the Juzang family home during summer breaks from Harvard, where he would average more than 24 minutes a game for the Crimson ballers from 2016-2020, he’d reunite with little bro Johnny, a star at Harvard-Westlake High, and they’d travel around throughout the summers to take on all comers.
Tarzana is a pretty small town with an even smaller basketball community, and they wanted to be tested, so the Juzangs took to courts all over the southland. Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Inglewood, Crenshaw — wherever they could find a game.
For young Johnny, this was routine. There were drives out to Glendale for practice when he was only seven years old. This was before his nine-and-under team won the national championship at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports in Orlando.
How many hours must they have been stuck on the 405 or the 101? How many times did they pass Randy’s Donuts? Or Dodger Stadium? Or the Great Western Forum?
A better question: How could someone who loves Southern California so much ever leave?
Johnny Juzang felt a little stagnant.
He was 17 years old and a high school junior, coming off a season in which he’d averaged 23 points, 8.5 rebounds and 3.4 for the ultra-successful Harvard-Westlake basketball program. From a young age he’d only ever dreamt of becoming a professional basketball player, and at that point — as it is now — every decision was made with that goal in mind. His high school head coach, Dave Rebibo, says he’s one of the most mature players he’s ever coached.
Juzang knew he could return to the Wolverines for his senior season, strut around like the big man on campus, own the school, really. He knew he could put up 25 points a game against kids whose basketball futures include mostly pick-up games at the Y. He knew he could coast, if he wanted to.
“I felt ready for the next challenge and for something that would provide me with adversity,” he said. “It wasn’t like I was in a rush to speed up the process. I wasn’t cheating my goals. I wanted to feel like I was developing as much as I can.”
When Juzang decided to reclassify from the Class of 2020 to the Class of 2019, he says the decision came down to one thing: “The decision weighed down to enjoying the high school experience — the comfortable decision — or challenging myself and putting myself in an uncomfortable position.”
He chose to be uncomfortable. And he chose to leave.
Juzang signed with Kentucky on May 10, 2019. He makes it clear: He didn’t reclassify so he could play for the Wildcats. There were a number of programs recruiting him at the time, including UCLA, which had just hired Mick Cronin when Juzang re-classified.
Seeking a challenge, that’s exactly what Juzang got. He was pitted against future pros in every practice, including three from the 2020 NBA Draft alone, two in the first round. He was tested, alright. Some days he played two minutes. Some he played 30-plus.
Ultimately, he chose to leave Lexington after one season and put his name in the transfer portal on March 27, 2020. Less than two later, he landed at UCLA.
So perhaps the important question isn’t why Johnny Juzang left Southern California.
Perhaps the important question is this: Why did he come back?
When the pandemic first started, I was taking long walks with friends just to get the hell out of the house. I’m a member at El Caballero Country Club next to his house and I remember texting him saying, ‘I’m waving at ya.’ We were talking every other day.UCLA Head Coach Mick Cronin
That first time around, Mick Cronin barely got three sentences out of his mouth before Juzang decided to re-classify. At the time, the Bruins’ roster was full. But Cronin made an immediate impression on the Juzang family.
The feeling was mutual, and when Cronin learned that Juzang would be transferring, he told the UCLA compliance office to ping him the minute Juzang entered the transfer portal, and thus was eligible to be contacted.
Recruiting in the age of a pandemic is no normal task, but Cronin made sure to check in often. Sometimes a simple wave would do; the two families – the Cronins and the Juzangs – live just three miles apart in the Tarzana area.
“When the pandemic first started, I was taking long walks with friends just to get the hell out of the house,” Cronin said. “I’m a member at El Caballero Country Club next to his house and I remember texting him saying, ‘I’m waving at ya.’ We were talking every other day.”
Juzang liked what he heard, and he liked the idea of staying close to home.
Some players leave home because they know they may be susceptible to local temptations. Some flee poor family situations. Some just want a change of scenery.
Juzang had none of that. He simply had an opportunity to play for one of the best programs in the history of sports, not just college basketball. Who could blame him?
Now he’s transferred to yet another one of the blue-bloods of college basketball, believed to be the first player to play for both Kentucky and UCLA, and he returned close to home in the middle of a pandemic.
Who could blame him?
Had Juzang chosen to play out his high school career and entered UCLA this season as a true freshman, his coaches don’t think he’d be in the position he is in today.
That position: Third-leading scorer on a (as of press time) 13-4 Bruins basketball team.
“The college experience was not new for him,” UCLA assistant coach Michael Lewis said. “Practices were not new, the demands, the level of play. It’s not something he had to adjust to. It was a very smooth transition. Part of what made it smoother was he was coming back home.”
Ask Juzang, though, and you learn how little that had to do with it.
He would’ve followed Mick Cronin to Timbuktu.
And Cronin would’ve led him. After all, Harvard-Westlake was Cronin’s first stop on the recruiting trail once he was hired as the Bruins’ head coach.
“Meeting so quickly after he got the job, that made a big impression,” Juzang said. “That was big on the second time around. I wanted to play for UCLA, and I felt like (Cronin) wanted to coach me, which was really important for me. I want to be coached, and I want a coach who wants to coach me.”
He’s found that in Cronin. The hard-nosed UCLA head coach is honest when describing Juzang’s biggest areas for improvement.
“I look at this as his freshman year because of his age,” Cronin said. “Last year was almost a sit-out year. So he’s doing great. The guy is averaging double figures as a freshman, is the way I look at it. Shot selection can improve, I want him to get fouled way more and to be more of a scorer than a shooter. I think Johnny’s a better passer than people know. And being physical and defending. But he’s really improved lately as a rebounder. Embracing the physicality of the game is going to be paramount to him achieving his goals as a player.”
If he learns one thing from Cronin, it will be that.
And Cronin can learn something from him, too. The former head coach at Cincinnati can only remember accepting two four-year transfers in all his time there.
“From the minute that we first began working out, it really felt seamless,” Lewis said. “He naturally fit here at UCLA. He’s about the same things our team is about. He’s coachable. That’s the one thing. He came in with a very open mind, and he has a real desire to improve. He understands what his strengths and his deficiencies are. We’re going to push him to be the player he says he wants to be.”
