The first of many Bruins has announced their plans for the upcoming season.
UCLA men’s basketball point guard/forward Jake Kyman has entered the NCAA transfer portal, the team announced Wednesday night. Kyman is now the first player to leave Coach Mick Cronin’s program since Shareef O’Neal in January 2020.
Kyman played three seasons for the Bruins as a 3-point specialist on the wing and has two years of eligibility left wherever he goes.
The 6-foot-1 junior’s time as Bruin began long before he committed in May 2018, considering his mother was a member of the UCLA women’s volleyball team in the early 1990s, winning an NCAA championship as a freshman in 1991. Kyman also grew up in Orange County, just 60 miles away from campus.
“I just want to thank everyone at UCLA who helped make the last three years an amazing experience,” Kyman said in a statement released by UCLA Athletics. “I want to first thank my coaches, employees and teammates for the unforgettable memories, the countless laughs, the knowledge and the relationships I built that I will keep with me forever. I’ve never been so proud to say that I fulfilled my childhood dream of playing for those four legendary letters. I will always be a Bruin for life! With that said, I will enter the transfer portal and wait for the next chapter.”
Coming out of high school, Kyman was a consensus three-star recruit, and the Santa Margarita Catholic (CA) product was seen as a top 40 player in the state and a top 100 in his position. Kyman came to Westwood alongside winger/guard Jaime Jaquez Jr. to make up Cronin’s first recruiting class, even though they both committed while Steve Alford was still in charge.
Kyman was a regular member of Cronin’s rotation for the 2019-2020 season, especially after UCLA lost three straight games to Notre Dame, North Carolina and Cal State Fullerton in December. Kyman then burst onto the scene in the Pac-12 opener on the road against Washington, dropping seven 3-pointers – including the game-winner in the closing seconds – to finish with 21 points and the win.
Over the next 15 games, Kyman had three 20-point performances, averaging 7.3 points per game in 15.1 minutes of action per night. Kyman threw 40.3% depth that season, combining with guard David Singleton to form one of the most efficient shooting duos in the West.
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However, Kyman saw his score, usage rate, shot attempts, efficiency and playing time all drop in each of the following two seasons. Kyman was healthy all year last season — at least, after being elbowed in the eye by center Myles Johnson in preseason practice — but he’s only seen the court in 23 of the Bruins’ 35 games.
Kyman averaged 5.3 points per game on 58.8% true shots with an efficiency rating of 17.5 players as a rookie, only to 2.8 points per game on 48.3% true shots with 11. .2 PER in its second and third years. Once one of the most reliable 3-point shooters in the Pac-12, Kyman hit 34.6% from long range in his sophomore year and just 29.0% as a junior.
In UCLA’s six postseason games at the Pac-12 and NCAA tournaments in March, Kyman only appeared in two of them for a total of four minutes.
Kyman saw his defensive rating drop below 100 points per 100 possessions, and his 0.7 turnovers per 40 minutes were the lowest for the team.
“We would like to thank Jake for his contributions to our program and wish him all the best going forward,” Cronin said in a statement released by UCLA Athletics. “Jake has been a great teammate and a first-rate young man in his time as the Bruin. We will miss Jake, but as I told him, he is always welcome in Westwood and will always be a part of the Bruin family.”
UCLA would need three scholarship players to leave the program this offseason to reach the NCAA’s limit of 13, considering three highly lauded rookies have already signed their national letters of intent — point guard Amari Bailey, center Adem Bona and point guard Dylan Andrews. .
So the born and bred Bruin is now leaving town and starting to look for a new destination to continue his university career.
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