UNC Basketball: Latest on UCLA’s Jaime Jaquez Jr.’s Sweet 16 availability

The UNC basketball program will compete in its first Sweet 16 game since 2019 and UCLA Bruins junior guard Jaime Jacquez, Jr. will be back in the lineup.

The North Carolina Tar Heels will face off with the UCLA Bruins in the Sweet 16 on Friday night in hopes of advancing to the East Regional Final to be played in Philadelphia on Sunday.

The Tar Heels appear to be peaking at the right time, winning 14 of their last 17 games and knocking off the top-seeded Baylor Bears in the Round of 32. Now, they have an opportunity to get to the Elite Eight for the first time since 2017 when they went on to win the national championship over Gonzaga.

Now that Brady Manek is back from the ejection that disqualified him from the final 10 minutes of the Tar Heels’ game against the Bears, they’ll be back to full strength when they take the court against the Bruins.

On the other side, there’s been some concern among the UCLA basketball team and its fans regarding the status of star junior guard Jaime Jaquez, Jr. following an ankle injury he sustained in the second half of the Bruins’ Round of 32 victory over the Saint Mary’s Gaels.

There was speculation all week long that Jaquez would play on Friday, but his status remained day-to-day until Thursday afternoon. That’s when multiple sources confirmed that Jaquez is expected to play after practicing and competing in drills on Thursday.

It’s unknown if Jaquez will be at 100 percent when he plays on Friday night and there’s no word yet whether or not he’ll log the 30-plus minutes he’s averaging on the season. We’ll continue to follow any developments in this story leading up to the game’s 9:39 p.m. start time tomorrow night.

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