Given the Bruins' recent injury luck, many assumed the worst when they saw guard David Singleton go down late Saturday night.
No. 2 seed UCLA men's basketball (31-5, 18-2 Pac-12) appeared to lose its super senior sharpshooter with 20 seconds left in its eventual 68-63 victory over No. 7 seed Northwestern (22-12, 12-8 Big Ten) in the second round of the NCAA tournament. Coach Mick Cronin and athletic director Martin Jarmond both rushed over to Singleton as he laid face-down on the court, and walk-on forward Logan Cremonesi helped the training staff take him down the tunnel for further evaluation.
The veteran gave fans some much welcome news after the win, however.
“I just rolled my ankle, but I'll be fine," Singleton said in the locker room. "I’m walking around, smiling. It was just initial pain more than anything."
The injury sucked the air of a Golden 1 Center that was getting ready to exhale, with the Bruins finally pulling away from a pesky Wildcats squad that had just staged a 13-point comeback. The concerns went beyond what the UCLA community had gone through on Saturday, though.
After all, guard Jaylen Clark had just gone down with a season-ending leg injury against Arizona on March 4. Center Adem Bona also hurt his left shoulder against Oregon on March 10, an injury that wound up costing him his next two games.
In 2021, guard Johnny Juzang fell victim to multiple sprained ankles in March. In 2022, it was guard/forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. who suffered sprained ankle after sprained ankle, to the point where he needed to undergo surgery in the offseason.
And that's all without mentioning the torn ACLs to Tyger Campbell, Chris Smith, Mac Etienne and Will McClendon over the past five seasons, or the heart condition that kept forward Shareef O'Neal out for a year.
Even Cronin told reporters after the game that he feared Singleton's injury was much worse, and that it gave him flashbacks of former Cincinnati star Kenyon Martin breaking his leg in the 2000 Conference USA tournament.
"I'm just happy he didn't break his ankle," Cronin said. "It's been crazy for us here lately."
Luckily for his team's title chances, Singleton avoided that broken ankle.
UCLA Athletics confirmed the fifth-year guard out of Bishop Montgomery High School (CA) suffered a right ankle sprain, and that the injury was unlikely to keep him out for the Sweet 16 next week, per the LA Daily News' Tarek Fattal.
Singleton has been at UCLA since the 2018-2019 season, when he was coached by Steve Alford and interim Murry Bartow. While Singleton broke his foot in the Pac-12 tournament quarterfinals that year, he was back in action by the fall.
Of the 167 games the Bruins have played over the last five seasons, Singleton has appeared in 163 of them. As a result, Singleton is UCLA's all-time leader in games played, and he has taken advantage of that time by becoming one of the Pac-12's most prolific 3-point shooters ever.
Singleton has shot 43.0% or better from beyond the arc in four of his five seasons, and he entered Saturday averaging a career-high 9.2 points per game on 43.2% shooting from deep.
Before going down against Northwestern, Singleton came through with a signature big moment that helped the Bruins secure the win.
With UCLA up by three and two minutes remaining, Bona blocked a shot by guard Chase Audige, who had already carved up the Bruins defense for 16 points in the second half alone. The ball found its way to Singleton on the fast break, and he drilled a 3-pointer with 1:50 left that put the Wildcats in an even bigger hole.
A back-and-forth of free throws followed, during which Singleton got hurt, although he was able to return to the bench a few minutes later. Singleton made it back to the court wearing only one shoe, and he participated in the postgame handshake line before joining in on the relatively tempered team celebration.
"We’re going to celebrate, but we know the job’s not finished," Singleton said. "We made it to the Sweet 16, but we go to a school that they don’t hang anything but national championships up."
Singleton and the Bruins have now won two NCAA tournament games, but they need to win four more before they get to hang banner No. 12.
UCLA will face either No. 3 seed Gonzaga or No. 6 seed TCU in the Sweet 16 in Las Vegas next week, with No. 4 seed UConn, No. 5 seed Saint Mary's or No. 8 seed Arkansas awaiting the winner of that game in the Elite Eight.
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