Tyger Campbell declares for 2023 NBA Draft after 5 years with UCLA
Redshirt senior guard Tyger Campbell looks to drive toward the basket. Campbell contributed 13.4 points and five assists per game in his final campaign with the Bruins this season. (Megan Cai/Assistant Photo editor)
By Jon Christon
April 12, 2023 7:24 p.m.
This post was updated April 13 at 10:02 p.m..
The Bruins are officially saying goodbye to their senior leaders.
Tyger Campbell is declaring for the 2023 NBA Draft, the redshirt senior guard announced on Instagram on Wednesday night. He joins senior guard/forward Jaime Jaquez Jr., who announced that he was going professional last week.
Campbell is expected to sign with an agent and forgo his remaining year of collegiate eligibility.
“It’s hard for me to describe how special my time at UCLA has been. But this has been an incredible ride,” Campbell wrote in his post. “I’m graduating from UCLA and looking forward to the next step in my basketball career. With aspirations to play professionally, I am declaring for the NBA Draft.”
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Campbell has been with the UCLA program for five seasons. Originally a member of the Bruins’ 2018 recruiting class, the guard redshirted his first season with a torn ACL before becoming a four-year starter under coach Mick Cronin.
“Tyger Campbell has been a huge part of our success,” Cronin wrote in a statement. “He has shown so much heart, hustle and grit in how he led this team and how he overcame a knee injury that wiped out his first season in Westwood.”
He is coming off his best statistical season, averaging 13.4 points and five assists per game. Campbell averaged at least eight points and four assists all four of his active years with the Bruins and was named to the All-Pac-12 First Team in his final three seasons.
The redshirt senior ends his career at UCLA second in program history in career assists with 655 and 10th in games played with 133. He helped the Bruins make the Final Four in 2021 and three straight Sweet 16s from 2021 to 2023.
“Tyger has so many great intangible qualities, but simply put, he is a winner,” Cronin wrote. “He’s had an unbelievable career at UCLA. … This was an emotional last run for the two of us, as we both worked so hard together to make UCLA elite again.”
Campbell is currently playing in the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament, a competition for college seniors. He joins fifth-year guard David Singleton, who said goodbye to UCLA last week after exhausting all of his eligibility, at the event.
With Campbell, Jaquez and Singleton all leaving the program, UCLA will have to replace three of its most tenured players heading into next season.
Junior guard Jaylen Clark announced earlier that he would be entering the draft while maintaining his eligibility, while the Bruins are still waiting on professional decisions from freshman guard Amari Bailey and freshman forward Adem Bona.
“It has been an absolute honor to wear the four letters across my chest and be part of this program for five years,” Campbell wrote. “I take a lot of pride in the success we have had, and that’s the result of a lot of hard work and commitment.”
