Japreece Dean, small but mighty, leads UCLA women into final Pac-12 home game
The UCLA women’s basketball team had just wrapped up practice.
A few days prior, the Bruins had finished their 2018-19 Pac-12 regular season with an 84-50 blowout of Colorado. UCLA’s four seniors – Kennedy Burke, Chrissy Baird, Lajahna Drummer and Japreece Dean – had all been recognized.
Just like she does with every practice, head coach Cori Close gathered her team at center court. They talked about what went well and what needed extra focus. Before she concluded practice, she had one final announcement: Dean was granted an extra year of eligibility.
Instant gasps turned into screams of joy. From across the huddle, Dean’s mouth fell open. She was stunned.
The then-senior had played just two seasons for UCLA after transferring from Texas Tech midway through her sophomore year. She had worked with UCLA coaches to deliver a petition to the NCAA for an extra year of eligibility, but had yet to hear a final decision.
“I was super shocked,” Dean recalls a year later. “It was amazing.”
Fast forward 12 months, and Japreece has made the most of her extra year as the point guard for the No. 9 Bruins (24-4, 13-4).
In November, Dean became the sixth Bruin to ever record a triple-double. She joined the 1,000-career-point club in February, and leads the team with 140 assists on the season all while being the smallest player on UCLA’s roster for the past three years.
But it’s her growth into a loudly present leader that has left the largest impact on the Bruins as she winds down her collegiate career.
A love developed at the park
Lamon, Japreece’s older brother by 10 years, remembers the moment he knew his kid sister had the gift.
Lamon and his twin brother, Lenorris, were playing a pick-up game in a friend’s driveway down the street from the family’s house in Austin, Texas, when Japreece walked up and asked to join. She stunned the crowd of 20-something-year-olds with what Lamon recalls as a “nasty crossover” in the face of a tall-bodied defender. She was in fifth grade.
“We didn’t know she had natural handles like that,” Lamon said. “I just saw the way she moved, she just had it.”
For years, Lamon and Lenorris took their sister to the park every Saturday and Sunday. They’d practice ball movement, teach her dribbles and lift her kid-size body up to drop baskets into the regulation-size hoop.
After games at Vista Ridge High School, she’d immediately ask coaches for the game film. Instead of watching NBA or WNBA games, she’d glue herself in front of the computer and study every one of her plays.
As a McDonald’s All-American nominee, averaging 17 points and 7.1 assists per game at Vista Ridge, Dean had collegiate offers from every single conference in the country, except the Pac-12.
She chose Texas Tech and played a season and two games for the Red Raiders. But she wanted more. After deciding to transfer from Texas Tech in the fall of her sophomore year, Japreece committed to UCLA.
Bigger than life
On a good day, when she’s wearing shoes and standing straight, Dean says she reaches 5’5”. But she notes that’s even a stretch. For the past three seasons, UCLA has – more than generously – listed her at a height of either 5’6” and 5’7”.
She’s always been small, but she’s never let her size become a disadvantage.
“She’s always been kinda bigger than life,” Lamon said. “I tell people my sister is 6-5 inside. She is completely unstoppable, she will drive in on anyone, she will shoot on anyone. She’s always had that mentality, like, ‘I’m 7-feet tall,’ even though she was so small.”
Playing against her brothers and their friends, she wouldn’t back down. She’d get blocked, stolen from and outrun, but she never gave up. She made up for her lack of size with quickness around the key and precise passing.
On Feb. 17, Dean demonstrated this in UCLA’s 83-74 overtime win against Oregon State. Her 3-point dagger with nine seconds left in the extra period secured the win as she and Charisma Osborne led all scorers with 22 points. Dean added a career-high 12 assists.
What made her performance and the victory that much sweeter was that it was against a program that once told her she was “too small” to succeed.
A developed leader
After games in which Dean doesn’t play well, she visits the team’s practice court to let out her frustrations and practice the shots she missed.
Whether in quiet moments, like shooting after poor performances, or during games, when she calls plays and encourages teammates, she sets the example for her team. It’s this leadership that has grown the most in Dean since arriving in Westwood three years ago.
She is the first to acknowledge her mistakes and the first to tell the team it needs to rally and refocus. She may not be the tallest on the court, but her presence is felt the loudest.
“She’s just always pushing everyone to compete and go hard because she wants what’s best for the team and she knows that if we do that, we’ll be successful,” Osborne said.
On Sunday, Dean will have her second senior recognition as a Bruin. Not only will she leave her name on multiple school record lists, but her impact on the team will undoubtedly shape her and her teammates for years to come.
“I don’t feel like it is the end,” Lamon said. “I feel like her life will continue to be about basketball, whether it’s going to the WNBA or overseas or becoming a coach. I believe that basketball is her life and that’s what she’s supposed to do.”
No. 9 UCLA (24-4, 13-4) vs. Utah (13-5, 6-11)
When: 1 p.m. Sunday
Where: Pauley Pavilion
TV/ Radio: Pac-12 Networks/AM 1150
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