Jaylen Joseph Hands is an American college basketball player for the UCLA Bruins of the Pac-12 Conference. As a high school senior in 2017, he was selected to play in the McDonald's All-American Game, and was ranked as a consensus five-star prospect and the No. 3 point guard in the country in the class of 2017 by all major scouting services, including ESPN and 247Sports.

 

Hands began his high school career playing with Mater Dei Catholic High School in Chula Vista, California where he was named an All-County player, San Diego Metro League Player of the Year, and won the 2014 CIF championship. Following his sophomore season, he transferred to Foothills Christian High School in El Cajon, but this transfer was denied by the San Diego Section. Instead, Hands enrolled at Balboa City, a prep school that operated outside of the Section's jurisdiction, where he was teammates with Deandre Ayton, the future top prospect of the class of 2017. For his senior season, he completed his transfer to Foothills Christian, where he played for coach Brad Leaf, father of UCLA star T. J. Leaf. That year, Hands averaged 29 points, 6.7 rebounds and 6.5 assists a game. He also won the slam dunk contest at the Ballislife All-American Game.

 

Hands received many offers from teams such as Arizona, Louisville and San Diego State, but eventually committed to UCLA on September 16, 2015.

 

As a freshman in 2017–18, Hands and junior Aaron Holiday gave the Bruins two fast guards capable of handling the ball, and they were expected to play alongside each other as well as share point guard duties. However, Hands' play was erratic, and he came off the bench for much of the season. He started the first five games of the season before missing a game after spraining his left foot against Wisconsin. Upon returning, he became the sixth man while sophomore Prince Ali remained in the starting lineup. On December 3, 2017, Hands scored a career-high 23 points and added nine rebounds, four assists, two steals and only one turnover in 24 minutes in a 106–73 win over Detroit Mercy. After playing 14 games as a reserve with coach Steve Alford staggering the minutes of his two main ballhandlers, Hands returned to the starting lineup on January 25, 2018, against California, replacing forward GG Goloman. He finished with 14 points, six rebounds and one assist in a 70–57 win over the Golden Bears. In the following game, he scored nine points and had a season-high 10 assists with only one turnover in an 89–73 victory over Stanford. Hands missed the regular season finale after spraining his right ankle in practice. He returned for UCLA's Pac-12 Tournament opener, but played just 10 minutes and did not start. He ended the season with averages of 9.9 points in 25.2 minutes,, with almost as many turnovers (1.8) as assists (2.6). After the season, Hands declared for the 2018 NBA draft and attended the NBA Draft Combine, but withdrew from the draft to return to the Bruins.

 

In 2018–19, Hands assumed the lead point guard role with Holiday leaving left for the NBA. Hands hoped to become a better leader and improve his assist-to-turnover ratio. He and fellow sophomore Kris Wilkes were the team's top two returning scorers. On November 28, 2019, Hands had a career-high 11 assists in an 80–61 win over Hawaii. In the following game, he had his first career double-double with 17 points and 10 assists in an 82–58 win over Loyola Marymount. He followed up with 12 points and a career-high-tying 11 assists for his second straight double-double in a win against Notre Dame. He became the first Bruins player with 10 or more assists in three consecutive games after achieving it only once in his first 37 career games.

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