Don't call it an upset: UCLA loses to 3-10 Cal State Fullerton in Pauley 77-74

Just when you thought we already hit rock bottom this season, UCLA Basketball digs deeper still.

Coach Cronin preaches on HUMILITY in the post-game.

“The message is really irrelevant. I’ve given them the same—I didn’t change. I didn’t change when I got here as a coach. It’s not like I forgot how to coach defense. At some point, you’ve got to keep five guys out there. Problem is, you’re playing guys who play. You’ve got try to find five guys that can get a stop. My message to them was it’s the same that it’s been: I knew this was coming. People just think, well, you’re on the road, or it’s your opponent. Our execution—here’s our problem in a nutshell: until we realize that the only reason teams do things like defend, really execute their plays, is because they have humility. You have humility. I’ve talked about it before and I talked about it over the holiday break. We need to get some humility, is my opinion. Some of its youth, but some of it is arrogance for no reason. Or ego for no reason. I told them our fate isn’t going to change until we get some humility. Cool does not win. You’ve got to be willing to do the uncomfortable things that go into winning and if all you’re worried about is getting 12 points regardless of the outcome for our team, it’s going to continue. My message to them in the locker room is at what point are they going to challenge each other. You can only do so much. I’m going to call Chip Kelly and see if he’ll loan me a couple guys, because our post defense, he’d just get wiped out, turn and lay it in. Stuff I’ve never seen happen before. We grabbed the rim on a guy who got fouled on a layup, we grabbed the rim and gave them two points on a goaltend. I’ve got a lot of work to do. It’s a shame that it’s at this point. You can only build a culture with guys that are going to be about what you’re asking them to be about.”

Now, to the film.

courtesy of  UCLA Athletics

UCLA Falls to Cal State Fullerton, 77-74

dec 28, 2019 | UCLA MEN'S BASKETBALL PAGE | POST LINK

LOS ANGELES – Tyger Campbell recorded career highs of 18 points and nine assists as the UCLA men's basketball team lost to Cal State Fullerton, 77-74, on Saturday afternoon in Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom.
 
The Bruins (7-6) trailed by 65-51 margin midway through the second half, before using a 17-0 scoring run to take a 68-65 lead with 4:54 to play.
 
Cal State Fullerton tied the game at 68-68 on a 3-point basket by Austen Awosika, who finished with 15 points and two steals. The visiting Titans (4-10) took the lead on a free throw by Awosika and pushed their margin to 72-68 with 2:50 remaining in the game.
 
Cal State Fullerton finished the game having made 14 of 24 shots from 3-point territory. The Titans made 9 of 13 attempts from 3-point range in the second half.
 
"I told our guys that our fate isn't going to change until we get some humility," said Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men's Head Basketball Coach. "Cool does not win. You've got to be willing to do the uncomfortable things that go into winning. And if all you're worried about is getting 12 points, regardless of the outcome for our team, it's going to continue."
 
In addition to Campbell, the Bruins also had double-figure scoring from Cody Riley (12 points) and Jaime Jaquez Jr. (11 points).
 
UCLA finished with a 39-28 rebounding advantage. Jalen Hill had a team-high 10 boards for the Bruins.
 
Wayne Arnold scored a team-leading 19 points off the bench for Cal State Fullerton. He made 4 of 6 shots from 3-point range. Jackson Rowe added 17 points and totaled a game-high 11 rebounds.
 
In the first half, UCLA scored nine of the game's first 11 points. Cal State Fullerton charged back behind the efforts of its backcourt. A 3-pointer by Awosika gave the Titans their first lead, at 25-22, with 3:54 to go until halftime. The lead changed hands three more times before the break, and the teams ended the first half with a 33-33 deadlock. Riley had eight points in the first half for UCLA.
 
Cal State Fullerton used a 25-7 scoring run over a span of 6-minutes, 8-seconds to secure a 65-51 advantage with 10:05 left in the second half.
 
Campbell had seven points for the Bruins during their ensuing 17-0 scoring run, helping UCLA to briefly retake the lead.
 
UCLA will open Pac-12 play next week at Washington on Thursday, Jan. 2. Game time at Alaska Airlines Arena in Seattle is set for 7 p.m. (PT). The Bruins' Pac-12 opener will be nationally televised on FS1.

Postgame Quotes – UCLA vs. Cal State Fullerton

POSTGAME QUOTES
Cal State Fullerton 77, UCLA 74
December 28, 2019

Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach

opening statement
“Congratulations to Dedrique (Taylor). Great guy. His team played excellent today. I apologize to our fans for our defensive effort, once again. We’re coming into the game, one of you guys had asked me in the press conference about our defense and I told you this, our metrics are horrible. You can’t defend, you can’t win. We give up 51 percent from the field, 58 from the 3-point line. You give them credit, they had a lot of guys make shots today that hadn’t made shots. They took care of the ball, they passed the ball, they found the open man. If you hold the ball long enough, we’ll break down. We’re not good enough to win with offense. We’ve got to win with defense and it’s a new thing for these guys. We don’t have hardened defenders and I’ve got to figure it out. Like I said, I apologize to people who took their time out of their Saturday over the holidays and paid to come and watch this, our defensive efforts. It’s beyond sickening. It’s beyond sickening. Sickening at the highest level. I don’t know how else to describe it to you.”

on effort in practice leading up to today
“Effort’s overrated. Everybody puts out effort. You’ve got to get the job done. We don’t get the job done. Everybody puts out effort. Effort’s way overrated. You’ve got to execute the defensive game plan. You’ve got to know who can shoot, who’s going to drive, all the way down to the last player. No. 10’s (Austen Awosika) going to drive and take a floater, Coach (Michael) Lewis showed them for three days.”

on message to team after game
“The message is really irrelevant. I’ve given them the same—I didn’t change. I didn’t change when I got here as a coach. It’s not like I forgot how to coach defense. At some point, you’ve got to keep five guys out there. Problem is, you’re playing guys who play. You’ve got try to find five guys that can get a stop. My message to them was it’s the same that it’s been: I knew this was coming. People just think, well, you’re on the road, or it’s your opponent. Our execution—here’s our problem in a nutshell: until we realize that the only reason teams do things like defend, really execute their plays, is because they have humility. You have humility. I’ve talked about it before and I talked about it over the holiday break. We need to get some humility, is my opinion. Some of its youth, but some of it is arrogance for no reason. Or ego for no reason. I told them our fate isn’t going to change until we get some humility. Cool does not win. You’ve got to be willing to do the uncomfortable things that go into winning and if all you’re worried about is getting 12 points regardless of the outcome for our team, it’s going to continue. My message to them in the locker room is at what point are they going to challenge each other. You can only do so much. I’m going to call Chip Kelly and see if he’ll loan me a couple guys, because our post defense, he’d just get wiped out, turn and lay it in. Stuff I’ve never seen happen before. We grabbed the rim on a guy who got fouled on a layup, we grabbed the rim and gave them two points on a goaltend. I’ve got a lot of work to do. It’s a shame that it’s at this point. You can only build a culture with guys that are going to be about what you’re asking them to be about.”

UCLA junior guard Chris Smith
on what is happening with the team
“We’re not holding each other accountable. Nobody is getting on anybody. We’re playing soft at the moment; it’s that simple. And we’re not holding each other accountable. We’ve got to change both of those things.”

on what the team needs to do to hold each other accountable
“We know what we should be doing, and we know the answers. On defense we know what positions we’re supposed to be in. Coach drills it. At moments we have lapses, and we don’t do it. If a teammate sees another teammate doing that, we’ve got to get on him, and we’ve got to tell him, ‘hey, man, we can’t rock with that.’ We’ve got to do what we’ve got to do, and it starts with defense.”

on how to rally the team and get ready for Pac-12 play
“We know it’s a long season, and the Pac-12 is better than last year and better than any year I’ve been here. We know we’ve got a long season, we’ve got good competition coming up, and we’ve got to take it one game at a time. We start on the road, so nothing will be in our favor, so it’s going to show our true colors, and it’s going to test us. We’ve got to take it one game at a time, and we’ve got to come together.”

UCLA freshman guard/forward Jaime Jaquez Jr.
on what was going wrong with the 3-point defense
“They shot the ball really well. Off drives, people were helping a little bit too much, and that left shooters open. When you get wide open shots in Division I basketball, they’re going to hit open shots. I think just helping too much, trying to stop drives was the biggest thing with leaving 3-point shooters open.”

Cal State Fullerton head coach Dedrique Taylor
opening statement
“We stayed consistent and stayed to our principles. This is no disrespect for UCLA. They have great coaching over there. I really feel great right now, but I’m most proud of those guys on the floor. They really bought into the game plan and stayed consistent. Since they bought in, it really gave us a chance.”

on if they changed their strategy when UCLA took the lead
“We stayed the course. We wanted to get paint-touch scores. It’s not necessarily a shot, but what kind of shot we can get. We also said ‘stay consistent and rebound.’ Our message never changed.”

on where they go from here
“We take the small steps. We pick up our right foot, put it down, then we pick up our left foot and put it down. The main thing is that we are trying to get healthy. We haven’t had all our guys, so this is the first game we have those injured guys back.”

Cal State Fullerton senior guard Austen Awosika
on their overall performance
“This is a turning point in our season. This is the first game we’ve had everybody back healthy.”

on his performance
“I think I did well at spurts. I feel like I could have gotten more assists and more rebounds, but I’m just glad we got the win.”

on where they go from here
“We have one more game before conference play, but we will stay consistent. We want to take this momentum into conference play.”

LA Times' Ben Bolch: UCLA basketball top recruit Daishen Nix sees benefits of Bruins’ woes

JAN 21, 2019 | BEN BOLCH | THE L.A. TIMES | ARTICLE LINK

LAS VEGAS — 

 

UCLA’s offense was a mess. The point guard hesitated to take open shots, the big men couldn’t score on collapsing defenders and seemingly everyone on the roster committed turnovers.

Watching it all inside T-Mobile Arena was a player who could have solved many of the problems.

Daishen Nix surveyed his future teammates from two rows behind the Bruins’ bench Saturday during their 74-64 loss to North Carolina as part of the CBS Sports Classic and felt conflicted.

Yes, the star high school point guard was eager to lead a team whose record sunk further toward .500 back to national prominence, but he also realized that there could be benefits to the pain the Bruins are enduring in their first season under new coach Mick Cronin.

“I think them going through this right now will get them tougher for next year,” Nix said, “so when I come in I won’t have to like be the leader automatically because they already played together and they know what to do in tough situations like they just had.”

The 6-foot-5, 210-pound Nix is the kind of player who could spark a dramatic turnaround for a team that appears destined to miss the NCAA tournament for a second consecutive season. The senior at Las Vegas Trinity International School is a passing wizard considered by some to be the nation’s top prep player at his position.

His passing skills evolved from being the quarterback of his football team until he gave up the sport in seventh grade. He enjoys watching YouTube passing highlights of current and former NBA players including Rajon Rondo, Jason Williams and Magic Johnson because of the way they galvanized everybody inside an arena.

“That really catches my eye,” Nix said, “passing the ball and getting the team involved and bringing the crowd into the game.”

Nix became Cronin’s first UCLA recruit after picking the Bruins over Kentucky and Kansas. He said he was attracted to UCLA in part because of Cronin and in part because of the school’s legacy of winning. During a recruiting visit, Nix said he was wowed by massive banners depicting each of the Bruins’ 11 national championships that line a hallway leading from the locker room to the court inside Pauley Pavilion.

Nix was born in Fairbanks, Alaska, but grew up in Anchorage, sparing him the 50-below-zero temperatures that his grandparents and mother once endured. His family eventually moved to Las Vegas because his grandfather had a chronic health condition and needed to escape the cold. After showing some initial improvement, his grandfather died eight months later.

Seated next to Nix on Saturday was Lakewood Mayfair High shooting guard Joshua Christopher, another prep standout UCLA covets. Nix said he was making his own recruiting pitch to Christopher as well as Jalen Green, a star guard from Napa Prolific Prep.

The more talent surrounding Nix, the easier it will be for the Bruins to replicate the kind of turnaround they enjoyed during point guard Lonzo Ball’s first season, when they went from 15-17 to 31-5.

LA Times' Ben Bolch: Costly turnovers spoil UCLA’s comeback bid against North Carolina

jan 21, 2019 | BEN BOLCH | THE L.A. TIMES | ARTICLE LINK

LAS VEGAS — 

Jules Bernard couldn’t recall exactly how many traveling violations and bad passes and offensive fouls and other ways UCLA had lost the ball in the first half Saturday when his coach offered some assistance.

“It was 14,” Mick Cronin interjected while seated next to the sophomore shooting guard inside T-Mobile Arena.

“Fourteen,” Bernard repeated.

The number is one that Cronin isn’t likely to forget after the slew of turnovers sunk the Bruins into a hole from which they could not fully escape during a 74-64 loss to North Carolina in the CBS Sports Classic.

UCLA nearly came all the way back from the resulting 13-point halftime deficit thanks to some aggressive backcourt traps, shaving its deficit to one point, before succumbing to more turnovers.The Bruins’ carelessness stirred the Tar Heels’ slumbering offense and negated the spirited rally sparked by the defensive pressure.

“The problem is once we stop scoring,” said Cronin, whose Bruins (7-5) finished with a season-high 22 turnovers on the way to their second consecutive defeat. “You can’t press if you don’t score.”

UCLA redshirt sophomore forwards Jalen Hill and Cody Riley endured their second consecutive quiet game with four points each while struggling to counter the Tar Heels’ double and triple teams. The Bruins also missed almost every shot from long range, making only four of 21 three-pointers (19%).

UCLA’s frustration deepened with 93 seconds left when a foul initially called on North Carolina (7-5) was overturned and went against Hill, leading to a technical foul on the UCLA bench over its displeasure.

“North Carolina guy turns and elbows Jalen in the mouth and it’s a foul on Jalen,” groused Cronin, who also noted that it was a tale of two halves in officiating, with the teams combining for 13 fouls in the first half and 32 in the second.

The Bruins were having a lot more fun early in the second half when their backcourt pressure forced turnovers that led to a 12-0 surge.

“It’s almost like forced therapy to try to get guys to play hard,” Cronin said of the jolt provided by the press.

UCLA was within 36-35 when freshman guard Jaime Jaquez Jr. went to the free-throw line with a chance to put his team ahead but missed both shots.

Then came another flurry of UCLA turnovers as the Bruins reverted to their sloppy ways from the first half. Tyger Campbell, David Singleton and Chris Smith each committed a turnover to help North Carolina score the next four points.

The Tar Heels eventually extended their advantage, with guard Anthony Harris’ three-pointers on consecutive possessions giving his team a 57-45 lead with a little less than six minutes to play. Harris finished with 14 points and forward Armando Bacot added 15 for North Carolina, which snapped its four-game losing streak despite playing a third consecutive game without freshman sensation Cole Anthony.

Bernard was productive in his return from the shoulder injury that had forced him to miss the game against Notre Dame last weekend, scoring a team-high 16 points in 18 minutes while mostly avoiding his habit of reckless play.

“Coach has told me that I have to utilize my strengths, being under control, being a strong guard that I am,” said Bernard, who had three turnovers. “So if I’m out of control, that takes a way my strengths.”

Jaquez finished with 14 points and Smith had 12, but their scoring was largely offset by Smith’s six turnovers and Jaquez’s five that all came in the first half.

UCLA found nearly every conceivable way to cough up the ball on the way to its 36-23 halftime deficit. There was a ball that went off a body, a ball that was poked away, a step taken out of bounds, an offensive foul, a ball that was stripped while dribbling, multiple traveling violations and two passes that were fumbled away because one player was not ready to receive the ball. And that’s just a partial list.

“We weren’t very under control when we got the ball,” Jaquez said. “We had some travel calls, some just losing the ball, just some fumbling, some silly errors that we had. I think just slowing down was probably the biggest thing that we could have done to stop those turnovers.”

Bernard said the backcourt press was something the Bruins could use to their advantage the rest of the season given it was disruptive against a team that had worked on its press offense in practice the previous day.

That is, of course, if UCLA can keep from giving the ball away itself.

“The turnovers,” Cronin said, “give us absolutely no chance.”

Slide continues as UNC throttles UCLA in Vegas 74-64. Bruins now 7-5.

Jules Bernard scored 16 points for UCLA and Jaime Jaquez Jr. added 14 points on Saturday afternoon, as the Bruins dropped a 74-64 decision to No. 23 North Carolina at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Game highlights

The 1:27 version from UCLA Athletics


The 9:25 version from #CBSSportsClassic #UCLA #UNC

The 25:17 version from Matthew Loves Ball

Coach Mick Cronin post-game comments from jeff siegel

UCLA Downed by North Carolina, 74-64

dec 21, 2019 | UCLA MEN'S BASKETBALL PAGE | POST LINK

LAS VEGAS – Jules Bernard scored 16 points and Jaime Jaquez Jr. had a double-double as the UCLA men's basketball team dropped a 74-64 decision to North Carolina on Saturday afternoon at T-Mobile Arena.
 
Jaquez finished with 14 points and a team-leading 10 rebounds, logging his second double-double of the season. Bernard and Jaquez were among four UCLA players to score in double figures.
 
Playing in the CBS Sports Classic for the sixth consecutive year, the Bruins erased a 13-point halftime deficit early in the second half against North Carolina (7-5) by opening the half with a 12-0 scoring run. Trailing just 47-43 with 7:45 minutes to go, the Tar Heels used a 12-4 run over the next two minutes to pull ahead by 12 points.
 
UCLA trailed North Carolina at the intermission by a 36-23 margin.
 
"We've got to get better at executing some things, of being able to score from a screening and strategy standpoint," said Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men's Head Basketball Coach. "Whatever we are trying to execute, we've got to make sure that we executive it. We just don't have enough, we don't have four first-round picks running around getting their own. And we've got to be a really good execution team. We have got to maximize our possessions."
 
North Carolina's Armando Bacot had team highs in points (15) and rebounds (12). He was among five UNC players to score in double figures on Saturday. Anthony Harris finished with 14 points, while Brandon Robinson, Garrison Brooks and Jeremiah Francis each tallied 12 points.
 
During the Bruins' 12-0 scoring run after halftime, UCLA had four players who scored points. The run was capped by back-to-back 3-pointers from Jaquez Jr. and Smith, pulling UCLA to within one point (36-35) of the Tar Heels with 17:13 left in regulation.
 
North Carolina was held scoreless in the second half until the 15:23 mark. The Tar Heels didn't make their first shot in the second half until the 14:09 mark.
 
Despite the slow second-half start, the Tar Heels responded down the stretch to hold off UCLA. After a jump shot by Tyger Campbell reduced UNC's margin to 47-43 with 9:08 remaining, North Carolina reeled off second consecutive points to push the lead back into double digits.
 
UCLA was unable to get the margin any closer in the rest of the second half.
 
The game was closely contested in the first half until the final five minutes before the intermission. With the score knotted at 19-19, UNC used a 17-4 scoring run to head into the locker room ahead of UCLA, 36-23.
 
Jaquez had a strong first half for the Bruins, having scored nine points and grabbed six rebounds before the break. The freshman from Camarillo, Calif., has scored at least 10 points in four of the Bruins' last six games.
 
UCLA will return to action against Cal State Fullerton on Saturday, Dec. 28. Game time is 2 p.m. in Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom. The meeting against Cal State Fullerton will mark UCLA's final non-conference game before entering Pac-12 play after the New Year.

Postgame Quotes – UCLA vs. North Carolina

POSTGAME QUOTES
December 21, 2019

CBS Sports Classic – Las Vegas, Nev.
North Carolina 74, UCLA 64

Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
opening remarks
“Well, we lost the game in the first half [and] in particular, the last 10 minutes of the first half. We’re just, we’re not capable at the high level against a team that’s got, you know, they’re out there playing either fifth-year seniors or eight top-60 recruits. We're just not capable of sustaining playing smart, playing hard. We got beat to multiple loose balls. And the turnovers give us absolutely no chance. But that said, in defense of my players, I thought that the officials took the first half off. I mean, you watch the game, and North Carolina won, so don’t misconstrue what I am saying. The game was officiated two separate, two separate halves. All you got to do is look at the fouls per half. We had 20 fouls in the second half. North Carolina had 13. First half, six and seven. In the first half, we're trying to drive the ball and guys are being fouled the entire time. We got fouled on four or five shots. We got fouled on multiple drives. And now, when that happens, you got to be tough, you got to be able to deal with it, you got to play off two feet, and we didn't. It killed us. In fact, the last couple games we haven't been able to score inside at all in the half court, so we're searching. We're searching on the offense in there for somebody to give us – somebody we can put the ball in his hand, and he can get a basket or a foul or he can get his teammate a shot.”

on whether Jules Bernard made a case to be, potentially, one of those go-to guys today
“Yeah, it was great. I told you guys it was a shame when went down because he's really, really been trying. He's been trying to listen to me in practice and really slowing down, like he had mentioned, and using his strength. He's always in the gym working on his game. He's one of our most dedicated guys. It really was crushing when he went down the day before the Notre Dame game. And I was worried he [would be] out for a long time.”

on the personal foul called against Jalen Hill in the final two minutes of the second half
“They called it on North Carolina, and then they changed it and called it on us.”

on why the referees reviewed that foul call in the second half
“Yeah, the problem was the same foul happened in the first play of the game against Notre Dame and Jalen turned and it was a foul on Jalen. Now, North Carolina guy turns and elbows Jalen in the mouth and it's a foul on Jalen. As a coach, all you want is consistency. Again, you’ve got to find ways to win games. I won 89 games my last three years and these same guys were all ref'ing. So, you’ve got to be tough enough to deal with it. Just right now, our guys, it threw them off."

on if he thought the game’s officials were trying to change
“It's two different halves. You saw it. It’s two different halves. For both teams. It's just two different halves, totally. But, I will say that we were in the bonus with 13 minutes left in the game and never shot the bonus.”

on whether or not he takes any positives away from the team’s press against UNC
“Yeah. The problem is once we stop scoring. You can't press if you don't score. I've coached pressing teams before and the problem is you can't press. I mean, I guess theoretically, you could, it’s hard to press a turnover. But no question, just really, it’s almost like forced therapy to try to get guys to play hard. But then you're trying to generate offense. Right now as a coaching staff, we are just trying to figure out ways to generate offense. We get some steals, get some layups, because we're really struggling five on five in the half court right now. Where do we go with the ball? What's happened is we played 10 games and teams figured out that you just, you got to double and triple team Cody and Jalen when they catch it down low. And they have taken that away from us. And now we're 4 of 21 from three. We were 2 of 15 at Notre Dame, or 3 for 15, something like that. That is where we're really struggling in the half court.”

on whether he likes the looks that his team is getting from 3-point range
“Some of them. I mean some of them are wide open. Yeah. I mean, I would have to look at the film, but we had some pretty good looks, to be fair. What really kills us, because that happens, again, I've won games with these numbers. We have shot 42 percent for the year and went to multiple NCAA tournaments. The problem is you can't turn the ball over – the real problem is, when you're missing all those shots in the first half, we had zero second chance points. Zero. Now how are you going to win? If you're shooting – if you have a team that's not shooting the ball well, theoretically it means a lot of opportunities for offensive rebounds. So much so that the teams are going to get some up, you're going to get some. But it's been a strength of ours, it's why
we won a lot of our home games.”

on if Chris Smith has progressed in terms of being more aggressive with driving the ball
“He's got to learn to pass – it’s this for all of our guys – Tyger’s got to learn to shoot when he's open. And he got in the lane a few times, and nobody helped, all he had to do was lay it in. We’ve got some other guys that when they drive the ball there's three guys on them and we got to find the open man. So we did get some shots when we did drive the ball and find the open man. It's not that – it's not that hard – you got to drive the ball and score or get fouled. And if you can’t, you’ve got to find the open man. If you can’t, that is because somebody is helping, you must find the open man. We struggled mightily in this area. Why is which why, when we can't pound it inside, we have to now generate offense from our guards. People have got film, so I'm not giving you the secret sauce, everybody already knows. We can’t, in the half court, we can’t pound it inside. We have to, we hesitate, some of those threes were hesitating. We struggled to know when we are open and then when we drive the ball, we don’t shoot, sometimes. When we drive the ball we got to create for each other. Three assists in the first half.”

on if there are signs indicating a progression for this team
“I think we got to get a lot better at it. I think we, against high major teams, I just gave it to you, we got to get better at executing some things and being able to score from a screening and strategy standpoint. Whatever we're trying to execute, we got to make sure that we execute it. We can't, we don't have enough, we just don't have enough, we don't have four first round picks running around just getting their own, we got to be a really good execution team, we got to maximize our possessions, because we don't have somebody who can hit threes five feet behind the line and bail us out when we don't execute. I got to find a way to get Jalen and Cody back to being a factor in the post. That's really killing our offense the last three games. We haven't been able to go inside and come away with anything. As soon as they trap us we got to be ready and we got to pass out and get wide open shots outs of it. We got no chance to win, guys, with 23 turnovers. Not against North Carolina or not against a great coach in LeVelle Moton at North Carolina Central. Can't win with 23 turnovers.”

sophomore guard Jules Bernard
on using backcourt pressure to get back into the game, right after halftime
“We have long, athletic athletes andwhen we put our mind to it, play with energy on the defensive end, I think that press really – because we have a lot of length, so when we start pressing, we're able to get steals, deflections, and disrupt their offense going down. So that's, we try to get us back into the game with our press.”

on UCLA turning over the ball so many times
“Obviously, turnovers hurt us a lot, especially in a game like this where every possession is important. We were down, I think, 13 at the half, and we had, I don't know, a good amount of turnovers, 14. So those are just 14 possessions where we could get fouled and put two points on the board. So every possession, especially in games like this, are extremely important, and those turnovers definitely hurt us.”

on any positives that the Bruins can build upon from this game
“I think the press is definitely a positive. I think we're going to have to do more of that during the season. We know, we see what our length can do on the defensive end if we actually play hard and play aggressive on defense, and actually try to get deflections. And we have been preaching toughness all season, so we have to continue to try to build off certain spurts, like, we had a great first eight or so minutes. We just got to build off that and try to continue those habits, especially on the defensive end.”

on whether he was been slowing things down on offense, finding more success by slowing down the game
“Yeah, I try to. Coach has told me that I have to utilize my strengths, being under control, being a strong guard that I am. So if I'm out of control, that takes a way my strengths. So he's trying to get me to play slower and I'm trying to listen as much as I can and do what he tells me on offense. Yeah, definitely slowing down is going to help me a lot as a player. And it will help my team because it is less turnovers.”

on trying to find some building blocks along the way, and how difficult this process has been
“We're competitors, every single person on this team, our coaching staff. We're all competitors. So we're not going to dwell on the losses. We're going to take what – we're going to learn from them, and we're going to take what we did well, and we're going to take what we need to work on, and we're going to try to improve. But we know that there are ups and downs, so we just have to continue to fight. We’re all competitors, so we're going do keep competing this whole season and try to get next to where we need to.”

freshman guard/forward Jaime Jaquez Jr.
on Jules Bernard bouncing back quickly from a shoulder injury
“Yeah, definitely. He was a huge part of the game. He hit a lot of threes, a lot of big shots, caught it in the passing lanes, got rebounds, played really, really hard and we're glad to have him back and he was a huge help during this game.”

on whether there was a common theme for the Bruins with the 22 turnovers
“I think we weren't very under control when we got the ball. We had some travel calls, some just losing the ball, just some fumbling, some silly errors that we had. I think just slowing down was probably the biggest thing that we could have done to stop those turnovers.”

on three-point shooting, getting some good looks or maybe forcing some shots
“There were some that I thought I had good looks at, but others maybe I could have drove the ball, draw the foul. That's probably what I should have done during those threes that I missed. Getting the one-on-one in the bonus.”

Class of 2020 Daishen Nix 6-5 205 Las Vegas, NV via Fairbanks, AK; #1 PG in the country per 247Sports.com

from 247sports.com

LaMelo Ball vs #1 RANKED PG Daishen Nix GETS HEATED!!! Melo Gets TESTED!?!? Spire ANOTHER FIGHT!?

LaMelo Ball vs #1 RANKED PG GETS HEATED!!! Melo Gets TESTED!?!? Spire ANOTHER FIGHT!?

LaMelo Ball vs #1 RANKED PG GETS HEATED!!! Melo Gets TESTED!?!? Spire ANOTHER FIGHT!?

LaMelo Ball vs #1 RANKED PG GETS HEATED!!! Melo Gets TESTED!?!? Spire ANOTHER FIGHT!?
from ballislife  March 8, 2019: Battle of #1s! LaMelo Ball and Spire faced off against the #1 PG in 2020 according to 24/7 sports, Daishen Nix and Trinity Christian. Melo and Nix battled it out in the first half but Rocket Watts took OVER in the second!

Nix starts out sloppy as heck. Too many hotdog moves. Hope he doesn't do that at UCLA.

Five-Star Point Guard Daishen Nix Is a UCLA COMMIT! - Official Mixtape

from Bleacher Report Aug 21 2019: Five-star point guard Daishen Nix is heading to UCLA. The Alaska native did not play on any major AAU circuits, but is still considered the No. 1 point guard prospect in the country. Nix has incredible court vision and is crafty around the rim. Check the highlights!
#1 PG IS SAVAGE! BREAKS ANKLES & GOES OFF FOR 45 POINTS & SICK DIMES! Daimen Nix! 

from ballislife  Oct 16, 2019: The #1 ranked point guard in 2020 according to 24/7 sports, Daishen Nix, had an absolute monster of a game over the weekend dropping 45 points and a NASTY ankle breaker.

#1 Ranked Point Guard Vs The #1 Point Guard In Arizona!!! SH** GOT WILD! Daishen

Nix Drops 43!!!

from ballislife  Nov 22, 2019:  The #1 ranked point guard in 2020, Daishen Nix, faced off against the #1 PG and team in Arizona, Frankie Collins and AZ Compass. Daishen Nix finished the game with 43 points and the W!

Is He UCLA Next Great Point Guard? Daishen Nix Elite 14 Showcase Highlights

from ballislifesouth Nov 14, 2019: Here is Daishen Nix UCLA commit going at recent Kansas commit Bryce Thompson. Highlights are from the Elite 14 Showcase.

Class of 2020 Five-Star Point Guard Daishen Nix Summer Highlights

from  Rivals Video Recruiting News July 24, 2019: Game highlights from the NBPA Top 100 camp, Pangos All American camp and USA Basketball training camp in the spring.

Daishen Nix Top 20 Player Shows Crazy PASSING Skills @ West Coast Challenge | Best in the Country

from Simply Basketball July 17, 2019

One-on-one with 2020 five-star point guard Daishen Nix (pre-UCLA commitment)

from Rivals Video Recruiting News July 27, 2019: One of the best passers in high school basketball, Daishen Nix is close to narrowing a list of top schools. He holds recent offers from Florida State and West Virginia and says that UCLA, Marquette, Washington, Kansas and a few others are involved. Kentucky is showing high interest and is close to offering and Nix says he definitely wants to get to Lexington for a visit this fall whether it's an official visit or unofficial visit. Rivals.com caught up with the elite point guard at the USA Basketball training camp to get the latest on where things stand.