2-min highlight
Postgame Quotes - UCLA vs. Colorado
POSTGAME QUOTES
UCLA 65, Colorado 62
January 2, 2021
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
on the team’s depth being an advantage
“We’re a team that had five guys in double figures coming in, so that’s really who we are. I think we can still be a great offensive team, I think we’ve got to get David Singleton and Jake [Kyman] going. I’ve got to find ways to get those guys going, more minutes and offensively. Jaylen Clark is going to be big for us. In the future, I think we’re going to play him and Jaime [Jaquez Jr.] together because sometimes we’re just too small out there and Jules [Bernard] can’t play the whole game, so I think Jaylen Clark is going to be big for us the rest of the season. We just didn’t have any time to practice, we didn’t know Chris [Smith] was out until we got MRI results today on his situation, so we didn’t have a lot of time to prepare to play without him.”
on Chris Smith’s mentality after the announcement he will miss the rest of the 2020-21 season
“He’s got tremendous maturity, he’s such a team guy. He’s still going through shock probably. The game’s at 5 o’clock, he found out early. I was with him and the medical staff, we broke the news to him before shootaround today. He’s mature, I’m probably more upset about it than him. He actually had to put his arm around me. He’ll be back, it’s tough for me. Tough for me being a coach today.”
on UCLA’s performance in the paint
“We wouldn’t have won without that, you go 3-for-15 from three. Give a lot of credit to Colorado. Look, this game got real physical early, and it was just that way on both ends the whole game. Cody [Riley] and Jalen [Hill] adjusted better to that as the game went on, obviously getting 38 points in the paint, getting ourselves to the foul line enough to get enough points to win, right? We didn’t get anything going from beyond the arc. Give credit to Colorado – they’re a top-25 team, No. 22 in the KenPom [rankings] coming into today. Nothing against voters, but I look at KenPom because the numbers don’t lie. They’re a veteran team, they play hard, they’re well-coached. It was going to be hard, but we would not have won if Cody and Jalen wouldn’t have got some really tough, physical baskets around the paint, so it was huge for us.”
on the team’s defensive effort
“I was frustrated the other day, then you watch the film – Utah just played really well. There’s games as a coach, you’ve gotta mature and look at the truth, and they made some hard shots early, and whenever a team stretches you out, it eliminates your team defense. I thought what you saw today was we said ‘you can’t do that.’ If you’d have been courtside, you would have heard us as a staff yelling at those guys to get in our team defense – not play 1-on-1. If you let kids play 1-on-1 [on] today’s player, the way you’re allowed to half-carry the ball, it’s hard to guard anybody, almost impossible. It’s why the pro game, teams score 120, 140 like it’s nothing. We were a better team defense today, and we’re getting there. It took us a while to get there last year, I definitely thought our team defense forced more jump shots. It was a challenge to box this team out, they play hard.”
on if Saturday’s defensive play was an improvement
“Oh, ya. I think everything is a learning process. Like I’ve said, we’re going to have to have some guys play some more of a bigger role, because you lose – Chris, coming into today was our leading defensive rebounder and obviously a First Team All-Pac-12 player. There’s going to be a process of guys getting more comfortable and getting more play time, whether it’s Jake and Dave, and especially Jaylen Clark is going to have to play with Jaime some for us to be big and strong enough to get done what we need to get done.”
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
on not securing the win at UCLA
“We feel like this was a winnable game. We found out about 45 minutes before the game Chris Smith was out – our hearts go out to him. Being a senior, coming back for senior year, to have an injury like that it's just, it's disheartening. And so that was disappointing, but it opened up an opportunity for us to get a game tonight. I thought they got tired in the second half and we just weren't able to get over the hump. I thought the second half we had some awful good looks, even had two really good looks there at the end from Maddox [Daniels] who's been shooting the ball really well for us. Against UCLA, you have to work for every basket. They are so good defensively and you have got to be able to make plays. I thought, for the most part, tonight we did that but man, there were some looks in the second half that didn't go in. It was a little disheartening. This program is way, way past the point of moral victories, but I really liked the way our guys played with competitiveness and toughness and grit tonight against a solid, good UCLA basketball team. I felt like we could have won, but we didn't make enough plays down the stretch to get it done.”
on UCLA’s defensive effort
“We didn't do a good enough job tonight, in terms of our cutting, just getting open, and we had some sets we couldn't even run on because we couldn't even get open for the entry pass and, we one out of a timeout and turn it over for a layup. In these conference games, especially on the road the margin for error goes down significantly. It might be a turnover here, offensive rebound there, miss layup here - we’re number one in the country in free throw shooting, I expect to make every single one – but it might be a missed free throw; an open look you didn’t make. It was a hell of a basketball game, high level on the defensive end. I think both will get better offensively as the year plays out but tonight was a defensive battle. I just felt like every basket we had to manufacture and they're so quick in their rotations that you have a split second to make a play or make the shot and then that ball has got to move. There were times we did a good job of that there were times we didn't.”
on his team’s rebounding effort
“Tonight was a battle. I thought our guys battled on the boards, we were up one at half on the boards, we were down three in the second half, so we ended up minus two. Both teams had nine offensive rebounds. I felt like we battled. They got some big bodies in there. I think, quite frankly, I was pretty pleased with it. Cody Riley kind of beasted us a couple times. Bernard beasted us a couple of times down there but our guys will fight and battle and that's all you can ask for as a coach. I don't look at that as being the reason we lost the game. Again, a couple of those in the second half we could have limited them to one shot, I can't say we lost this game because we didn't rebound the ball, didn't battle on the board, we just didn't get enough of them, obviously.”
Up next: at Bobby Hurley's Arizona State (4-3, 1-0) Jan 7, 2021 in Tempe, AZ.
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