UCLA survives lowly Washington 81-76. Bruins still undefeated in Pac-12 play; now 7-0, 11-2 overall.

CTTO 

Junior guard Jules Bernard had 20 points and nine rebounds, and first-place UCLA survived a scare from last-place Washington to win 81-76 on Saturday for its sixth straight victory. 

Starting 5s

Pre-game 

2-min highlight film

24-min highlight film

Q & A's 

Postgame Quotes – UCLA vs. Washington

Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
on what changed from first half to second half
“I thought Tyger (Campbell) – we’re not a good team unless he’s playing well. I thought the more he started to compete and realized the game had started and we were going to lose if he didn’t play – that was probably the biggest thing for us. Coming out of the locker room, getting some stops – to answer your pointed question, factually, Ben, we got six straight stops out of the locker room. Their first six possessions, we got a stop.”

on Jules Bernard
“Yeah, again, I’m a little different than you guys. I like when he shoots it in. Right now, he’s our most physical player. He’s our toughest guy; I’ve been saying that since I got here. People are probably wondering why’s he keep trying to play him. I had to keep getting him to the point where he doesn’t turn the ball over because I just believe you can’t win without some physicality. And that’s why I believe Jaylen Clark could be a great player for us. Jules, every time there’s a loose ball, he’s the guy. He’s our leading rebounder today. No turnovers. Plus 11 with him in the game. So, I totally agree with you, he just continues to get better. But I will say this, Ben, he practices like that. And that’s why I always thought if I could get him to keep it more simple on offense -- shoot when he’s open, teach him to slow down on offense – because he’s such a good guy, and he’s such a tough kid and he’s got a great, strong body – I’m pretty tough, but my body’s a joke – the way he’s built and as athletic as he is, he’s got a chance to be a really good player. I think he can keep getting better.”

on limiting turnovers and beating Washington on offensive boards
“Well, at halftime, we talked about our lack of defense. Not that it was excellent in the second half, by any stretch. They were a tough matchup for us, we knew it. I think what people don’t realize is college basketball, especially our game, matchups mean so much. More than the other team’s record. How you match up with that other team and it dictates so much, especially in the NCAA tournament. If you can get favorable ones versus tough ones. I thought Quade Green was going to be a problem for us today. And I was really concerned with their quickness at all their positions because we can be challenged sometimes with footspeed. We didn’t play very smart. We didn’t guard (Erik) Stevenson correctly in the first half. So, that being said, we did find a way to win the game. But we’re trying everything we know as a coaching staff with these guys on the defensive end. We’ve just got to keep doing that.”

on how much closeness of game came due to Washington playing better than it was used to
“I agree, Tarek. We told our guys, eventually these guys are going to make some shots because if you look at their percentages from last year, some of their players, from a shooting perspective – (Hameir) Wright’s struggled this year. But last year, he shot the ball well. Quade Green, he missed a lot of games. I also thought their speed and quickness – yes, you’re correct, they made some shots and that gives you a chance, right? When they make those shots, it gives them energy on defense, it gives them belief they’ve got a chance to win. But I would say our defense left a lot to be desired, as well. That’s really what started the whole thing. Again, we’re no finished product. We’ve got no seniors out there and we’ve got to have a better sense of maturity about who we are and our preparation for a game like today. In my opinion, we thought we were just going to show up and they were going to quit. They came to play. Fortunately, we were able to dig out the victory.”

Box (click box to enlarge)

Current Team Stats (click stats to enlarge)

Up Next

at Cal on Thu Jan 21.

Go, Bruins!!!  

UCLA Tiger Kings the Cougs 91-61. Bruins now 10-2, 6-0.

WOW, 91!!! Bruins still undefeated and atop the Pac-12 conference. 

CTTO

Pre-Game warm-ups

1-min highlight

20-min highlight

Q & A's 

The Box

Postgame Quotes – UCLA vs. Washington State

POSTGAME QUOTES
UCLA 91, Washington State 61
January 14, 2021
 
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
on the team’s ball movement
“Great passing leads to great shooting. We came off feeding Cody [Riley] down low … with our team, we’ve got to recognize when he gets single coverage we’ve got to just play through him in the low post. He just delivers over and over. Once that happened, I think it opened up the perimeter for guys. I loved Jake [Kyman] and Johnny [Juzang]’s mindset today, no hesitation at all. I think eight of our first nine assists were from eight different guys. Everybody was moving the ball, and on this team we try to really preach ball movement. I thought this game was out there for us. We’ve been moving the ball really well most of the season, but some of our younger shooters – Johnny and Jake in particular – the ball wasn’t going in for them. Tyger’s been shooting great numbers in practice in his 3-point drills. Today, the ball went in for us. It made it awfully hard to cover us.”
 
on the defensive effort
“They shot 57 percent. I base it off the shots that we’re forcing the other team to take, or are we giving them lay-ups and shots they want? Man, Washington St., we forced them to take one-on-one shots and we did an excellent job with our game plan. Coach Palmer did a great job this week. But [WSU’s Isaac] Bonton hit some really hard shots, and so did Noah Williams, even [TJ] Bamba hit a 3 and he’s not a shooter at all. We told the guys at halftime, just talked about a few things I thought would help us with our adjustments, as far as our vision and anticipating what’s coming from the other team after they run their play and we defend it. We were forcing them to take tough shots, they were just making them.”
 
on the team’s mentality
“We play with no seniors, so leadership is still growing on this team. We’re still developing an attitude where we have pride in getting stops, and we have individual pride that ‘I’m a good defender, I’m not a liability defensively.’ Today’s player is so much harder to guard, so many guys can make the 3, they allow guys to carry the ball in a way they didn’t allow a guy like Tyus Edney in his era. It’s not easy to play good defense. If you’re not an elite, elite offensive player, you’ve got to be able to guard somebody. I think it’s the fallacy of basketball, people don’t realize, you’re never going to make a lot of money playing the game if you can’t play defense. You better be Dirk Nowitzki, you better be one of the best offensive players in the world. We preach that to our guys. I think we’re growing still, we’re young, we’re learning as a coaching staff – we made some adjustments strategically today with how we played the pick-and-roll and some of our post defense. We’ve tried to make some adjustments in practice this week to our defense, and we’re going to continue to do that. Getting upset with players is a waste of time, you have to make them better, you have to make adjustments, you have to teach them better, maybe adjust your strategy a little bit. I thought Coach Palmer did a great job with the scouting report this week.”
 
on Jake Kyman
“Jake [Kyman] and I had a little talk – I’m trying to teach him, it’s an evolution. I’m trying to teach him to play off the shot fake, but I think I had him too gun shy, so I told him I fired myself and now my new attitude is don’t pass up shots. You’re gonna probably force one now and then, but don’t worry about it. Your job is to make shots, it’s who you are. If you decide to shot fake and drive, that’s on you. Just trying to give our guys confidence. I just think passing is the key to shooting. We did a great job of finding the open man.”
 
on Johnny Juzang and if their upcoming UW matchup is a trap game
“I think Johnny [Juzang] is still getting comfortable. All I really care about today is he took a finger roll. We dunk the ball. Unless George Gervin comes back and joins our team, you’re not allowed to finger roll on this team, it doesn’t work. But he’s getting comfortable out there. Like I said, we don’t have any seniors, I think everybody’s improving. I’m most happy to see he’s got five rebounds. We’re a small team, we’re potent if you can play Jake and Johnny together offensively, it’s really tough to guard us, but we gotta be able to rebound. We were plus-15 on the glass and we played those guys together a lot today. All I know is we play Washington Saturday, all I care about is what they’re good at. Our record doesn’t matter because, whatever it is, if you look at the next game, you’re miserable. I know we haven’t lost in the league, I don’t know how many games we’ve played, I don’t know our overall record, it’s not even on the stat sheet so I don’t know. I know Washington is trouble. One thing when you coach in Power Five conferences, everybody’s got good players and everybody’s capable. The thing about basketball – Alabama is not losing to the last place team in an SEC football game, it’s just not happening because the physical size is so different – basketball is so different. With the 3-point shot, they have enough talent, they’re going to beat somebody. We won’t even talk about that. Hopefully I got my guys to the point – it’s not even about them, they just happen to be the team we play. We’re going to figure out what they’re good at and what we’ve got to do to beat them. Their record is irrelevant, and if it is, we’re still really immature. I understand that it could look that way, but we don’t even talk about stuff like that. We’ll just focus on what we got to do to beat Washington.”
 
Washington State head coach Kyle Smith
opening remarks
“Hopefully we learned a lesson tonight. They’re a good team. We knew that coming in, but we really struggled to take anything away from them. They played really well. I’d like to think we are better than that. We need to play with more effort, more energy, to compete with a team like that on the road.”
 
on the efficiency of guard Isaac Bonton
“You know, absolutely. And more importantly, I thought that Isaac really competed well. He kept his head up. He didn’t get discouraged and he had every right to be because we showed our inexperience and our youth. Some guys were hanging their heads. We just weren’t in sync, and he kept competing so I am proud of him. I think 12 months ago, he wouldn’t have been, wouldn’t have responded the same way. We need to regroup. He’s a big part of it, of keeping his teammates together and getting right.”
 
on Carlos Rosario coming off the bench a bit earlier for the Cougars
“You know what, Carlos has been practicing well. The way they play, they really play four guards out there, so it is a tough cover. It’s like, Tony [Miller] played really well but we have Tony guarding [Jake] Kyman, but those are tough covers for anyone. We tried zone. It wasn’t working. So, Jazz and Carlos give us a little better chance of keeping those guys in front, of guarding the three, but we really had no answer. But Carlos is an even keeled guy and I thought he did some good things out there.”
 
on Fox Sports broadcaster Steve Lavin mentioning UCLA as a national title contender
“You know, they’re just really complete. I’m not even qualified to speak on that. But they are very, you know, sound and very solid, really efficient. They’ve got good depth. And they seem to really play together well. The ydon’t play with any ego, and hopefully they’ve taught us a lesson today and hopefully we can grow from it.”
 
on how his rookies played on Thursday, versus some of the other Pac-12 games
“I couldn’t tell you. There are some preparation things that I will take account for, myself. Maybe we did a poor job getting our guys ready for the physicality. On the road, you’ve got to bring the effort. Efe [Abogidi] was guarding out on the floor, starting on Bernard, like I had said that is a tough matchup. I think that put him on his heels a little bit. Dishon [Jackson] struggled on [Cody] Riley early. He came out of the gates and kind of put him on his heels. I thought TJ [Bamba] played well in the first half. He competed hard. He saved a couple baskets with a couple of blocked shots. He got a couple of tough loose balls, took a charge, so I was pleased with him. And Carlos was steady. Carlos was solid. He made some mistakes but I thought he did a nice job.”
 
on what UCLA did that was most difficult for Washington State
“I think that their ball-sharing, they can shoot it from deep and they are really skilled and they play at a good pace. There is no one rushing anything. They exposed some of our ball screen coverage badly. We were bad in the ball screen. Campbell was able to get in the paint deep, then kick out for easy threes. Transition, we couldn’t sort out. We just, we were disjointed and they kept us on our heels the whole game.”
 

Team Stats post-WSU game 

Up Next: Washington on Sat Jan 16 at Pauley. Go, Bruins!!! 

UCLA declaws Zona on the road 81-76. Bruins now 9-2, 5-0.

 UCLA remains Top Dog and only undefeated team in the Pac-12. 

CTTO

2-min highlight

23-min highlight

Q & A's 

The Box

Postgame Quotes – UCLA at Arizona

POSTGAME QUOTES
UCLA 81, Arizona 76
January 9, 2021
 
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
Opening statement
“We had some guys, throughout the game, trade off making big shots for us and getting the ball in the basket. We played a game today where 10 guys made a field goal. It was a high-level game. They were making shots – we were able to answer them. Kenneth Nwuba and Jaylen Clark gave us major minutes. We took the lead in the first half, gave it back, they tied it at half, and they made some tough ones. Akinjo played great, Tubelis played great for them, but I really felt that we were going to have to win the game at the foul line. They play big. They’re extremely physical, after Cody [Riley] dominated the other night they were going to be all over him. They dominated a great team in Colorado here at home, and they were coming off a lackluster performance, very uncharacteristic from the effort standpoint, physicality of a Sean Miller team. I knew they were going to be physical tonight coming off what happened to them on Thursday. That said, we made the free throws. That was going to be the key. I thought we were going to have to get to the line, and we were able to capitalize – 27 for 32 was a big key for us.”
 
on Tyger Campbell and Johnny Juzang
“We were able to get Tyger in space. He did a great job off the pick-and-roll today. Johnny’s a guy – he basically didn’t play last year, he practiced all year at Kentucky. He goes from not getting in to starting and playing 30 minutes a game. It’s almost like he’s a freshman out there. He’s just going to keep getting better as the season goes on. I thought we were able to get him some shots today. That was important. We were able to get him in space, he’s showing you he’s more than a 3-point shooter. When he can get some lay-ups, some free throws, pull-ups, you can see the ball go in the basket. It’s a lot easier. I just think you’re going to knock down more threes. It’s hard when you just try to stay behind that line all the time. He attacked in space off the dribble today, we’ve got to set him up to do that more. I’ve got to encourage him to do that more.”
 
on the team’s frontcourt
“Jaylen Clark played great as well. We’re starting to slowly work without Chris [Smith] a little bit with a big lineup, but with the foul trouble we couldn’t play [Jalen Hill]. So we were paranoid about the defensive backboard in this game. Jaime [Jaquez Jr.] obviously had 7 [defensive rebounds], nobody else had more than 3. He was the key on the defensive backboard. I also thought it helped that Jaylen Clark played really well in the first half, and Jaime was able to get some rest. I think he’s going to play better when he gets some rest, I think he showed that with the second half offensive outburst.”
 
on Kenneth Nwuba’s extended action
“I told him he was MVP. The guys were pouring water on him in the locker room. He said he was going to use all five of his fouls – he saved one. He’s just such a great kid. He’s thousands of miles from home in Nigeria, lost his host parent this summer to cancer in Mississippi – that brought him over, his adopted dad – but he’s always got a smile. He’s always cheering, trying to get better every day. Really happy for him. Maybe we found something he can help us [with] a little bit more. I thought he made a really good post move too, it just didn’t go down for him. Moments like that, it’s great as a coach, when you see a kid like that that maintains, there are so many kids now opting out, quitting on their team when they don’t play. And here is a guy who just keeps trying to get better without getting in a game. He comes in every day and asks ‘How’re you doing coach?’ and works his butt off in practice, so I was obviously happy for him.”
 
Sean Miller, Arizona Head Coach
on James Akinjo
“James Akinjo, he didn’t have a good night against USC. One of the things that you’re always anxious to see on a player is ‘how do they bounce back, how do they respond?’ James and I had a meeting, I think there’s some things he really learned in the USC game. If you’re the engine that makes a team go, you can be a really good engine and you can be broken down engine, you’re still the engine. I think that in the USC game, he might have let some of his shots that didn’t go down affect other parts of his game. We’re not nearly as good when he’s not that type of player for us. Tonight, he was great. 25 points, 8 assists, 1 turnover. I don’t think we could have asked much more from him. I thought [Bennedict] Mathurin really did a good job as well. Ažuolas [Tubelis] is going to be steady from this point forward, but Benn is a guy that now that we’ve played the games we’ve played, we’ve got to get him a bigger role. We’ve got to get him in there more, from a defensive perspective, he’s going to make plenty of mistakes but being that he’s 18 years old and a freshman, I have great faith that two weeks, four weeks from now there’s some things that Benn’s going to be better at than he is now because he’s so young. Having said that, we are a horrible defensive team. We played against two very good teams, but that’s who you judge yourself by. Unfortunately for us, we had a lot of great moments on offense. This team has learned how to score, we can do it inside, we can do it off the dribble. We have guys coming in off the bench that are scoring for us, and we’re not turning the ball over. Tonight, you play against UCLA and have nine turnovers – that’s a heck of a thing. But we can’t get the value out of that because we just have no answer on defense. Straight line drives, in and around the basket, the fouling is off the charts right now. We have a saying – undisciplined teams or players are coached by an undisciplined coach. Fouling is discipline, sometimes it might be you’re outmatched, but for the most part if you have a problem as a team fouling, that’s something we, or I, have to correct. UCLA tonight got to the line 32 times, they converted 27. We got a couple guys just absolutely hammering the other team, it’s not basketball. We have to adjust, our players have to adjust, I and our staff have to do an even better job coaching and teaching them because fouling is a big part of the game of basketball, and we’re on the wrong end of that right now.”
 
on what he learned about his team this week
“We can’t defend, we really struggle. I wouldn’t use the word frustrated, every team presents its subset of problems, but tonight and USC – if you really look closely at Washington State, we kind of willed that out. We were in that same type of game here tonight. The difference is we couldn’t make the plays – the big rebound, the big stop. If you get a couple stops down the home stretch, you’re playing to win. But we could never quite put ourselves in that position because when we needed the stop, the possession usually ended in a foul.”

Team stats as of Jan 10, 2021. For full stat sheet, click here. 

Up next: Washington State at Pauley Thursday, Jan 14. Go, Bruins!!! 

UCLA douses Sun Devils in OT 81-75. Bruins now 8-2, 4-0.

UCLA IS TOP DOG IN THE PAC-12!!! 

CTTO 

2-min highlight

27-min highlight

Q & A's

The Box (click on box to enlarge)

Postgame Quotes – UCLA at Arizona State

POSTGAME QUOTES
UCLA 81, Arizona St. 75
January 7, 2021
 
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
on Cody Riley
“Well obviously, not only his buckets, we got a lot of inside-out 3s. I dispute that he only had two assists. I’m just frustrated with the fact that we didn’t go to him. We worked on going to him all week, especially in this game. I thought we got away from that early on, and we were over-dribbling, taking hard shots. We gave Arizona State life and almost paid the price, being sloppy with the basketball, sloppy with our shot selection. It’s why we shot 35 percent in the first half – bad shot selection and too many turnovers. Cody does a great job in the low post. We need to do a better job of feeding him all the time when he’s in the game, to be honest with you. But David Singleton stepped up, made some big plays as well.”
 
on Arizona State playing shorthanded
“I told you guys this when Chris [Smith] went out, it’s still 5-on-5. Still 0-0, 40-minute game and 5-on-5, and they have two guys going in the first round of the draft on every board. [ASU’s] Verge is as tough to guard off the dribble as there is in college ball. They’ve got weapons. In my opinion, teams play really well when they’re under adverse circumstances because they know they have to rally and give everything they got. That’s a credit to Coach Hurley, I would have expected nothing less from a team he coaches and their kids. So it didn’t surprise me that they rallied around their lack of depth tonight.”
 
on junior guard David Singleton
“I’ve been trying to get him back off the ball. Trying to evaluate his minutes, and too many of his minutes are at point guard. Trying to get him in there with Tyger or let Jules play some point and get him off the ball. Because he’s our best shooter right now, the numbers bear it out. Didn’t surprise me, Dave is an experienced guy. I’m really happy for him, great kid, and he’ll run through a wall for you. Hopefully he can keep it up, I give our guys some credit – especially Cody – not only was he dominant down low but he was finding the open man versus doubles as well.”
 
on UCLA not turning the ball over in overtime
“You know what, if I had the answer to that, I’d have some big rings on and be headed for Springfield, Massachusetts [Hall of Fame]. I really don’t know. I’m a stickler for taking care of the ball. My dad taught me that, that was his big thing as a great high school coach in Ohio. I worked for Bob Huggins and Rick Pitino, and they hammered it home for 18 years. I hammer it home because my team’s always offensive rebounding  – you can’t rebound a turnover. I wish I knew why we started taking care of the ball in overtime. If we would have tried that the whole game, we might not have been in overtime. But that said, Arizona State, I thought they played really hard. Their activity and their quickness caused some of that, we’ve got to do a better job on that. We’ll watch the film and keep trying to get better.”
 
Bobby Hurley, Arizona State Head Coach
opening statement
“I’m proud of my team’s effort. I think we battled extremely hard. UCLA is going to try and grind you up. They’re a really defensive-minded, tough team on both ends of the floor. They had a great inside game. I think we held our own in the paint. We held our own on the backboards and those are points of emphasis we are trying to get better at. I like how our guys stepped up, it’s been a tough stretch and to be shorthanded and have four guys play over 40 minutes in a game and still compete the way we did was very honorable despite all the adversity we were facing.”
 
on rebounding and defensive effort
“I thought we did a good job especially through the regulation to dig in the post, get some post trapping, we generated 18 turnovers in the game without pressing UCLA as much during the game, I thought we were feisty in that regard. I’m not sure if [Cody] Riley slowed us down, as we got to overtime, we couldn’t handle him as well. Marcus and Josh having double-figure rebounds was important for us because if we can do that well, we have guys that can play in the open court and it’s going to be really beneficial for us moving forward.”
 
on senior guard Alonzo Verge Jr.
“He took it personally, took it as a chip on his shoulder how he played. He had a good rhythm taking the mid-range shots, getting to the basket well, and six defensive rebounds in the first half which is really good from the guard spot. He did a lot of things that were positive for us tonight.”
 
on the difficulty with missing players
“It’s tough. When I mention four guys playing over 40 minutes that rarely happens. I think we have a good foundation under us in terms of conditioning, it’s a very physical game and these guys battled through it really well. As far as other players, they are still day to day, and I’ll try to get updates as they know more.”
 
on his team’s defensive effort
“It’s been a lot of film sessions, communication with the guys, and showing them the breakdowns. We’re trying to show them the importance of it and showing them the success we do have when we’re better in that department and what that means to our chances of winning games. It’s going to be critical for us to play with that physicality and to have multiple guys focused on doing it, and we’ll have more success moving forward.”

Current Team Stats (click table to enlarge)

Next: @Arizona on Saturday, Jan 9. Let's go, 4-0 Bruins!!! 

Media availability prior to ASU game Jan 5, 2021

 

UCLA corrals the Buffs 65-62. Bruins now 7-2, 3-0.

 2-min highlight

21-min highlight

Q & A's

The Box

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. 

UCLA usurps the Utes 72-70. Bruins now 6-2, 2-0.

Note: CTTO 

Pre-Game:  Bruin Gameday Live- UCLA Men's Basketball vs Utah

2-minute highlights

22-minute highlights 

Post-game Q & A's 

The Box (click box to enlarge)

Postgame Quotes – UCLA vs. Utah

POSTGAME QUOTES
UCLA 72, Utah 70
December 31, 2020

Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
on if he liked UCLA defense on final play
“A little bit, Ben. I thought we wanted to pick them up and try to disrupt them. He turned the corner on Johnny (Juzang), but Johnny did a good job of recovering and getting in front of him. And that was the key to the play. I wish he wouldn’t have turned the corner, but Johnny’s recovery was the key to the play. And, obviously, Jules (Bernard) [getting in] the passing lane. That’s probably the only defensive thing I’m happy with tonight, buddy.”

on if it was a gut-check win
“Yeah. Well, we have a better offensive team than we had a year ago. Obviously, we’re 10 of 20 from three, we have 16 assists. We got multiple guys that can score; we almost had five guys in double figures. That’s with Jake (Kyman) missing some shots that he never misses. I thought all four of his threes – I know all four of his threes were wide open. But that being said, we’ve got to, as a coaching staff, as a team, we’ve got to look in the mirror, buddy, and become a better defensive team. Now, I’m going to give Utah a lot of credit. For you guys, I just said this on the radio, I thought they were hard to defend. They took us late in the clock. They didn’t take bad shots. They really, really kept us on defense for 25 seconds many, many times. And we didn’t have enough toughness to finish a lot of those possessions. And we gave up an offensive rebound on a free throw. Unacceptable. Our toughness level’s nowhere near where it needs to be for us to reach our potential as a team.”

on his team’s slow start to game
“Yeah, I don’t know. I’m not sure on that one. I would give (Alfonso) Plummer a lot of credit for the way that game started. He looked like World B. Free to start the game.”

on 3-point shooting, particularly from Johnny Juzang and Jules Bernard
“Well, when we pass the ball and we execute and move the ball, we’ve got guys that can make shots… like I said, Jake missed three wide-open ones that our whole team would love for him to get at all times. That’s not our weakness, at all. All we have to do is pass the ball, execute, screen, find the open man and keep the ball moving. We’ve got guys that can make shots on this team.”

on improvements team needs to make, particularly on defense
“Everything. Everything. Right now, our biggest weakness is – we just talked about it [on radio], Tracy (Murray) asked a question – if you’re guarding the ball, you’ve got to stay between your man and the basket. We’ve just got to have a better commitment to that. Because if your defense is based off of constantly bailing your teammate out, teams are going to find the open man [if] you’re playing good teams. We’ve got to have a different mindset. My opinion on that, to answer your question, is this group of guys is trying to outscore their opponents because we shoot the ball better. And I think they believe in what we’re doing on offense. To me, that’s the mindset of the players. That’s why we’re not where we need to be, defensively.”

Utah Head Coach Larry Krystowiak
on what Larry Krystkowiak told the team during the timeout after UCLA responded with a 14-0 run at the start of the game
“Well, I thought, UCLA is level of physicality on with their man defensive kind of got us out of sorts, sped us up . We had three out of four possessions where we turned it over. We took some ill-advised shots. It’s good defensive team. UCLA is a big strong defensive team and I thought, you know, made a few adjustments and spaced the floor, started making some plays for each other in the second half. Just proud of our guys for battling and holding that team to 31 second half points. I thought we guarded really well, and we outrebounded them in the second half and played together and just, you know, think about Fonz’s three at the end of the game that could have put us up six, the wide open one off the offensive rebound. Instead, we go down and give up three points and they tie it so it's just, it's one of those college basketball games. It was a one possession game and was there for the taking. And, we've got to just, you know, keep building. But we've had a good week of practice and made some improvements. Short of the fact that we didn't win the basketball game our team’s improving and I like what we did here tonight.”

on the plan at the end of the game when Pelle Larsson turned it over and what the ideal situation would’ve been
“We need to shoot it, it probably could have driven downhill and got to the rim. But that's, you know, one of our bigger guards that you jump up and you give yourself a chance to tie the game or even when it with a three. So, that was the plan from the beginning, and you know. What can we do, we put a pretty good player in a position to make a play and we've got to move on from it and will, you know, spend a little bit more time on and the game situations. It's a little bit different when Rylan fouled out. Had kind of a little bit of a funky lineup but still we were presented with an opportunity to win the game and didn't make the play that we needed to.”

Up next: Colorado (7-2, 1-1) Jan 2, 2021 at Pauley