Media Availability Dec 19, 2019

from UCLA Athletics

Coach Cronin spoke to members of the media on Thursday morning, two days in advance of UCLA's game against North Carolina in the CBS Sports Classic this Saturday. The Bruins will play at T-Mobile Arena at 12 p.m. (PT).



Shareef O'Neal, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Cody Riley talked to reporters on Thursday morning in the Mo Ostin Basketball Center. The Bruins' game against North Carolina in the CBS Sports Classic this Saturday will take place in Las Vegas (T-Mobile Arena). Game time is 12 p.m. (PT).

Notre Dame beats UCLA 75-61. Bruins drop to 7-4 for season

ACC Digital Network

UCLA vs. Notre Dame: The Fighting Irish benefitted from hot shooting as they beat the Bruins, 75-61. Four players scored in double figures for the Irish, led by Prentiss Hubb, who scored 20 in the win. Notre Dame hit 15-of-39 three-pointers and UCLA only made 7-of-16 from behind the arc. The Irish defense held the Bruins to just 35% shooting for the game.

Highlights


Condensed Game

from UCLAbruins.com

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The UCLA men's basketball team dropped a 75-61 decision at Notre Dame in a non-conference showdown on Saturday afternoon at Purcell Pavilion.

In the Bruins' first game at Notre Dame since Dec. 2009, Chris Smith finished with a team-leading 10 points. Shareef O'Neal totaled eight points and a season-high 11 rebounds off the bench.

Prince Ali and Jaime Jaquez Jr. each scored nine points on Saturday, in what marked the 50th meeting in the all-time series between the two schools.

UCLA (7-4) out-rebounded Notre Dame by a 48-40 margin and had 29 points from its reserves.

Notre Dame (8-3) never trailed on its home court, making 15 of 39 attempts from 3-point range. Prentiss Hubbs led the Fighting Irish with 20 points. He scored 17 points in the second half.

Notre Dame's John Mooney had 14 points and a team-leading 15 rebounds. Dane Goodwin scored 14 of his 16 points before halftime.

In the first half, Notre Dame missed on 11 of their first 13 shot attempts before converting from 3-point range on three consecutive possessions to secure a 20-8 cushion with 8:13 to play before the break. The Fighting Irish increased its lead to 14 points with 1:48 to play before UCLA closed the gap, using a 7-0 scoring run to head into the locker room at halftime, trailing 31-24.

Notre Dame scored the first six points of the second half, and the Fighting Irish' lead never fell to fewer than 10 points the Bruins, who remain one victory shy of the 1,900-carer win mark (in program history).

UCLA returns to action at the CBS Sports Classic against No. 17-ranked North Carolina on Saturday, Dec. 21. Game time at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas is set for 12 p.m. (PT). The Bruins' game will be nationally televised on CBS. The second game of the day's doubleheader will feature Kentucky and Ohio State.

Postgame Quotes – UCLA vs. Notre Dame

POSTGAME QUOTES
Notre Dame 75, UCLA 61
December 14, 2019

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

opening statement

“Our offense got us beat. Can’t shoot 30 percent from the field, 50 from the foul line. We would have to play a high school team to win with those numbers. They shot 38 percent, but you can’t shoot 30 percent and win. And then you get to the foul line, we’re 7-for-16 in the second half, so what are you going to do? If they’re just going to keep jacking threes, it is what it is, but they shot 38 percent for the game. We kept them off the foul line. We had some bad breakdowns. We’re a young team. We had three or four possessions where it was like… who’s guarding the guy? And that’s our youth. Our inexperience comes out. Young teams, guy gets a little tired—and it’s not just one guy. As soon as one guy gets a little tired, he gets lost. We cover for him and while we’re covering for him, they find the open man, bang, three. Could be in halfcourt, could be in transition. There’s three or four possessions like that. Until we get battle-hardened, we’re just a young team. We’re a work in progress. But up until this point, we’ve been able to score inside. You’ve watched us every game. Jalen (Hill) and Cody (Riley) shooting almost 60 percent, both of them, [and] today, they’re 3-for-16. It’s hard to win that way. Where are we going to get our points?”

on if he has ever coached team with one scorer in double digits

“Oh yeah, shoot, we went to the NCAA Tournament one year at Cincinnati, had nobody average double figures. But we were a great defensive team.”

on his team’s offensive performance
“I thought that Cody and Jalen, today, they were in a rush, they weren’t on balance. When we had our chances, they just didn’t get it in the basket. Three-for-16. I’d say maybe two of those were jumpshots from Cody. The rest, they’re 3-for-14 four feet in. Can’t win. You just can’t win, unless you shoot lights out from three. But we’re 7-for-16. That’s about good for us. About where we should be. Got to make free throws, you got to make layups.”

on limiting “snowball effect”
“Trying to keep these guys positive as much as I can. We don’t have, as you know, we don’t have Jaylen Hands to make threes five feet behind the line. There’s times where I’m just trying to find a lineup where we can generate some offense today. I think, overall, our attitude’s good. Our guys are trying. Right now, we just don’t have that one guy that can just get us 20.”

on Shareef O’Neal
“I thought his effort was great. He was all over the place… Right now, with all our young guys, it’s just like depositing money in the bank that’s going to pay off for us. Whether it’s Shareef, all those guys. Really, other than Prince (Ali) and Alex (Olesinski), we just got a lot of young, inexperienced guys. Even Chris (Smith), where he’s got to be a relied-upon player. It’s new for him. Developing his toughness.”

on what outrebounding opponent means
“Well, that’s an effort stat. We can control effort. We try to do that. You’re always happy with that. I thought [Notre Dame] made some threes—I thought three or four times we made some really not-smart rotations that hurt us. But we weren’t going to win with the offense we had today. It just wasn’t going to happen. I’m just trying, with these guys, it’s all a process. Just trying to teach them what they have to do…”

UCLA redshirt freshman forward Shareef O’Neal

on his performance
“I know that Notre Dame, they weren’t really boxing me out, so I used the best to just crash up to every board, trying to get some positive buckets in there. And I was trying to do my best on defense, and with a lot of older guys on the team, I get taught during the game and during practice, they all tell me where to go if I’m in the wrong place. I just felt like I had a good energy going into the game. I felt good. Just trying to get my feet back under me and learn as the season goes on.”

on if Notre Dame did anything to contribute to missed UCLA layups
“We’re actually a really good shooting team. I think it’s just one of those days. We missed a lot of chippies. We were about 10-for-20 at the free-throw line, I believe. In practice, we work on free throws. We usually make them. I think it was just one of those days. I missed a couple and a couple other people missed a couple. I think it was just one of those days.”

on sticking together in first true road game
“This is my first road game with UCLA and then our first road game this season. Hawaii doesn’t count, it’s kind of a neutral site, but it’s our first [road] game coming in with a hostile crowd. We did a good job of sticking together. There was just a couple possessions in the game where we weren’t on the same page. We’re still working on that. We’re a really good team, but when we’re all together and we’re a really good team, sometimes when we have our… mess ups, that’s when stuff starts going downhill. When we all stick together, we look really good.”

UCLA junior guard Chris Smith

on what went wrong on offense
“We were just stagnant at times. Guards not cutting, including me being the biggest culprit. We weren’t moving. Our bigs were 3-for-16 because we weren’t helping them and keeping the extra guards from digging on them. So, just we weren’t moving and we were looking for fouls at times, as well, instead of playing through it.”

on first-half defense allowing 3-pointers
“Just miscommunications. Guys taking the wrong guy and not talking to each other.”

OC Register's Maggie Vanoni: UCLA men’s basketball prepares for first true road game

Bruins practice playing better beyond the 3-point line and limiting opponents' runs before they travel to Notre Dame

dec 11, 2019 | MAGGIE VANONI |o.c. register | ARTICLE LINK

Two weeks ago, the UCLA men’s basketball team was enjoying the warm, sunny beaches in Lahaina, Hawaii, as it played three games in three days in the Maui Jim Maui Invitational.

The Bruins will be in a far different environment Saturday when they travel to South Bend, Indiana, where temperatures are expected to be in the low 40s with showers of snow, to face longtime rival Notre Dame for their first true road game of the season.

The away game means few UCLA fans in the stands come tip-off, as the Bruins (7-3) hope to replicate last year’s success against the Fighting Irish (7-3) in the conclusion of a two-season home-and-home series.

“In Maui, it was our fans vs their fans, but going out there to South Bend, it’s going to be mostly Notre Dame fans. We’re excited,” UCLA point guard Tyger Campbell said. “The fans last year were great when they came out. Hopefully it’s a good game when we go over there, and we want to get the win. That’s all I’m worried about.”

While it’s hard to prepare for the possible distractions on an opponent’s home-court environment, Bruins’ head coach Mick Cronin has focused this week’s practices on helping his players remain mentally focused as a unit throughout the full duration of the game.

“We’ve got to practice staying together,” he said. “What people don’t know about me is that you watch me coach the Denver game, I know we’re going to win, so I’m coaching that game like practice. Saturday is a different story. I’ve got to keep these guys’ heads up, we’ve got to keep our arms around each other, we’ve got to stay together on the road because … it’s just you and your bench and you’ve got to stay together.”

Last year, it was a buzzer-beater 3-pointer from Kris Wilkes that gave UCLA a 65-62 win over Notre Dame.

Even though there hasn’t been any as close games this year for the Bruins, the team has struggled to perform consistently beyond the arc. It finished the Maui Jim Maui Invitational with a 75-62 loss to then-ranked No. 3 Michigan State, in which UCLA shot a season-low 13.3% on 3-pointers.

On Sunday, the Bruins allowed Denver to make six 3-point shots in the first half alone. While the team was able to hold the Pioneers to just one 3-pointer in the second half in a 81-62 victory, the Bruins shot just 5 of 22 from outside the 3-point line.

Cronin believes if the team is able to stop and prevent opponent’s runs, like the one Denver used with 3-pointers to twice get within one point, it will be able to play a full 40-minute game.

“The biggest thing I teach young guys is how to take a punch and keep fighting, because what happens with young guys, [is in] their body language and it becomes instead of a two-point run for the other team, it’s a 10-point run,” he said. “You got to learn how to stop a run. We can’t get down on ourselves, that’s what we’re practicing.”

UCLA at Notre Dame

When: Noon Saturday

Where: Purcell Pavilion, Notre Dame, Indiana

TV/Radio: ABC/AM 570

LA Times: UCLA basketball’s Mick Cronin knows how to make a point with the pine

"YOU! ON THE BENCH!!!" 

UCLA coach Mick Cronin has no qualms about taking a player off the floor for making mental mistakes.

(Darryl Oumi / Getty Images)

dec 11, 2019 | BEN BOLCH | THE L.A. TIMES | ARTICLE LINK

The whistle blew and Prince Ali acted like he knew what was coming next.

After slapping hands together in frustration over his needless foul underneath UCLA’s basket midway through the second half Sunday, the senior guard glanced at the bench and drifted toward the sideline as the buzzer signaled a player substitution.

Chris Smith was in, Ali was out.

It’s become a familiar routine over the Bruins’ first 10 games under coach Mick Cronin, who has pulled players after mistakes to use the bench as an ally while treating some early season games against overmatched opponents like practice situations.

“You want to teach; you never want to take guys’ confidence,” Cronin said Wednesday of his approach. “But there is a time where you do have to make a point.”

The point with Ali was that you can’t foul somebody near the baseline after missing a layup. It’s the sort of play, Cronin said, that could turn a victory into defeat.

“We are not talented enough to overcome mistakes, whatever you want to call them — bonehead plays, you pick your adjective, fouling 86 feet from the basket, whatever you want to call them,” Cronin said. “It already cost us one game.”

Cronin was referring to forward Cody Riley’s technical foul in the second half against Hofstra last month that sparked the Pride’s comeback during an eventual 10-point victory over the Bruins. Cronin said Riley realized the magnitude of his mistake.

“He was in my office the next day almost crying; he’s searching me out to apologize,” Cronin said. “He didn’t sleep. But we got to grow up. [The players] care, so it’s my job to teach them.”

Cronin’s quick hooks have become so routine that some players have immediately walked toward the bench after throwing a bad pass or committing a traveling violation without even looking to make sure somebody else was entering the game.

Smith said getting repeatedly pulled from games didn’t shake his confidence.

“We all want to get better,” Smith said. “If you come out of a game, you come out for a reason. Either you did something wrong and they coach you up on the sideline or just matchups, somebody could get in there that’s got a better matchup than you, so you get snatched, you come to the bench to learn.”

Players who have been yanked often sit in what could be described as the teaching chair among assistant coaches Darren Savino, Michael Lewis and Rod Palmer.

“They just tell you what you probably should have done, ask what you were thinking and just go from there,” Ali said of the assistants. “It’s a learning experience.”

Cronin arrived at UCLA with a reputation as a player’s coach despite his demanding ways and said he tried to ensure that his new players realize he will always prioritize their value as people over whatever they accomplish on the court.

Sometimes he removes players when they would surely prefer to play on.

“There are other times,” Cronin said, “where you can’t take a guy out because you don’t have anybody to put in.”

Etc.

UCLA’s poor shot selection is among the reasons the Bruins have made only 30.9% of their three-pointers, Cronin said. The coach has worked with Ali, who has made 21.1% of his shots from beyond the arc, on squaring up his body toward the basket. “Sometimes when I shoot,” Ali said, “I twist a little bit and that affects my percentage.” … Sophomore guard David Singleton has recovered from the foot injury that sidelined him against Denver on Sunday and should be able to play against Notre Dame on Saturday, Cronin said. … Cronin said the Bruins are working on a possible summer trip to Vancouver to play Canadian college teams under NCAA rules that allow teams to travel abroad in the off-season every four years. UCLA’s last summer foreign trip was to Australia in 2016.

Coach Mick Cronin and players media availability before Notre Dame game on Saturday

From UCLA Athletics

Dec 11, 2019

Coach Cronin met with the media on Wednesday in the Mo Ostin Basketball Center. UCLA returns to action at Notre Dame on Saturday, Dec. 14. Game time is 12 pm PT (3 pm ET) on ABC.


Prince Ali, Chris Smith and Tyger Campbell spoke to reporters on Wednesday in the Mo Ostin Basketball Center. UCLA returns to action at Notre Dame on Saturday, Dec. 14.

2019-20 UCLA Bruins

Standing (L-R) Jules Bernard, Jake Kyman, Chris Smith, Alex Olesinski, Jalen Hill, Shareef O'Neal, Kenneth Nwuba, Cody Riley, Jaime Jaquez, Jr. 

Sitting (L-R) Russell Stong, David Singleton, Tyger Campbell, Asst Coach Michael Lewis, Assoc Head Coach Darren Savino, Head Coach Mick Cronin, Asst Coach Rod Palmer, Prince Ali, Armani Dodson, Isaac Wulff. 

Tyler Lamb racks up 33 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 assists for Thailand vs The Philippines in the Championship Game at the 2019 SEA Games

Thailand loses to The Philippines 115-81.

Highlights from ESPN5

Full game from 2019 South East Asian Games Philippines


From fiba.com

Philippines win SEA Games Gold in both Men's and Women's basketball over Thailand

"In the SEA Games men’s basketball Final, 17-time winners Philippines came into the matchup beating their opponents by an average of 47.3 points per game while scoring 113.3 points per contest. Despite coming in as underwhelming favorites, Thailand were able to keep it closely contested throughout the first half. At the end of the first 20 minutes of action, Thailand trailed by merely 48-39.

The second half was a different story as the Philippines started connecting on their three-pointers to break open a 40-15 third quarter advantage. Gilas cruised the rest of the way for a 115-81 win to clinch the gold medal once again.

ESPN5

✔@Sports5PH

13TH STRAIGHT GOLD MEDAL FOR GILAS PILIPINAS IN THE SEA GAMES.#SamaSamaSaSEAGames #SEAGames2019 #WeWinAsOne

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5:58 AM - Dec 10, 2019

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Thailand relied once again on a herculean performance from Tyler Lamb who had 33 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 assists. Big man Chanatip Jakrawan also added in 15 points and 8 boards.

The Philippines had a whopping 7 players reach double-digits in scoring, led by June Mar Fajardo who had 17 points. The second half featured a bombard of three-pointers, resulting in a shooting percentage of 50 percent from beyond the arc for the gold medalists."