Postgame Quotes – Arizona 69, UCLA 65

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

opening assertion

“Hard fought game, we didn’t execute down the stretch. They did and that was the story of the game. On the bigger picture, we gave up 60 percent from the field in the second half, and they made 13 layups. I don’t even know how we were winning. We have to get better defensively, and much better on the backboard. We had our chances and we didn’t execute our offense down the stretch. On defense, we gave up layups and my teams don’t give up layups with the game on the line.”

 

on what he attributes to UCLA’s 12 first-half turnovers

“We turned it over 12 times, and we were sloppy with the ball. I told this team if we don’t turn the ball over and take it in the second half, we will score 40 points. We can score if we don’t turn it over. I always give the other team credit. When you turn it over, it’s effort-related for the other team.”

 

on the final 4 photographs of the sport

“Well, they’re shooting layups. The guy is a hell of a player, so he’s definitely not going to miss layups. Then we also didn’t rotate to him on the perimeter pass. The whole stadium was wondering if anyone was going to rotate to him. He wanted to drive it and was waiting for anyone to rotate, and said I’m going to go down the lane and shoot a layup because he’s a smart and great player, but no one rotated to him.”

 

on the physicality of this sport and UCLA’s effort with rebounds

“We did some things well and we got to get a lot better and more production off our bench. Their bench destroyed ours, but I’m guessing Tommy [Lloyd] didn’t start Dell’Orso because he wanted to bring in an offensive player. We also brought in Trent who’s a good player, and we got to develop our bench, get better on defense, and better on rebounding. I knew all that coming in. But our guys competed in a great game. They got a hell of a team as usual.”

 

on the Bruins’ last offensive possession

“With Book and Donny being a lot of pick and rolls, and they’re both new – they haven’t been in that situation together, so we need to go through that. We got two new guys in pick and rolls a lot, late in the game. We weren’t quite on the same page, so that’s an area we can grow. The other piece is Eric didn’t practice in October, literally for a month. He’s an unbelievable worker, so he stayed in shape. With him playing behind the line, playing the three, he’s only going to get better with reps. At times, he will revert to the things he did last year because he was playing the four, within our offense. There are still some things he can still get better at. It’s hard to figure out the best way to incorporate him when he missed 26 of our 30 practices we get in the fall. That’s an area where we can really get better at.”

 

UCLA junior ahead Eric Dailey Jr.

on his efficiency and setting the tone bodily

“My effort and intensity can go even higher, honestly. I did some good things, but it didn’t get the job done tonight, so it really doesn’t matter what I did well. All we can do is go back and look at the film, practice these next few days, and really learn from what we did tonight. We can learn from the mistakes as a team and get better. It’s a long season and it’s only game four for us, so we got a long way to go.”

 

on the Bruins’ previous couple of offensive possessions and what transpired

“Just like coach said, it was our execution. In big-time games you have to be able to execute and run your sets and be able to run whatever you want. Defensively, we have to execute as well. Those are areas and things we have to mentally tough to do hard things.”

 

on the largest takeaway from this sport and the way they need to reply

“We definitely want to feel this and make sure we don’t feel like this again. Good thing it’s early in the season and we got a lot of games left to play. We got a lot of things to build on as a team, and just keep learning and moving by keeping it one day at a time. We have to keep fighting, every day.”

 

on what he instructed Donovan Dent within the first half when he was struggling to attain

“I just told him to lead and it doesn’t have to be offensively, all the time. He can lead by just talking and defensively. Some nights, you aren’t going to be on on offense, and that’s okay as long as your effort and mind stay focused on defense – then you will be able to get out of that slump.”