Postgame Quotes: UCLA 75, CSUN 45
November 30, 2015 | Men's Basketball
POSTGAME QUOTES
UCLA 77, CSUN 45
November 29, 2015
UCLA Head Coach Steve Alford
“I thought our start was really good. Obviously CSUN is a little under-manned and not very deep. I think they'll be a lot better next year as Reggie [Theus] gets more and more of his guys in. His guys play very hard and that's what we needed; we needed a team to play hard against us and challenge us. We finally held a team to below 30 percent shooting and below 50 points. Hopefully we can gain a little bit of confidence going into what's going to be a really big week with Kentucky and Long Beach State.”
On the mindset after back-to-back losses…
“Obviously you want to win. When you're 3-3, you have to get a win, but we needed to get a win where we played well. This was not a poorly played game, we out-rebounded them by six and in a 30-point game we only turned the ball over seven times. Really, the only thing I don't think we did a tremendous job of was getting to the free-throw line. We shot a really good percentage and I thought we really guarded. We had some breakdowns obviously, but we guarded a lot better. Obviously we needed a win, but winning a game ugly and not playing well is not what we want. We wanted to have growth and I thought we did that today. Now we have to have growth on Tuesday and Wednesday's practice.”
On Tony Parker tonight…
“He was really good tonight and he was a little under the weather, so I appreciate his efforts tonight. I thought he was big around the basket. He's been a double-double guy and he's proven that. We're getting him the ball in the right spot and the guards are doing a good job getting him the ball. We took care of the basketball and gave Tony a chance to do work inside. He and Thomas [Welsh] both rebounded the ball pretty well tonight. He's been a very consistent double-double guy through the first seven games, but like everybody else, it's the defensive end we have to be more consistent with.”
UCLA junior guard Bryce Alford
On the ball-handling duties…
"It's not really a big difference who's handling the ball. It's more for our post. Our transition defense hasn't been good, so it helps to get easy buckets.”
On the team's toughness…
"I believe in the first half, we held them team (CSUN) to 22 points. Also, too, we had a three-to-one turnover ratio which is good. Coach challenged us to hold them to under 50 points.”
On the 25-4 run at the beginning of the game…
"We've had some good starts, but we've also had some bad starts. It was part of our game plan to get out to a quick start. We played the game in four-minute spurts, so we held them down to zero.”
On point guard duties…
" I had a meeting with Coach, who is my dad, and Aaron (Holiday) in Maui and we decided that I would start the game. We wanted to get Aaron out running. We both didn't have a problem with this at all.”
UCLA junior guard Isaac Hamilton
On his rhythm in the game…
"It starts for me on the defensive end. I got some inside points and that kind of gets me in rhythm. I also got some sound shots.”
UCLA senior center Tony Parker
On changeling the team's toughness after Wake Forest…
" If Isaac plays with the toughness he had tonight and if we play and match that level, we will be fine.”
On being under the weather tonight…
" I have a little cold, but it's not that big of a deal. I'll be okay. I've played with malaria before. It was kind of cold in there, but once I got sweating, I was good.”
On the guards' play…
"I just told the guards to go out and run and get run-outs, so we could get buckets. Aaron was really fast and a lot of times he was out in front of Bryce, so we wanted to score some easy baskets.”
CSUN Head Coach Reggie Theus
"When we shoot 29%, there's not a lot to talk about. The UCLA players played okay, but they didn't have to play hard because we weren't making any shots. It boils down to being able to score. We didn't make shots around the basket, but we also went 1-11 from three."
On the short rotation…
"The referees did a good job, no stats jump out. They played better than us, but when you have a short bench, there's nothing else to go to."
On the problems his team faced…
"There was a problem with our sense of urgency. The freshmen don't understand the importance of staying in contact with the guys who can shoot. We gave up nine threes and only made one."
CSUN senior guard Landon Drew
"I always tell our guys that we have to come out in the first five minutes and punch the other team. UCLA came out and dictated the tempo. They came out agressive, and at that point we are playing catch-up."
On UCLA ...
"They have a very talented backcourt. We paid so much attention to (Bryce) Alford, but there were other guys who can make things happen on their team. Hats off to them."
On what the team's mindset is going forward…
"We are only six games in, and we can't hang our heads because it's so early. I still have belief in this team."
