Postgame Quotes – UCLA vs. Ohio State
No. 20 Ohio State 77, UCLA 70
Cleveland, Ohio (Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse)
December 19, 2020
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
on difficulty with the offense in the game’s final minutes
“I thought we settled for some hard shots. Their physicality bothered us. Give them credit. I thought, when teams play as physical as that, you need to get to the foul line, which they did a much better job of than us in the last five, six, seven minutes. We’d been throwing the extra pass for a while, and we didn’t trust our teammates to make the extra pass. We took some really hard shots. We just talked about it in there. When you’re in a possession game, you have got to score and you’ve got to get a great shot. You can’t take a hard shot. We took too many of them.”
on senior Chris Smith and why he wasn’t playing down the stretch
“Anything that I do – calling a play or calling a timeout – it’s just to win the game. That being said, this game was extremely physical and I thought that bothered Chris.”
on the performances of Cody Riley (15 points) and Jalen Hill (10 points)
“I thought that defensively, I’ve got to do a much better job of coaching Jalen and Cody in our low-post defense, which is probably the reason that our defense was so bad, to be quite honest with you. Other than leaving guys – they hit three threes in the first half with guys who can’t shoot at all and had not made one all year – one banked in. Our low-post defense, I thought Zed Key destroyed us. I’ve got to do a much better job with our interior defense. We are standing behind the post. At winning time at Marquette, we were excellent defensively. At winning time today, we really struggled with our interior defense.”
on UCLA’s 3-point shooting and how many of the shot attempts he liked
“Well, I’m not looking at the film. But to be honest, just off the top of my head, I just talked to the guys in the locker room and when you are down three or four or five and you’re under three minutes, you have to either get a great shot or you have to get fouled. I thought that we didn’t work it one or two more passes to where we could get fouled or could get the wide open shot. Now again, I’m not looking at the film. I know that Cody missed point-blank layups, Jalen missed point-blank layups. Tyger missed three layups. But to your point, it’s just a thing where we’ve got to learn and I thought that we tried to do too much. We took a couple of hard ones at crucial times. We have got to make sure to get a great look, get a layup or a foul. We just didn’t do that at crucial points. I will say this, there was one that I remember now, with Jaime, we’d got a switch and we got Jaime on a point guard at six-feet, and usually that is a time we’ll score every time. Again, the physicality was a big factor.”
on Johnny Juzang scoring six early points and not scoring as often later in the game
“Look guys, he’s not going to go 10 for 10 or 20 for 20. Not his fault that at the end of the game, he had to take a couple of hard ones, that I might throw out. He’s probably more like 5 for 11 or 1 for 4. I know that he had a great shot in the last five minutes right in front of me in the corner where we ran great offense. Obviously, we needed that to go down bigtime at that point. That was a time where we really did get the shot we wanted. But, it’s just part of it. I just told the team that if we give up 77, we are not going to win another game. Our record – we will lose every game if we give up 77, the rest of the year. That’s my prediction, so that’s why we lost.”
on UCLA out-rebounding Ohio State, getting more assists and having more second-chance points
“I will say this, I thought it was a hell of a battle. I thought that we played well for a long period of time. But you know, when we were scoring and playing well offensively, we were playing poor defensively. There was a possession where they missed a free throw, and we had a like a four or five-point lead, and Jalen Hill doesn’t block out on the foul line. Now the basketball gods get you, and to me, you deserve to lose when those types of things happen. The stat sheet didn’t decide this game. I thought toughness and playing smart, and all the things that coaches talk about decided this game. Again, I thought it was a great game for a lot of reasons. But we’ve got to be the tougher team. In the last five minutes, they were the tougher team. I think that’s pretty point blank what happened.”
on no fans in the arena, the team’s attitude, and the atmosphere of this type of non-conference game
“It was a great game. The guys are used to no fans by now. So, the intensity of the game and the physicality of the game was high, high level. It was an extremely high-level game. There were a lot of kids making good plays on both sides. Our defense got us beat. I don’t know how many times I can say it. We had a lot of mental breakdowns. They’re hard enough to beat. A few block-outs where we were not tough enough, and then mental toughness is just as importance as physical toughness. We had some unbelievably bad decisions on the defensive end that cost us this game.”
on back-to-back 3-pointers late in the game by Ohio State’s Eugene Brown III
“Yeah, I just answered that. Mental breakdowns. Inexcusable mental breakdowns. One was on the break and nobody had him. Nobody had him. Stuff like that in a game like this, that’s what the game is decided by. You lose a guy, we don’t get matched up a couple times, and inexcusable mental breakdowns, that is the difference in the game.”
Cleveland, Ohio (Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse)
December 19, 2020
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
on difficulty with the offense in the game’s final minutes
“I thought we settled for some hard shots. Their physicality bothered us. Give them credit. I thought, when teams play as physical as that, you need to get to the foul line, which they did a much better job of than us in the last five, six, seven minutes. We’d been throwing the extra pass for a while, and we didn’t trust our teammates to make the extra pass. We took some really hard shots. We just talked about it in there. When you’re in a possession game, you have got to score and you’ve got to get a great shot. You can’t take a hard shot. We took too many of them.”
on senior Chris Smith and why he wasn’t playing down the stretch
“Anything that I do – calling a play or calling a timeout – it’s just to win the game. That being said, this game was extremely physical and I thought that bothered Chris.”
on the performances of Cody Riley (15 points) and Jalen Hill (10 points)
“I thought that defensively, I’ve got to do a much better job of coaching Jalen and Cody in our low-post defense, which is probably the reason that our defense was so bad, to be quite honest with you. Other than leaving guys – they hit three threes in the first half with guys who can’t shoot at all and had not made one all year – one banked in. Our low-post defense, I thought Zed Key destroyed us. I’ve got to do a much better job with our interior defense. We are standing behind the post. At winning time at Marquette, we were excellent defensively. At winning time today, we really struggled with our interior defense.”
on UCLA’s 3-point shooting and how many of the shot attempts he liked
“Well, I’m not looking at the film. But to be honest, just off the top of my head, I just talked to the guys in the locker room and when you are down three or four or five and you’re under three minutes, you have to either get a great shot or you have to get fouled. I thought that we didn’t work it one or two more passes to where we could get fouled or could get the wide open shot. Now again, I’m not looking at the film. I know that Cody missed point-blank layups, Jalen missed point-blank layups. Tyger missed three layups. But to your point, it’s just a thing where we’ve got to learn and I thought that we tried to do too much. We took a couple of hard ones at crucial times. We have got to make sure to get a great look, get a layup or a foul. We just didn’t do that at crucial points. I will say this, there was one that I remember now, with Jaime, we’d got a switch and we got Jaime on a point guard at six-feet, and usually that is a time we’ll score every time. Again, the physicality was a big factor.”
on Johnny Juzang scoring six early points and not scoring as often later in the game
“Look guys, he’s not going to go 10 for 10 or 20 for 20. Not his fault that at the end of the game, he had to take a couple of hard ones, that I might throw out. He’s probably more like 5 for 11 or 1 for 4. I know that he had a great shot in the last five minutes right in front of me in the corner where we ran great offense. Obviously, we needed that to go down bigtime at that point. That was a time where we really did get the shot we wanted. But, it’s just part of it. I just told the team that if we give up 77, we are not going to win another game. Our record – we will lose every game if we give up 77, the rest of the year. That’s my prediction, so that’s why we lost.”
on UCLA out-rebounding Ohio State, getting more assists and having more second-chance points
“I will say this, I thought it was a hell of a battle. I thought that we played well for a long period of time. But you know, when we were scoring and playing well offensively, we were playing poor defensively. There was a possession where they missed a free throw, and we had a like a four or five-point lead, and Jalen Hill doesn’t block out on the foul line. Now the basketball gods get you, and to me, you deserve to lose when those types of things happen. The stat sheet didn’t decide this game. I thought toughness and playing smart, and all the things that coaches talk about decided this game. Again, I thought it was a great game for a lot of reasons. But we’ve got to be the tougher team. In the last five minutes, they were the tougher team. I think that’s pretty point blank what happened.”
on no fans in the arena, the team’s attitude, and the atmosphere of this type of non-conference game
“It was a great game. The guys are used to no fans by now. So, the intensity of the game and the physicality of the game was high, high level. It was an extremely high-level game. There were a lot of kids making good plays on both sides. Our defense got us beat. I don’t know how many times I can say it. We had a lot of mental breakdowns. They’re hard enough to beat. A few block-outs where we were not tough enough, and then mental toughness is just as importance as physical toughness. We had some unbelievably bad decisions on the defensive end that cost us this game.”
on back-to-back 3-pointers late in the game by Ohio State’s Eugene Brown III
“Yeah, I just answered that. Mental breakdowns. Inexcusable mental breakdowns. One was on the break and nobody had him. Nobody had him. Stuff like that in a game like this, that’s what the game is decided by. You lose a guy, we don’t get matched up a couple times, and inexcusable mental breakdowns, that is the difference in the game.”