Postgame Quotes - UCLA vs. Seattle
POSTGAME QUOTES
UCLA 78, Seattle 52
December 3, 2020
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
on junior Jalen Hill's impact
“He’s a very effective rebounder and he’s our only shot blocker. So right there – 10 rebounds, three blocks – but more than that, you don’t want to have to play Jaime [Jaquez Jr.] at the five, because then you can never take him out. I still think Jaime is recovering from last Friday to be honest with you. It allows you to get Jaime and Chris [Smith] some rest and have us be able to play the way we practice.”
on what changed during the 14-0 run to end the half
“I thought [freshman guard] Jaylen Clark had a lot to do with it. His energy and his attitude are the reasons I wanted him in our program. I think he’s going to have a great career playing for us. His mind is on making defensive plays, getting tough rebounds, taking the ball away from people. We need that, we need somebody that brings what Jaylen Clark brings to the table. That and maybe [Seattle] got a little bit tired – we stepped up the pressure. I was trying to play the bench, I wanted to make sure I didn’t play anybody over 30 minutes tonight.”
on sophomore Tyger Campbell’s performance
“To be honest with you guys, you don’t know how good it was because he didn’t practice yesterday. He wasn’t feeling great in his legs yesterday. We weren’t sure if he was even going to play tonight. He’s a gamer, he did a great job of reading how they were defending him, getting himself to the lane, getting himself fouled. He’s learning, because of the way people are defending him, when to shoot. You got to shoot it some, but you don’t want to let them turn you into who they want you to be, right? You want to be able to make enough shots to keep them honest, but you still want to stay on the attack because that’s what you’re best at. He’s still a young player. He's learning. I thought it was a gutty performance for him tonight, considering that he absolutely did nothing yesterday at practice, we totally sat him down.”
on having depth at the center position
“It’s huge. We get 19 points, 13 rebounds out of that spot with three blocked shots. That’s kind of where we got to with them last year. Cody [Riley] gets 8 points and 3 rebounds, but he only plays 12 minutes, which is probably good for him. Because with Jalen out, I probably over-practiced him. It was good for him to not have to play major minutes tonight.”
on limiting Seattle’s 3-point shooting and offensive rebounding
“I wanted to hold them in the 40s. to be honest with you. We got a little sloppy late. I think our athleticism and size probably had a lot to do with that, wore them down. You guys [the media] would know better than me – it seems to me like they might have made their first three 3-pointers, and I don’t know if they made one the rest of the game (note: Seattle made three of their first four 3-pointers, then went 0-19 the rest of the night). We definitely wanted to limit their 3-point shooting. What I would allude to is we’ve got to stop turning the ball over. We’re not going to be a quality team the way we’re turning the ball over. We’re minus in the turnover category versus our opponents. I’ve been around long enough now to know you’re not ever going to finish at the top of your conference, not going to be a really good team, if you’re not plus in that category. You’ve got to be plus in the rebounding category and the turnover category. I’ve really got to clean things up as their coach – we’ve got to stop turning the ball over.”
Seattle head coach Jim Hayford
on his overall reaction to Thursday’s game against UCLA
“Well, we held the gameplan for the first 15 minutes. And then UCLA is obviously a top 25 team and they’re very good and they got separation from us. I thought we kind of hung our heads. It’s hard when you miss that many shots – I think that we missed our last 18 consecutive 3-pointers and then that even carried over the to free throw line. When you shoot the ball that much and the ball doesn’t go into the basket, it’s really hard to keep doing the things that you need to do to stay in the game. It’s a new group that we have coming together, and we have to understand just hard you have to fight when that happens. Our lack of success of putting the ball in the basket, which we came out shooting great, but then to miss 18 straight threes – it just went the wrong way on us. But a lot of respect for UCLA. They are a class act. They played really well, played hard. Obviously, they have amazing athleticism and then they shot the ball better than I thought they could. So that is why it turned from a really good game into a really long night for the Redhawks.”
UCLA 78, Seattle 52
December 3, 2020
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
on junior Jalen Hill's impact
“He’s a very effective rebounder and he’s our only shot blocker. So right there – 10 rebounds, three blocks – but more than that, you don’t want to have to play Jaime [Jaquez Jr.] at the five, because then you can never take him out. I still think Jaime is recovering from last Friday to be honest with you. It allows you to get Jaime and Chris [Smith] some rest and have us be able to play the way we practice.”
on what changed during the 14-0 run to end the half
“I thought [freshman guard] Jaylen Clark had a lot to do with it. His energy and his attitude are the reasons I wanted him in our program. I think he’s going to have a great career playing for us. His mind is on making defensive plays, getting tough rebounds, taking the ball away from people. We need that, we need somebody that brings what Jaylen Clark brings to the table. That and maybe [Seattle] got a little bit tired – we stepped up the pressure. I was trying to play the bench, I wanted to make sure I didn’t play anybody over 30 minutes tonight.”
on sophomore Tyger Campbell’s performance
“To be honest with you guys, you don’t know how good it was because he didn’t practice yesterday. He wasn’t feeling great in his legs yesterday. We weren’t sure if he was even going to play tonight. He’s a gamer, he did a great job of reading how they were defending him, getting himself to the lane, getting himself fouled. He’s learning, because of the way people are defending him, when to shoot. You got to shoot it some, but you don’t want to let them turn you into who they want you to be, right? You want to be able to make enough shots to keep them honest, but you still want to stay on the attack because that’s what you’re best at. He’s still a young player. He's learning. I thought it was a gutty performance for him tonight, considering that he absolutely did nothing yesterday at practice, we totally sat him down.”
on having depth at the center position
“It’s huge. We get 19 points, 13 rebounds out of that spot with three blocked shots. That’s kind of where we got to with them last year. Cody [Riley] gets 8 points and 3 rebounds, but he only plays 12 minutes, which is probably good for him. Because with Jalen out, I probably over-practiced him. It was good for him to not have to play major minutes tonight.”
on limiting Seattle’s 3-point shooting and offensive rebounding
“I wanted to hold them in the 40s. to be honest with you. We got a little sloppy late. I think our athleticism and size probably had a lot to do with that, wore them down. You guys [the media] would know better than me – it seems to me like they might have made their first three 3-pointers, and I don’t know if they made one the rest of the game (note: Seattle made three of their first four 3-pointers, then went 0-19 the rest of the night). We definitely wanted to limit their 3-point shooting. What I would allude to is we’ve got to stop turning the ball over. We’re not going to be a quality team the way we’re turning the ball over. We’re minus in the turnover category versus our opponents. I’ve been around long enough now to know you’re not ever going to finish at the top of your conference, not going to be a really good team, if you’re not plus in that category. You’ve got to be plus in the rebounding category and the turnover category. I’ve really got to clean things up as their coach – we’ve got to stop turning the ball over.”
Seattle head coach Jim Hayford
on his overall reaction to Thursday’s game against UCLA
“Well, we held the gameplan for the first 15 minutes. And then UCLA is obviously a top 25 team and they’re very good and they got separation from us. I thought we kind of hung our heads. It’s hard when you miss that many shots – I think that we missed our last 18 consecutive 3-pointers and then that even carried over the to free throw line. When you shoot the ball that much and the ball doesn’t go into the basket, it’s really hard to keep doing the things that you need to do to stay in the game. It’s a new group that we have coming together, and we have to understand just hard you have to fight when that happens. Our lack of success of putting the ball in the basket, which we came out shooting great, but then to miss 18 straight threes – it just went the wrong way on us. But a lot of respect for UCLA. They are a class act. They played really well, played hard. Obviously, they have amazing athleticism and then they shot the ball better than I thought they could. So that is why it turned from a really good game into a really long night for the Redhawks.”