Postgame Quotes – UCLA 66, UC Riverside 65
UCLA 66, UC Riverside 65
November 30, 2023
UCLA associate head coach Darren Savino
opening statement
“What I would say is I am looking forward to getting my assistant coaching seat back. You were supposed to laugh about that. Give credit Coach Magpayo of UC Riverside because, you look at their record, it just doesn’t matchup to the way they played today. They had us running around, scrambling, really difficult to guard. Scouting report says they’re going to shoot a lot of threes. The only way they can beat us is to make a lot of threes. We had plenty of days to prepare. We thought we did a good preparing for it. But obviously, tonight you see we did not. That’s our fault as their coaching staff. We didn’t do a good enough job I guess to overemphasize, re-emphasize the three-point shot. I think they made 14 [threes] so that’s not good enough. We were fortunate to pull the game out at the end. We had a nice lead and just proceeded to give them three after three after three. Standing up there, they were really tough to defend. Unfortunately, Coach [Cronin] has been ill, as you know. I thought we made progress in practice. I thought we had great practices, great energy. We were trying to really stress deflections and defensive pressure, rebounding, sharing the ball, passing better, not over-dribbling and finding the open man. I think we had 15 assists which is probably the best thing we did. Our deflections were really low. Twenty-five deflections. And our rebounding was very poor. But we survived and Dylan hit a great shot at the end. We even messed that play up. Our execution still is not good. Again, you’re an assistant coach and you think you have all the answers, and when you sit up there and you’re trying to run things and do things and it doesn’t work, now I know how the head coach feels. Because we did not execute a lot of the things we worked on for three straight days and I thought that hurt us and the flow of the game. But we survived.”
on Sebastian Mack’s injury on the final play
“He’s got something going on with his toe that he’s had lingering for a while, a week to two weeks, maybe. But it’s nothing new, and it’s something he probably stubbed it again and aggravated it.”
on Berke Buyuktuncel’s injury
“I think it’s an ankle. I don’t know how severe. But he had ice on it and it was done for the game.”
on head coach Mick Cronin’s status
“I think he’s feeling better. He’s not 100 percent yet. We’re going to be off tomorrow and back at it on Saturday, so hopefully I’m sure he’ll be back and ready to go.”
on Coach Cronin’s advice to him prior to the game
“Lots of things. We talked as much as he could with his illness. We did a lot of back and forth constantly. He scouted the game like he was coaching the game, so he knew exactly all the things we were trying to get across. Obviously, the things that I said earlier were the things we all talked about. We just didn’t accomplish them.”
on UCLA’s three-point defense
“I think it was mostly us losing [guys]. We just lost guys. We over-helped. W stressed about being in gaps when someone gets isolated. But you can’t lunge, try to steal the ball, and get nothing and leave a guy wide open for a three. And we just continued to do it. That was frustrating. They drove a few times in the paint and we collapsed. Then they found people on the weak side. So really, our switching wasn’t that bad. It was pretty decent, I thought, for the most part – I’d have to watch the film again. I thought our lunging on drives and giving up open threes where we continued – and the timeouts, I told them to stop doing that. And they kept doing it. That’s what hurt us. And they were on a roll and they were confident. It wasn’t just one guy. It was multiple guys that were stepping into threes. Obviously, Kyle Owens had a career day. I think Kyle’s dad played at UCLA, right, back when Don McLean played. He had a great game. I don’t know if he’s ever made five threes in a game. Typical with us. And then they just spread us out, and it was really a lot of breakdowns.
on what he wants Dylan Andrews’ game-winning shot to do for his confidence
“You don’t have much time in the timeout. It was either going to be him or [Sebastian Mack]. I figured [Andrews] would get downhill and make a play. So I went with him instead of [Mack] in that play. I think [Andrews] had some good moments. … I thought he did a fairly good job today, especially on offense. Defense, I still want him to improve. But Dylan is going to have to play like that in these games coming up. He’s going to have to give us some minutes and scoring.”
on what Dylan Andrews is still learning about running a team
“He’s got a mentality to score, which we need. But he’s got to be able to see open people and still develop that part of his game. He had a beautiful lob pass to Aday [Mara] in the second half. That was a great look. If he can keep developing that, he could be really dangerous because he’s fast. He can get in the paint. He can shoot the pull up. He made a couple of threes off the dribble tonight. Really effective player, but I think vision as a point guard is an area where he needs to improve.”
on Will McClendon’s three-point shooting, going 3-for-4 tonight from long-range
“There was a big question about Will. Can he make those shots? Because he struggled last year. I would say he worked really hard in the offseason, summer. And we saw him this year in practice [and] preseason before we started playing games. He was one of, if not our best three-point shooter. Will can make it when he’s open and he’s set and he’s organized. If he starts to take hard shots with too much movement, that’s where he struggles. But when he’s open and we can kick it to him, we’re pretty confident he can make it. Moving forward, it’s a nice little weapon for us if he can continue to play with that confidence when we kick it to him. Just to lace it up and shoot it.”
on Adem Bona’s foul trouble
“I want to hug him. He’s just such a good guy and he tries so hard. The talks. The film. All the stuff. You can’t make dumb fouls. Over-the-backs and illegal screens. Push, elbow. Even on that fourth foul, he saw the guy about to lay it in, [Bona] can’t stop himself. I’m going to go block it. We survived with him playing 14 minutes. That was rough. I don’t know what else to say other than he’s got to slow down, relax and he can’t get those fouls. He’s not even getting those fouls on defense.”
UCLA redshirt sophomore guard Will McClendon
on improving his three-point shot
"This whole offseason, I’ve been really working on getting my shot right. Last year, it didn’t go the way I wanted it to. Every day I’m just feeling good about my shot and it showed today.”
on his confidence improving alongside his late-game threes
“It always feels good when you see the ball go in. Knowing that, as a team, we’re going to need scoring, whether it be me tonight, whether it be somebody else tomorrow. It felt good, obviously, it’s good for confidence as well. I’ve been working all season on getting my shot right, the coaches trust me. They get mad at me when I don’t shoot it, so I was just happy to see it go in tonight.”
on the difference in coaching styles between Coach Cronin and Coach Savino
“Everybody’s an echo of coach. We always stress the same things, regardless of who’s saying it. There was probably a difference in intensity, but at the end of the day, the same message. We all echo what we’re supposed to do, and we didn’t execute that to the best of our ability today.
on gaining perspective from a close early season win
“I think me and [Andrews] witnessed this last year, but it’s a good wake-up call for our team. Anybody can come in and we’ve got to be prepared for every team because teams like Riverside can come in and give you a scare like this. It’s just going to bring us all closer together. Like I said earlier, it’s a better outcome that we won than a loss. At the end of the day, we have to do a better job of executing our game plan.”
UCLA sophomore guard Dylan Andrews
on his game-winning shot
“The last play we knew we didn’t have too much time on the clock, so we went to one of our plays, just a back screen, and then the coaches told me just make a play after that. So, we got what we wanted and came out with the ‘W.’”
on if he knew his game-winning shot was going to go in
“Yes, sir. I mean, it was just good to see the ball go in the basket today.”
on bouncing back from last game
“I mean you know, playing basketball, man, you’re going to have some good games and you’re going to have some bad games. You just, you know, you have to stay confident in yourself and, you know, it doesn’t matter. Just stay confident and just keep shooting, man. And so, my teammates trust me on that, the coaches trust me on that, and that was the result.”
on when his last game-winner was
“High school, man. For me, it's a blessing to be able to make that shot. I mean, it's a great feeling. All credit to UC Riverside, they played really hard. 14 threes in a game is unbelievable. And so, you know we got to go back to the drawing board and just get ready for the next one. We got a big one coming up.”
communication with Bruins’ head coach Mick Cronin prior to tip-off
“You know, Coach Cronin was pretty ill, so no. It was all on our coaching staff – Coach Savino, Coach [Rod] Palmer, Coach [Nemanja Jovanovic], Coach Nate [Georgeton]. And so, with the scouting report, I feel like they did a pretty good job. I feel like we could have followed it way better. Their main thing for us was that the only way they could beat us was shooting threes, and, you know, we kind of bombed that game plan.”
on which team, UCLA or UC Riverside, learned more about their team from that game
“I mean, I feel like every game is a learning message for both teams. So, I wouldn’t only say that they learned something from us, but we also learned something from them. And at the end of the day – like Will just stressed on – anybody can lose to anybody. And so, I feel like that was just like a wake-up call, for sure. It was a good message and good learning for us.”
UC Riverside head coach Mike Magpayo
opening remarks
“I’m really proud of our guys. We’ve really grew with the tournament we had against Montana and the University of Green Bay. It was a two-game tournament and we started to develop an identity. We made some plays down the stretch to get us back in the game and our three-point shots were finally going down, but that was a big shot by Dylan Andrews. We have a tough schedule, the fourth hardest in the country. We’ve always had a problem in the past, in terms of experience, but we have an experienced team now, and we were the more experienced team today. We are still developing our identity, just like UCLA.”
on where his team will go from here
“I’m really disappointed, but proud of our guys. It’s unfortunate that we did not get a clean shot at the end. It’s been very tough to schedule these types of games. We had our best season in program history last year, so it’s tough to schedule these ‘buy games.’ But our mentality is to use these games as building blocks. We respect everyone, but we do not fear them. I’m really, really proud of our execution. UCLA just made one more play.”
November 30, 2023
UCLA associate head coach Darren Savino
opening statement
“What I would say is I am looking forward to getting my assistant coaching seat back. You were supposed to laugh about that. Give credit Coach Magpayo of UC Riverside because, you look at their record, it just doesn’t matchup to the way they played today. They had us running around, scrambling, really difficult to guard. Scouting report says they’re going to shoot a lot of threes. The only way they can beat us is to make a lot of threes. We had plenty of days to prepare. We thought we did a good preparing for it. But obviously, tonight you see we did not. That’s our fault as their coaching staff. We didn’t do a good enough job I guess to overemphasize, re-emphasize the three-point shot. I think they made 14 [threes] so that’s not good enough. We were fortunate to pull the game out at the end. We had a nice lead and just proceeded to give them three after three after three. Standing up there, they were really tough to defend. Unfortunately, Coach [Cronin] has been ill, as you know. I thought we made progress in practice. I thought we had great practices, great energy. We were trying to really stress deflections and defensive pressure, rebounding, sharing the ball, passing better, not over-dribbling and finding the open man. I think we had 15 assists which is probably the best thing we did. Our deflections were really low. Twenty-five deflections. And our rebounding was very poor. But we survived and Dylan hit a great shot at the end. We even messed that play up. Our execution still is not good. Again, you’re an assistant coach and you think you have all the answers, and when you sit up there and you’re trying to run things and do things and it doesn’t work, now I know how the head coach feels. Because we did not execute a lot of the things we worked on for three straight days and I thought that hurt us and the flow of the game. But we survived.”
on Sebastian Mack’s injury on the final play
“He’s got something going on with his toe that he’s had lingering for a while, a week to two weeks, maybe. But it’s nothing new, and it’s something he probably stubbed it again and aggravated it.”
on Berke Buyuktuncel’s injury
“I think it’s an ankle. I don’t know how severe. But he had ice on it and it was done for the game.”
on head coach Mick Cronin’s status
“I think he’s feeling better. He’s not 100 percent yet. We’re going to be off tomorrow and back at it on Saturday, so hopefully I’m sure he’ll be back and ready to go.”
on Coach Cronin’s advice to him prior to the game
“Lots of things. We talked as much as he could with his illness. We did a lot of back and forth constantly. He scouted the game like he was coaching the game, so he knew exactly all the things we were trying to get across. Obviously, the things that I said earlier were the things we all talked about. We just didn’t accomplish them.”
on UCLA’s three-point defense
“I think it was mostly us losing [guys]. We just lost guys. We over-helped. W stressed about being in gaps when someone gets isolated. But you can’t lunge, try to steal the ball, and get nothing and leave a guy wide open for a three. And we just continued to do it. That was frustrating. They drove a few times in the paint and we collapsed. Then they found people on the weak side. So really, our switching wasn’t that bad. It was pretty decent, I thought, for the most part – I’d have to watch the film again. I thought our lunging on drives and giving up open threes where we continued – and the timeouts, I told them to stop doing that. And they kept doing it. That’s what hurt us. And they were on a roll and they were confident. It wasn’t just one guy. It was multiple guys that were stepping into threes. Obviously, Kyle Owens had a career day. I think Kyle’s dad played at UCLA, right, back when Don McLean played. He had a great game. I don’t know if he’s ever made five threes in a game. Typical with us. And then they just spread us out, and it was really a lot of breakdowns.
on what he wants Dylan Andrews’ game-winning shot to do for his confidence
“You don’t have much time in the timeout. It was either going to be him or [Sebastian Mack]. I figured [Andrews] would get downhill and make a play. So I went with him instead of [Mack] in that play. I think [Andrews] had some good moments. … I thought he did a fairly good job today, especially on offense. Defense, I still want him to improve. But Dylan is going to have to play like that in these games coming up. He’s going to have to give us some minutes and scoring.”
on what Dylan Andrews is still learning about running a team
“He’s got a mentality to score, which we need. But he’s got to be able to see open people and still develop that part of his game. He had a beautiful lob pass to Aday [Mara] in the second half. That was a great look. If he can keep developing that, he could be really dangerous because he’s fast. He can get in the paint. He can shoot the pull up. He made a couple of threes off the dribble tonight. Really effective player, but I think vision as a point guard is an area where he needs to improve.”
on Will McClendon’s three-point shooting, going 3-for-4 tonight from long-range
“There was a big question about Will. Can he make those shots? Because he struggled last year. I would say he worked really hard in the offseason, summer. And we saw him this year in practice [and] preseason before we started playing games. He was one of, if not our best three-point shooter. Will can make it when he’s open and he’s set and he’s organized. If he starts to take hard shots with too much movement, that’s where he struggles. But when he’s open and we can kick it to him, we’re pretty confident he can make it. Moving forward, it’s a nice little weapon for us if he can continue to play with that confidence when we kick it to him. Just to lace it up and shoot it.”
on Adem Bona’s foul trouble
“I want to hug him. He’s just such a good guy and he tries so hard. The talks. The film. All the stuff. You can’t make dumb fouls. Over-the-backs and illegal screens. Push, elbow. Even on that fourth foul, he saw the guy about to lay it in, [Bona] can’t stop himself. I’m going to go block it. We survived with him playing 14 minutes. That was rough. I don’t know what else to say other than he’s got to slow down, relax and he can’t get those fouls. He’s not even getting those fouls on defense.”
UCLA redshirt sophomore guard Will McClendon
on improving his three-point shot
"This whole offseason, I’ve been really working on getting my shot right. Last year, it didn’t go the way I wanted it to. Every day I’m just feeling good about my shot and it showed today.”
on his confidence improving alongside his late-game threes
“It always feels good when you see the ball go in. Knowing that, as a team, we’re going to need scoring, whether it be me tonight, whether it be somebody else tomorrow. It felt good, obviously, it’s good for confidence as well. I’ve been working all season on getting my shot right, the coaches trust me. They get mad at me when I don’t shoot it, so I was just happy to see it go in tonight.”
on the difference in coaching styles between Coach Cronin and Coach Savino
“Everybody’s an echo of coach. We always stress the same things, regardless of who’s saying it. There was probably a difference in intensity, but at the end of the day, the same message. We all echo what we’re supposed to do, and we didn’t execute that to the best of our ability today.
on gaining perspective from a close early season win
“I think me and [Andrews] witnessed this last year, but it’s a good wake-up call for our team. Anybody can come in and we’ve got to be prepared for every team because teams like Riverside can come in and give you a scare like this. It’s just going to bring us all closer together. Like I said earlier, it’s a better outcome that we won than a loss. At the end of the day, we have to do a better job of executing our game plan.”
UCLA sophomore guard Dylan Andrews
on his game-winning shot
“The last play we knew we didn’t have too much time on the clock, so we went to one of our plays, just a back screen, and then the coaches told me just make a play after that. So, we got what we wanted and came out with the ‘W.’”
on if he knew his game-winning shot was going to go in
“Yes, sir. I mean, it was just good to see the ball go in the basket today.”
on bouncing back from last game
“I mean you know, playing basketball, man, you’re going to have some good games and you’re going to have some bad games. You just, you know, you have to stay confident in yourself and, you know, it doesn’t matter. Just stay confident and just keep shooting, man. And so, my teammates trust me on that, the coaches trust me on that, and that was the result.”
on when his last game-winner was
“High school, man. For me, it's a blessing to be able to make that shot. I mean, it's a great feeling. All credit to UC Riverside, they played really hard. 14 threes in a game is unbelievable. And so, you know we got to go back to the drawing board and just get ready for the next one. We got a big one coming up.”
communication with Bruins’ head coach Mick Cronin prior to tip-off
“You know, Coach Cronin was pretty ill, so no. It was all on our coaching staff – Coach Savino, Coach [Rod] Palmer, Coach [Nemanja Jovanovic], Coach Nate [Georgeton]. And so, with the scouting report, I feel like they did a pretty good job. I feel like we could have followed it way better. Their main thing for us was that the only way they could beat us was shooting threes, and, you know, we kind of bombed that game plan.”
on which team, UCLA or UC Riverside, learned more about their team from that game
“I mean, I feel like every game is a learning message for both teams. So, I wouldn’t only say that they learned something from us, but we also learned something from them. And at the end of the day – like Will just stressed on – anybody can lose to anybody. And so, I feel like that was just like a wake-up call, for sure. It was a good message and good learning for us.”
UC Riverside head coach Mike Magpayo
opening remarks
“I’m really proud of our guys. We’ve really grew with the tournament we had against Montana and the University of Green Bay. It was a two-game tournament and we started to develop an identity. We made some plays down the stretch to get us back in the game and our three-point shots were finally going down, but that was a big shot by Dylan Andrews. We have a tough schedule, the fourth hardest in the country. We’ve always had a problem in the past, in terms of experience, but we have an experienced team now, and we were the more experienced team today. We are still developing our identity, just like UCLA.”
on where his team will go from here
“I’m really disappointed, but proud of our guys. It’s unfortunate that we did not get a clean shot at the end. It’s been very tough to schedule these types of games. We had our best season in program history last year, so it’s tough to schedule these ‘buy games.’ But our mentality is to use these games as building blocks. We respect everyone, but we do not fear them. I’m really, really proud of our execution. UCLA just made one more play.”