Postgame Quotes – UCLA 88, Southern Utah 43
POSTGAME QUOTES
UCLA 88, Southern Utah 43
Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom
November 26, 2024
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
opening statement
“They’ve been on the road quite a while guys, it obviously showed. Coming into the game tonight, they were 6-1 with multiple road wins. Obviously, they didn’t have a lot in them tonight, and we got away with Tyler [Bilodeau] having his first big off night for us. Lazar [Stefanovic] was obviously great, I’m very happy for him. Hhe’s put in the extra work. Eric Dailey continues to be our most consistent guy because Eric Dailey’s got the most consistent work ethic of all of our players.”
on his thoughts of the game as a whole
“I thought that Southern Utah was completely out of gas. I was a nervous wreck all weekend. They’re 6-1. They’re up 15 to 20 in both of their games on Friday and Saturday, down at USD. They took Loyola to the buzzer – Loyola Chicago is 7-0. They just must have had no gas in the tank tonight. Obviously, a lot of guys did a lot of good things, our preparation was good. We offensive rebounded. I was happy with that because we couldn’t throw it in the ocean for a while.”
on the team’s growth since their loss to New Mexico
“It’s hard to tell. I look in the mirror when stuff like that happens. It’s my fault if he doesn’t play well, it’s always my fault. We weren’t ready as a group to play that hard. Obviously from here on out, we’ve got Big Ten play starting the next two games, then three top-20 teams – that’s your December. So we’re going to find out. But that’s on me to make sure we’re ready. I need Dylan and Skyy to start helping Sebastian with the scoring. Obviously, Trent’s got a world of talent. We’re just trying to get him comfortable, because that’s what is going to win.”
“My whole career, I’ve been a huge believer in it. Tonight it was crazy, obviously. We had eight turnovers, but four of them were illegal screens. Will’s got one. Aday’s got three. You’ve got to teach big guys how to screen properly. There’s no excuse for stuff like that. It’s frustrating. I’m a huge believer in turnover margin, I always have been. It’s just math. We shot the ball 80 times tonight, they shot it 40. I like our chances. Turnover margin, that’s a possession, rebounds, that’s a possession. If you get 10 to 15 more possessions than your opponent, you’re going to have a good season.”
on Tyler Bilodeau’s off-night
“It’s going to happen. It happens to all good players. He’s an extremely adroit offensive player in the mid-post, but tonight he struggled.”
UCLA guard Dylan Andrews
on the team’s growth since the loss to New Mexico
“I feel like that’s a game that we all wish we could get back. We watched so much film, and we’re a different team. We want to come out every game and show what we’ve worked on. In the New Mexico game, I feel like we weren’t confident, and after that, every game since then, we’ve been locked in.”
on returning from his early season injury
“I’m feeling great. I’m working with our guy Tyler Lesher every day, feeling great.”
on the team picking up 30 turnovers and 62 deflections
“This game, we knew they were a team that likes to drive, likes to put their head down. We were basically just working all week on team defense, making sure that we’re in the gaps. When a player’s playing one on one, we don’t allow that. It has to be all five of us guarding.”
on choosing his shots, particularly on the left elbow
"I’m just taking what the defense is giving me. I felt like in this game, they were in drop, and I had a lot of chances to get to my mid-range pullup. I felt like once I made the first one, the second one, I started getting more confident. My teammates trust me to keep shooting it, so after that, I got hot.”
on starting conference play and facing off against three top 20 teams
"We’re excited.”
UCLA guard Lazar Stefanovic
on the team’s growth since the loss to New Mexico
“You never want to lose. But if you lose, you want it to happen early, so you can figure some things out. It’s not necessarily a really bad thing if you learn from it, and it seems like we did.”
on the depth of the team and scoring 19 points off of the bench
“You always have to stay ready. We’ve got a lot of guys who can score, a lot of good players on the team, so you’ve got to stay ready when you’re coming off of the bench. Starting doesn’t matter, the point is to help the team win the game. That’s what we’re here for.”
on growing as a team and living up to Coach Cronin’s standards
“Today we forced 30 turnovers and we allowed 43 points. I think that’s exactly what our coach wants. We’re on a good path.”
on the team finding offensive success tonight
"We’ve got a lot of guys that can play. They’re a good team, and we got ready for them, we prepared for the game really well. We executed what our coaches wanted from us, and honestly, we made them look worse than they are. They aren’t a bad team, they’re 6-1 for a reason, so we did a really good job preparing for this game, and obviously we have a lot of depth.”
Southern Utah Head Coach Rob Jeter
opening remarks
“It’s pretty obvious that our team was overwhelmed. UCLA really overwhelmed us this evening. They attacked the offensive glass and they caused us to turnover the ball. When you see it on the stat sheet, it’s one thing. But to see it in-person, it’s totally different. They are truly phenomenal when it came to creating turnovers. We didn’t handle the moment well. We were kind of star-struck. We are 6-2, so this is humble pie for us. It gives us a chance to get back to work. UCLA played like they respected the game – it didn’t really matter the opponent. That is a sign of a well-coached team.”
on which athletes stood out in tonight’s contest
“The energy we had at the end was better than the beginning. Some of those guys who don’t play a lot were in there, but they didn’t give up. They played like they belonged in the game.”
on where his team goes from this game
“We’re just kind of fried mentally, so this is a great lesson to keep us humble. This is great for us. It gives us a chance to regroup. It shows that we can play, we just have to go home and get refocused.”