Postgame Quotes – New Mexico 72, UCLA 64
POSTGAME QUOTES
New Mexico 72, UCLA 64
Henderson, Nev. (Lee’s Family Forum)
November 8, 2024
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
on finishing the game with 21 turnovers
“It’s hard to beat Division 2 teams with 21 turnovers. Obviously, I’m extremely disappointed in some of our guards. There are three things you’ve got to do – defend, rebound, and take care of the ball. We didn’t take care of the ball. We didn’t really rebound early either. We started rebounding, but we didn’t rebound early. They were nine for their first 11.”
on the team’s mindset heading into the game
“We’ve got a lot of new guys, but they don’t understand that when you put the UCLA jersey on, and you play a team like New Mexico, that went to the NCAA Tournament last year. We have one guy who played in the NCAA tournament last year [William Kyle III], they have a bunch of them. You put that UCLA jersey on, kids grew up hearing about all of the great players at UCLA, and they are coming to play. We were not ready for their intensity. At the end of the day, that’s what they pay me for. We tried, they did not listen, they learned the hard way. Ultimately, I don’t blame them, I blame the coaching staff. We weren’t ready for the intensity of this game. It was very obvious. Sebastian Mack couldn’t take the ball from them, and he’s anything but a soft kid.”
on Dylan Andrews’ six turnovers
“It’s hard when you’ve got 21 turnovers, you lose by eight. What if we’d had 10 and gotten 11 more possessions? Even with all of the things I’m telling you, you’ve still got a chance to win. Dylan and Sebastian were throwing the ball away for layups, just giving it to them for layups. I told them, ‘Guys, we were better than that last year.’ Defensively, we have a long way to go, obviously.”
on Trent Perry’s performance
“Trent’s a good player. He’s young. I thought he did a solid job. I thought he went in and tried to mix it up, get some loose balls and some rebounds. He got in the fight. Other guys were standing and watching.”
on learning from an early season loss
“It’s always good to play a game early like this, for me to be able to assess where we’re at and what needs to happen, get a dose of reality. I tried to tell them for the last three days, you know, they’re fast, they’re athletic, they got to the tournament last year. [Numbers] 22 and 23 are fifth-year guys, they’ve been there three years at least, or more. Four of their top six are back this year and they won the Mountain West. I knew they were coming to play, I was looking to see how we were going to respond.”
on the team’s response in the second half
“We didn’t give up – the problem was, every time we would try to go on a run, we’d miss a layup. Skyy [Clark] got fouled and they didn’t call it, the guy undercut him. That really hurt us. I think that cuts it to seven for us. But we had dug the hole by then. By the time we started playing hard enough to give ourselves a chance, the hole was dug against a veteran team.”
on Eric Dailey Jr. getting into foul trouble
“He’s got bad habits. He’s a great kid, nobody works on his game harder than him. The problem is that the games start, guys start grabbing. He grabbed a guy twice for no reason, he’s done that since he’s gotten here.”
on William Kyle III’s performance
“He only played 15 minutes, and at times he looked tired to me. He did not have an offensive rebound, which is a very big problem. We missed 35 shots, he’s got to rebound the ball on the offensive end for us. He has to.”
on UCLA guarding New Mexico’s Nelly Joseph
“He just didn’t get the touches, we dug it out. We didn’t follow the game plan in the first half at all. We played behind him and stood and watched him score. We gave Aday [Mara] no help. [Joseph] scored on four different guys in the first half. At no point did we get a second defender to him, which was what we practiced for the last three days. He’s a big strong guy – if you let him just wipe you out, he’s going to just turn around and lay it in. He didn’t get any low, deep touches in the second half. That was the difference.”
on the Bruins’ defensive performance
“If you give up 36 points in the paint, and they have 18 baskets at the rim, you’re not going to win. They’re going to shoot 50 percent if they have 18 point-blanks. You can’t win, or you’re going to have to win with great offense. When you give up 36 points at the rim and 16 made free throws, that’s 52 points right there. It’s tough to overcome that and win.”
on the team’s shooting performance
“All of those guys that were out there can make shots. It isn’t like we have a non-shooter out there. Kobe and Dylan are 0-for-5, add Skyy in and they’re 1-for-9. That’s very rare for those guys.”
UCLA junior forward Tyler Bilodeau
on the team’s 21 turnovers
"Obviously, coming in, Coach was stressed because they’re an aggressive team defensively. We just didn’t take care of the ball. I had three turnovers, I can’t do that, so that’s on me. As a team, it just can’t happen. We’ve got to get better.”
on guarding Nelly Joseph in the second half
“We just had to be tougher. We were getting beasted in there. Coach told us the game plan, we just didn’t execute. We’ve just got to be tougher in there.”
on their performance in the first half and making changes in the second
“I think it was just lack of discipline throughout the whole team. I think we were all just more focused on the right things, we just were not tough enough, physically, mentally out there. We just weren’t ready for it.”
on building winning habits
“All of us come from losing teams, besides Will, obviously. We all need to come together and really dig deep and just figure it out. None of us want to have years like we had last year. We’re at UCLA, this is unacceptable.”
UCLA senior guard Kobe Johnson
on failing to match New Mexico’s intensity
“I think we just needed to be physical and needed to be tough. I take a lot of blame for myself for being a leader out there and not holding everybody accountable. That’s all it is.”
on having 21 turnovers despite being a veteran team
“Just laziness. That’s pretty much it. We were careless with the ball. As a leader, I’ve got to make sure we’re all good. We’ve got to take care of the ball.”
on growing together as a team
“There’s definitely that portion of the game where we’re trying to figure out everybody’s games. But we are all good enough players to know how to take care of the ball, so we’ve just got to be better in that portion. We’ve talked about it, and we all have to take care of the ball.”
on the team’s intensity and performance in the first half
“We didn’t follow the game plan. Coach told us what we needed to do, they told us how to guard them, how to execute, but we fell through. Again, I take blame for that as captain, I’ve got to lead this team. I’ve got to make sure we do the little things to win. We were careless with the ball. I don’t think it was anything that they did. We let their intensity determine this game.”
on the team’s poor shooting performance
“We were just missing open shots. We got plenty of good open looks, we’ve just got to hit those shots.”
on the team’s intensity in the second half
“We turned it up too late in my opinion. I feel like we should have come out at the start of the game with that energy.”
on learning from an early season loss
“It’s never good to lose, but this is a lesson for us. All we can do is get better from this and move on. That’s what we’ve got to do. Come in tomorrow, get ready for Boston on Monday, and go on from there.”
New Mexico 72, UCLA 64
Henderson, Nev. (Lee’s Family Forum)
November 8, 2024
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
on finishing the game with 21 turnovers
“It’s hard to beat Division 2 teams with 21 turnovers. Obviously, I’m extremely disappointed in some of our guards. There are three things you’ve got to do – defend, rebound, and take care of the ball. We didn’t take care of the ball. We didn’t really rebound early either. We started rebounding, but we didn’t rebound early. They were nine for their first 11.”
on the team’s mindset heading into the game
“We’ve got a lot of new guys, but they don’t understand that when you put the UCLA jersey on, and you play a team like New Mexico, that went to the NCAA Tournament last year. We have one guy who played in the NCAA tournament last year [William Kyle III], they have a bunch of them. You put that UCLA jersey on, kids grew up hearing about all of the great players at UCLA, and they are coming to play. We were not ready for their intensity. At the end of the day, that’s what they pay me for. We tried, they did not listen, they learned the hard way. Ultimately, I don’t blame them, I blame the coaching staff. We weren’t ready for the intensity of this game. It was very obvious. Sebastian Mack couldn’t take the ball from them, and he’s anything but a soft kid.”
on Dylan Andrews’ six turnovers
“It’s hard when you’ve got 21 turnovers, you lose by eight. What if we’d had 10 and gotten 11 more possessions? Even with all of the things I’m telling you, you’ve still got a chance to win. Dylan and Sebastian were throwing the ball away for layups, just giving it to them for layups. I told them, ‘Guys, we were better than that last year.’ Defensively, we have a long way to go, obviously.”
on Trent Perry’s performance
“Trent’s a good player. He’s young. I thought he did a solid job. I thought he went in and tried to mix it up, get some loose balls and some rebounds. He got in the fight. Other guys were standing and watching.”
on learning from an early season loss
“It’s always good to play a game early like this, for me to be able to assess where we’re at and what needs to happen, get a dose of reality. I tried to tell them for the last three days, you know, they’re fast, they’re athletic, they got to the tournament last year. [Numbers] 22 and 23 are fifth-year guys, they’ve been there three years at least, or more. Four of their top six are back this year and they won the Mountain West. I knew they were coming to play, I was looking to see how we were going to respond.”
on the team’s response in the second half
“We didn’t give up – the problem was, every time we would try to go on a run, we’d miss a layup. Skyy [Clark] got fouled and they didn’t call it, the guy undercut him. That really hurt us. I think that cuts it to seven for us. But we had dug the hole by then. By the time we started playing hard enough to give ourselves a chance, the hole was dug against a veteran team.”
on Eric Dailey Jr. getting into foul trouble
“He’s got bad habits. He’s a great kid, nobody works on his game harder than him. The problem is that the games start, guys start grabbing. He grabbed a guy twice for no reason, he’s done that since he’s gotten here.”
on William Kyle III’s performance
“He only played 15 minutes, and at times he looked tired to me. He did not have an offensive rebound, which is a very big problem. We missed 35 shots, he’s got to rebound the ball on the offensive end for us. He has to.”
on UCLA guarding New Mexico’s Nelly Joseph
“He just didn’t get the touches, we dug it out. We didn’t follow the game plan in the first half at all. We played behind him and stood and watched him score. We gave Aday [Mara] no help. [Joseph] scored on four different guys in the first half. At no point did we get a second defender to him, which was what we practiced for the last three days. He’s a big strong guy – if you let him just wipe you out, he’s going to just turn around and lay it in. He didn’t get any low, deep touches in the second half. That was the difference.”
on the Bruins’ defensive performance
“If you give up 36 points in the paint, and they have 18 baskets at the rim, you’re not going to win. They’re going to shoot 50 percent if they have 18 point-blanks. You can’t win, or you’re going to have to win with great offense. When you give up 36 points at the rim and 16 made free throws, that’s 52 points right there. It’s tough to overcome that and win.”
on the team’s shooting performance
“All of those guys that were out there can make shots. It isn’t like we have a non-shooter out there. Kobe and Dylan are 0-for-5, add Skyy in and they’re 1-for-9. That’s very rare for those guys.”
UCLA junior forward Tyler Bilodeau
on the team’s 21 turnovers
"Obviously, coming in, Coach was stressed because they’re an aggressive team defensively. We just didn’t take care of the ball. I had three turnovers, I can’t do that, so that’s on me. As a team, it just can’t happen. We’ve got to get better.”
on guarding Nelly Joseph in the second half
“We just had to be tougher. We were getting beasted in there. Coach told us the game plan, we just didn’t execute. We’ve just got to be tougher in there.”
on their performance in the first half and making changes in the second
“I think it was just lack of discipline throughout the whole team. I think we were all just more focused on the right things, we just were not tough enough, physically, mentally out there. We just weren’t ready for it.”
on building winning habits
“All of us come from losing teams, besides Will, obviously. We all need to come together and really dig deep and just figure it out. None of us want to have years like we had last year. We’re at UCLA, this is unacceptable.”
UCLA senior guard Kobe Johnson
on failing to match New Mexico’s intensity
“I think we just needed to be physical and needed to be tough. I take a lot of blame for myself for being a leader out there and not holding everybody accountable. That’s all it is.”
on having 21 turnovers despite being a veteran team
“Just laziness. That’s pretty much it. We were careless with the ball. As a leader, I’ve got to make sure we’re all good. We’ve got to take care of the ball.”
on growing together as a team
“There’s definitely that portion of the game where we’re trying to figure out everybody’s games. But we are all good enough players to know how to take care of the ball, so we’ve just got to be better in that portion. We’ve talked about it, and we all have to take care of the ball.”
on the team’s intensity and performance in the first half
“We didn’t follow the game plan. Coach told us what we needed to do, they told us how to guard them, how to execute, but we fell through. Again, I take blame for that as captain, I’ve got to lead this team. I’ve got to make sure we do the little things to win. We were careless with the ball. I don’t think it was anything that they did. We let their intensity determine this game.”
on the team’s poor shooting performance
“We were just missing open shots. We got plenty of good open looks, we’ve just got to hit those shots.”
on the team’s intensity in the second half
“We turned it up too late in my opinion. I feel like we should have come out at the start of the game with that energy.”
on learning from an early season loss
“It’s never good to lose, but this is a lesson for us. All we can do is get better from this and move on. That’s what we’ve got to do. Come in tomorrow, get ready for Boston on Monday, and go on from there.”