Postgame Quotes – Maryland 79, UCLA 61
POSTGAME QUOTES
Maryland 79, UCLA 61
College Park, Md. (Xfinity Center)
January 10, 2025
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
on having challenged his players two days ago and how he believes they responded
“They’re trying, they’re trying. We just turned the ball over. You’ve got no chance. If you turn the ball over the way that we did tonight, and in defense of my guys, I did not think we were given any chance to win in the second half. I let Jeff Anderson know and I hit the showers.”
on a conversation he had with that referee midway through the second half
“Yeah, I told him that you’ve got to give us a chance. You are not giving us a chance to win. You’ve got to give us a chance to win.”
on if this was the first time that he has been ejected from a game as a head coach
“It was an accident [the last time it occurred]. So this is the only time where I tried to get thrown out, I had had enough. I’m tired of it. I know that we’re the outsider – us, SC and Oregon, but that was ridiculous. And that doesn’t take anything away from Maryland. They’re a very good team at home. But you know, I’ve got to defend my players. If you can just mug guys, chop their arms off and throw them out of the way, it is hard to run any offense. That being said, there are other things. We have regressed. I kind of addressed that the other night. It’s a mindset, it’s a mindset with all teams and all players. It’s a mindset. You have to be – to be a great defensive team, you have got to be totally committed to it. It’s not easy, especially on the road.”
on UCLA committing 21 turnovers at Maryland
“I thought that we were sloppy to start the game. Again, I’m going to say this. I thought we were sloppy to start the game. Now in the second half the game got to a point where nothing was being called and we were not tough enough. That being said in defense of my players, I don’t think that we were having much of a chance. You are getting grabbed, thrown, chopped or whatever, it’s hard. So, in defense of my players on that. Now in the first half, it was a much cleaner game, at 40-36 at halftime, but it became, they just were not going to let us run anything, whatever it was. I let Jeff know and that was that. That’s life, especially when you are the outsider. That’s life in the Big Ten. You get on the road against a team that is 1-3 in the league but they’re really a top 25 team, do you think, I mean they’re going to do whatever they’re going to do. And we needed some stronger officials on the game in my opinion, but we needed to be stronger with the ball. IN defense of my players, we only had one day to prepare. We had to travel five-hour 50-minute flight, they got home Sunday, and had two extra days, and now Rutgers is sitting at home and they have one extra day. I have not mapped this out, but I sure hope it swings our way at some point.”
on clarifying postgame comments he made after UCLA lost to Michigan on Tuesday
“My house is getting real close to being evacuated. For us, you don’t live where we live, it is literally an unbelievably horrible situation, OK? We lost the other night [Tuesday]. I went home and packed, and bags are still by the door at my house with valuables and things like that. That is my only concern. What’s our record? [11-5] We are in a tough stretch of games and we’ve got to dig in. I knew that it would be tough the first year in the Big Ten. It is what it is.”
on fears about various neighborhoods in Southern California having to fight ongoing wildfires
“Yeah, well there are fires that are coming over Mulholland, to Encino. So when I got thrown out, I immediately went to my phone. Watch Duty, it’s an app called Watch Duty and it gives you alerts and it is saving lives, that app is saving lives. I was texting Chrissy at my house, my de facto wife and longtime girlfriend to make sure that they’re OK and everybody is ready to go. I have people in that locker room, people had to evacuate yesterday, who are here on our travel party. It’s as bad as it can be.”
on where his team goes from here and perseveres
“The basketball stuff is secondary, to be honest with you. Kevin [Willard] does a great job. They’ve got a hell of a team. And I knew that it was going to be a real tough one. We caught a bad break to open up at Nebraska without Eric Dailey and William Kyle. That hurt us and we couldn’t make a shot. If we could have got that game, but it is what it is. At UCLA, you’ve just got to keep trying to get better. And in this league, you remember my old Big East days, I have been in these bloodbath leagues before. You have got to get through it and get to the NCAA Tournament. Everything else, like where you finish in it, that doesn’t matter. That’s how you just got to keep fighting through it. You’re going to have runs like this. It’s inevitable, unless you have a great team.”
UCLA sophomore Eric Dailey Jr.
on the wildfires that have spread through neighborhoods in the greater Los Angeles arena
“Luckily, my house is safe. But you can’t say the same for everybody right now. It’s a tough situation right now. A Lot of people having to evacuating, a lot of people who are losing their homes. I’ve never seen nothing like it. I am from Florida and we have hurricanes, but with fires, it’s a whole different animal. I pray for the families who are going through this and I hope that we can get the city back together.”
on UCLA committing 21 turnovers
“We just can’t be that team. We are normally the team getting others to turn the ball over. That was not us tonight. We have no excuses for how we turned the ball over tonight, and we’ve just got to be better. The good thing about basketball is you get to see another day and you get to play again. We got to be better for these next games coming up.”
on how he felt his team responded from a loss to Michigan on Tuesday night
“I feel like we fought. We’ve got to keep fighting. With the outcome, we’ve to get a W. We did not do that tonight, so we have to find a way to win.”
on how to overcome physicality in a basketball game
“Keep fighting. This is tough. This is the Big Ten. I played in the Big 12 last year and that was a tough conference and they didn’t call fouls. And in this conference, they’re not calling fouls either. So we have got to be the tough, aggressive team, and we have to play scrappier.”
on what goes through his mind when his head coach gets ejected
“We’ve got to have his back, the same way that he has our back. You know, we tried a little bit, but we have to have more firepower than that earlier in the game as well. That starts with like you said, the turnovers, and we need more deflections as a team, and we have to get back to that number one defense thing that we are. And in these two games, we have not been showing that. We’ve got to get back to that.”
on freshman guard Trent Perry’s performance
“Trent has been working hard. You know, as a freshman it’s tough and it’s tough at his position as well. But he came out here ready to help this team, and I thought he did a good job for us. But it’s the same thing, we need results to win. So as a collective group, we have to be better as a team to win.”
UCLA senior Kobe Johnson
on the Bruins having committed far more turnovers than usual
“It’s just being careless with the ball. That’s really all it is. We have got to be strong with the ball. We know what type of league this is and how teams will play us, so we have got to be able to take care of the ball.”
on how the Bruins responded to the physicality in this game
“Yeah so in the second half, we started off pretty well and we were able to match the physicality a little bit. But we just never got over that hump. We kind of let them push us around and we were not making anything difficult for them. We kind of just let them be comfortable. WE have to change that on defense.”
on how the team needs to regroup and forge ahead
“It’s never easy to take three losses, but we’ve got to move onto the next one. We have to stay together as a team and keep pushing forward. It’s exactly what this league is about and it’s as good league, from top to bottom. Every game is going to be a difficult game. We have to stick together as a team and we have to try and win this next one.”
Maryland 79, UCLA 61
College Park, Md. (Xfinity Center)
January 10, 2025
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
on having challenged his players two days ago and how he believes they responded
“They’re trying, they’re trying. We just turned the ball over. You’ve got no chance. If you turn the ball over the way that we did tonight, and in defense of my guys, I did not think we were given any chance to win in the second half. I let Jeff Anderson know and I hit the showers.”
on a conversation he had with that referee midway through the second half
“Yeah, I told him that you’ve got to give us a chance. You are not giving us a chance to win. You’ve got to give us a chance to win.”
on if this was the first time that he has been ejected from a game as a head coach
“It was an accident [the last time it occurred]. So this is the only time where I tried to get thrown out, I had had enough. I’m tired of it. I know that we’re the outsider – us, SC and Oregon, but that was ridiculous. And that doesn’t take anything away from Maryland. They’re a very good team at home. But you know, I’ve got to defend my players. If you can just mug guys, chop their arms off and throw them out of the way, it is hard to run any offense. That being said, there are other things. We have regressed. I kind of addressed that the other night. It’s a mindset, it’s a mindset with all teams and all players. It’s a mindset. You have to be – to be a great defensive team, you have got to be totally committed to it. It’s not easy, especially on the road.”
on UCLA committing 21 turnovers at Maryland
“I thought that we were sloppy to start the game. Again, I’m going to say this. I thought we were sloppy to start the game. Now in the second half the game got to a point where nothing was being called and we were not tough enough. That being said in defense of my players, I don’t think that we were having much of a chance. You are getting grabbed, thrown, chopped or whatever, it’s hard. So, in defense of my players on that. Now in the first half, it was a much cleaner game, at 40-36 at halftime, but it became, they just were not going to let us run anything, whatever it was. I let Jeff know and that was that. That’s life, especially when you are the outsider. That’s life in the Big Ten. You get on the road against a team that is 1-3 in the league but they’re really a top 25 team, do you think, I mean they’re going to do whatever they’re going to do. And we needed some stronger officials on the game in my opinion, but we needed to be stronger with the ball. IN defense of my players, we only had one day to prepare. We had to travel five-hour 50-minute flight, they got home Sunday, and had two extra days, and now Rutgers is sitting at home and they have one extra day. I have not mapped this out, but I sure hope it swings our way at some point.”
on clarifying postgame comments he made after UCLA lost to Michigan on Tuesday
“My house is getting real close to being evacuated. For us, you don’t live where we live, it is literally an unbelievably horrible situation, OK? We lost the other night [Tuesday]. I went home and packed, and bags are still by the door at my house with valuables and things like that. That is my only concern. What’s our record? [11-5] We are in a tough stretch of games and we’ve got to dig in. I knew that it would be tough the first year in the Big Ten. It is what it is.”
on fears about various neighborhoods in Southern California having to fight ongoing wildfires
“Yeah, well there are fires that are coming over Mulholland, to Encino. So when I got thrown out, I immediately went to my phone. Watch Duty, it’s an app called Watch Duty and it gives you alerts and it is saving lives, that app is saving lives. I was texting Chrissy at my house, my de facto wife and longtime girlfriend to make sure that they’re OK and everybody is ready to go. I have people in that locker room, people had to evacuate yesterday, who are here on our travel party. It’s as bad as it can be.”
on where his team goes from here and perseveres
“The basketball stuff is secondary, to be honest with you. Kevin [Willard] does a great job. They’ve got a hell of a team. And I knew that it was going to be a real tough one. We caught a bad break to open up at Nebraska without Eric Dailey and William Kyle. That hurt us and we couldn’t make a shot. If we could have got that game, but it is what it is. At UCLA, you’ve just got to keep trying to get better. And in this league, you remember my old Big East days, I have been in these bloodbath leagues before. You have got to get through it and get to the NCAA Tournament. Everything else, like where you finish in it, that doesn’t matter. That’s how you just got to keep fighting through it. You’re going to have runs like this. It’s inevitable, unless you have a great team.”
UCLA sophomore Eric Dailey Jr.
on the wildfires that have spread through neighborhoods in the greater Los Angeles arena
“Luckily, my house is safe. But you can’t say the same for everybody right now. It’s a tough situation right now. A Lot of people having to evacuating, a lot of people who are losing their homes. I’ve never seen nothing like it. I am from Florida and we have hurricanes, but with fires, it’s a whole different animal. I pray for the families who are going through this and I hope that we can get the city back together.”
on UCLA committing 21 turnovers
“We just can’t be that team. We are normally the team getting others to turn the ball over. That was not us tonight. We have no excuses for how we turned the ball over tonight, and we’ve just got to be better. The good thing about basketball is you get to see another day and you get to play again. We got to be better for these next games coming up.”
on how he felt his team responded from a loss to Michigan on Tuesday night
“I feel like we fought. We’ve got to keep fighting. With the outcome, we’ve to get a W. We did not do that tonight, so we have to find a way to win.”
on how to overcome physicality in a basketball game
“Keep fighting. This is tough. This is the Big Ten. I played in the Big 12 last year and that was a tough conference and they didn’t call fouls. And in this conference, they’re not calling fouls either. So we have got to be the tough, aggressive team, and we have to play scrappier.”
on what goes through his mind when his head coach gets ejected
“We’ve got to have his back, the same way that he has our back. You know, we tried a little bit, but we have to have more firepower than that earlier in the game as well. That starts with like you said, the turnovers, and we need more deflections as a team, and we have to get back to that number one defense thing that we are. And in these two games, we have not been showing that. We’ve got to get back to that.”
on freshman guard Trent Perry’s performance
“Trent has been working hard. You know, as a freshman it’s tough and it’s tough at his position as well. But he came out here ready to help this team, and I thought he did a good job for us. But it’s the same thing, we need results to win. So as a collective group, we have to be better as a team to win.”
UCLA senior Kobe Johnson
on the Bruins having committed far more turnovers than usual
“It’s just being careless with the ball. That’s really all it is. We have got to be strong with the ball. We know what type of league this is and how teams will play us, so we have got to be able to take care of the ball.”
on how the Bruins responded to the physicality in this game
“Yeah so in the second half, we started off pretty well and we were able to match the physicality a little bit. But we just never got over that hump. We kind of let them push us around and we were not making anything difficult for them. We kind of just let them be comfortable. WE have to change that on defense.”
on how the team needs to regroup and forge ahead
“It’s never easy to take three losses, but we’ve got to move onto the next one. We have to stay together as a team and keep pushing forward. It’s exactly what this league is about and it’s as good league, from top to bottom. Every game is going to be a difficult game. We have to stick together as a team and we have to try and win this next one.”