Postgame Quotes – UCLA 94, Iowa 70
POSTGAME QUOTES
UCLA 94, Iowa 70
Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom
January 17, 2025
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
opening statement
“Great game for us considering what we’ve been through with the situation here at home. We needed a sellout tonight with our student body, but they’re on break because of the worst tragedy in the history of our city, so it’s understandable. I want to thank our band that was here and everybody who took the time to come tonight. We needed your support, and I know everybody’s got something else on their minds, but the support is much appreciated. Our first half, really the first 30 minutes, were about as good as we could play. We got to the point where we got up 36. This team lost at the buzzer at Michigan. They got a tough foul call at the buzzer at Michigan, and they’ve beaten a lot of good teams. Excellent win for us, we showed what we’re capable of defensively. In the first half, we held the best shooting team in the country to only 38% and 3 made threes. The guys did a great job with patience on offense tonight and on the passing, we haven’t had 28 assists in a long time.
on the team’s ball movement
“We talked a lot about watching Iowa and the scouting report. Scouting them helped us. They drive to pass and they make you defend. Our pressure bothered them, and I think we rattled them early. But if you watch them at their best, but we watched their film and looked at their patience. We’ve been too stagnant on offense for the last couple of weeks, and our quality of shots have not been good. Our shot quality in the first half was tremendous.”
on the performances of Dylan Andrews and William Kyle III
“Tremendous. He played great. I said we had to get better point guard play, and today him and Skyy combined for 25. I said Will Kyle or Aday had to be a factor. I went with Will tonight because of their spread offense and how much they try to run up and down and spread you out. Will is the better defender, he can guard the rim, he can guard the 3-point line, and he can run faster than Aday. Will was playing so well. There’s a thing in basketball, you want minutes, what about you earn them? Gregg Popovich had a great line, ‘Make me play you’. And Will deserved to keep playing, he made me keep him in, and he played great. The Big Ten league is a big, strong league, and we’ve struggled with that. That’s what we got him for, and we desperately need him.”
on Eric Dailey’s performance
“Eric Dailey, by the way, was tremendous. I told him to change the mask. We were on the road, and I asked him where his mask was, and he said he left it at home. I asked, ‘Who would make every shot and switch masks? Did Batman switch masks?’ He was playing like a superhero, and he changed his mask.”
on snapping a four-game losing streak with the win against Iowa
“We talked a lot about it. We’ve got to coach it better. I love my staff, I have a great staff, but I’m allowed to be frustrated with them. And I’m frustrated with myself, so anybody who thinks I’m not accountable doesn’t know me or is just a clickbait person. Nobody is harder on themselves in coaching than me. I can’t eat, I can’t sleep. I don’t know how after NBA games they go out to eat. It’s impossible for me, I’m ready to jump off of a bridge blaming myself.”
on tonight’s rebounding performance
“We’ve got to coach rebounding better on both ends. Tonight, we missed 22 shots, and we got half of them. We’ll never lose another game if we get 50 percent of our misses.”
on having a strong defensive mindset
“I get in here and I talk about mindset. You’re not going to be a good defender if you only act like you care. Same with rebounding. Some of it is intelligence or certain gifts, I think of Kevon Looney. The guy never takes a jump shot, and he can’t be taller than 6-8, but he has played center on multiple championship teams. That’s because his mind is on his job – rebound, defend. Sometimes it’s hard, and that’s the portal era. It took Jaime four years to defend so hard without fouling. Now you’ve got guys that are on their first year with us, it’s a different era. But you’re not going to be good at anything unless you’re focused on it.”
on traveling from the West coast to the East coast
“Good luck West going East. Ask me UCLA’s record, east of the Mississippi in the last 20 years. When I got the job, I looked it up for scheduling purposes, and it’s under .500. We have to go back four times. The other teams have to come to Los Angeles one time in the whole year, and they don’t even have to switch hotels. Meanwhile, we’ve seen the Statue of Liberty two times in three weeks, when we were landing. And we’ve still got to go back, and then we have to go back [to Indiana] for the Big Ten Tournament.”
UCLA forward William Kyle III
on his performance and energy tonight
“I would attribute it to practice. We’ve all been challenging each other on a daily basis since our losing streak. We know that’s not the expectation at UCLA. I’ve been pushing it in practice and I feel like it kind of showed up for me in the game today. We were playing unselfish, and that was a big part of today.”
on the team’s play in high post
“In the high post, we were just trying to find the open spot. If they came to me, I tried to find the next open man, and if it didn’t come to me, I tried to make a play around the rim. I know a few times someone caught it in the out of bounds play and we had to drop set because everyone went to the shooter. We were looking at how they were guarding us and just making the right play.”
UCLA guard Skyy Clark
on the team’s elite shooting performance in the first half
“The team was just really hungry. We’ve had a lot of guys in the gym in the last few days back from our trip. We had a day off, but I walked in the gym to get shots up, and I see Eric and Will and Kobe in the gym, Baz’s in the gym, even the dudes who don’t play – the walk-ons and the redshirts were in the gym. It’s a different mindset, and it’s something we need to keep doing.”
on the team returning to winning
“It was super fun. You want to be on the winning side every time, even though most of the time that’s not possible. We’re trying to be a bright spot. We’ve got the fires going on in our city, and it’s taken effect on the whole entire city. People lost their homes. It’s good to know that we can be a little bright spot for the people watching.”
on Dylan Andrews’ performance
“We’ve been pushing as much confidence into Dylan as we can. I’ve played against Dylan since I was in fifth grade, and in middle and high school. We always talked about teaming up together. I know what he’s capable of doing and he had a great week of practice. He’s been in the gym and it shows. We’re all super happy for him to continue it. He averaged about 13 points last year. He can score, he can pass, he can defend, he can do a lot of things. We almost scored 100 points tonight, and he was a big contributor to that. It shows what he can do.”
UCLA forward Eric Dailey Jr.
on his role as a leader on the team
“I feel like our mindset shifted. I know we hit a wall as a team in the last four games. I was encouraging guys to be confident in themselves, and it looked like it worked, so I’m going to keep doing that.”
on switching back to the clear mask
“The black one was hard to see out of. It was cool for the pictures, but other than that. I can’t wait to get the mask off – it’s going to be scary.”
on the small parts of his game that contribute to winning
“I think it’s just effort. I try to play hard, I try to be all over the place. I talk to my teammates and my teammates put me in the right place. I think being active is the most important thing. That’s part of toughness, being active, vocal, and grimy. That’s what I bring to the table for this team.”
Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery
on UCLA’s shooting percentage
“They got it going early. They shot it well from the perimeter. Our ball-swing defense got better as the game went on. It wasn’t good early. I think our shot selection and our execution offensively, when they were hitting, was not what is needs to be, especially on the road.”
on UCLA making their first nine shots from the field
“They were really aggressive. They shot it well, not only inside, but also on the perimeter. I thought we worked really hard in practice the last couple of days, so I thought we would be better. We have to give them [UCLA] credit for it. We were better as the game went on, but we’ve got to be better at the start.”
on how the long flight home will benefit the team
“I think we have a really good group, guys with character and we have veteran guys. We will try to move on from what has not been a good trip and learn from some of the mistakes we’ve made. We’ll remain positive and I want them to remain positive with each other. We’ll start preparing for our next opponent and recognize the things that happened tonight that moving forward is not acceptable with regard to nine straight buckets to start the game [by UCLA]. Like I said before, minus 10 on the glass and we had uncharacteristic turnovers. We had nine turnovers out of our point guard position. Those guys are usually really good with the ball. We’ve got to be better there.”
UCLA 94, Iowa 70
Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom
January 17, 2025
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
opening statement
“Great game for us considering what we’ve been through with the situation here at home. We needed a sellout tonight with our student body, but they’re on break because of the worst tragedy in the history of our city, so it’s understandable. I want to thank our band that was here and everybody who took the time to come tonight. We needed your support, and I know everybody’s got something else on their minds, but the support is much appreciated. Our first half, really the first 30 minutes, were about as good as we could play. We got to the point where we got up 36. This team lost at the buzzer at Michigan. They got a tough foul call at the buzzer at Michigan, and they’ve beaten a lot of good teams. Excellent win for us, we showed what we’re capable of defensively. In the first half, we held the best shooting team in the country to only 38% and 3 made threes. The guys did a great job with patience on offense tonight and on the passing, we haven’t had 28 assists in a long time.
on the team’s ball movement
“We talked a lot about watching Iowa and the scouting report. Scouting them helped us. They drive to pass and they make you defend. Our pressure bothered them, and I think we rattled them early. But if you watch them at their best, but we watched their film and looked at their patience. We’ve been too stagnant on offense for the last couple of weeks, and our quality of shots have not been good. Our shot quality in the first half was tremendous.”
on the performances of Dylan Andrews and William Kyle III
“Tremendous. He played great. I said we had to get better point guard play, and today him and Skyy combined for 25. I said Will Kyle or Aday had to be a factor. I went with Will tonight because of their spread offense and how much they try to run up and down and spread you out. Will is the better defender, he can guard the rim, he can guard the 3-point line, and he can run faster than Aday. Will was playing so well. There’s a thing in basketball, you want minutes, what about you earn them? Gregg Popovich had a great line, ‘Make me play you’. And Will deserved to keep playing, he made me keep him in, and he played great. The Big Ten league is a big, strong league, and we’ve struggled with that. That’s what we got him for, and we desperately need him.”
on Eric Dailey’s performance
“Eric Dailey, by the way, was tremendous. I told him to change the mask. We were on the road, and I asked him where his mask was, and he said he left it at home. I asked, ‘Who would make every shot and switch masks? Did Batman switch masks?’ He was playing like a superhero, and he changed his mask.”
on snapping a four-game losing streak with the win against Iowa
“We talked a lot about it. We’ve got to coach it better. I love my staff, I have a great staff, but I’m allowed to be frustrated with them. And I’m frustrated with myself, so anybody who thinks I’m not accountable doesn’t know me or is just a clickbait person. Nobody is harder on themselves in coaching than me. I can’t eat, I can’t sleep. I don’t know how after NBA games they go out to eat. It’s impossible for me, I’m ready to jump off of a bridge blaming myself.”
on tonight’s rebounding performance
“We’ve got to coach rebounding better on both ends. Tonight, we missed 22 shots, and we got half of them. We’ll never lose another game if we get 50 percent of our misses.”
on having a strong defensive mindset
“I get in here and I talk about mindset. You’re not going to be a good defender if you only act like you care. Same with rebounding. Some of it is intelligence or certain gifts, I think of Kevon Looney. The guy never takes a jump shot, and he can’t be taller than 6-8, but he has played center on multiple championship teams. That’s because his mind is on his job – rebound, defend. Sometimes it’s hard, and that’s the portal era. It took Jaime four years to defend so hard without fouling. Now you’ve got guys that are on their first year with us, it’s a different era. But you’re not going to be good at anything unless you’re focused on it.”
on traveling from the West coast to the East coast
“Good luck West going East. Ask me UCLA’s record, east of the Mississippi in the last 20 years. When I got the job, I looked it up for scheduling purposes, and it’s under .500. We have to go back four times. The other teams have to come to Los Angeles one time in the whole year, and they don’t even have to switch hotels. Meanwhile, we’ve seen the Statue of Liberty two times in three weeks, when we were landing. And we’ve still got to go back, and then we have to go back [to Indiana] for the Big Ten Tournament.”
UCLA forward William Kyle III
on his performance and energy tonight
“I would attribute it to practice. We’ve all been challenging each other on a daily basis since our losing streak. We know that’s not the expectation at UCLA. I’ve been pushing it in practice and I feel like it kind of showed up for me in the game today. We were playing unselfish, and that was a big part of today.”
on the team’s play in high post
“In the high post, we were just trying to find the open spot. If they came to me, I tried to find the next open man, and if it didn’t come to me, I tried to make a play around the rim. I know a few times someone caught it in the out of bounds play and we had to drop set because everyone went to the shooter. We were looking at how they were guarding us and just making the right play.”
UCLA guard Skyy Clark
on the team’s elite shooting performance in the first half
“The team was just really hungry. We’ve had a lot of guys in the gym in the last few days back from our trip. We had a day off, but I walked in the gym to get shots up, and I see Eric and Will and Kobe in the gym, Baz’s in the gym, even the dudes who don’t play – the walk-ons and the redshirts were in the gym. It’s a different mindset, and it’s something we need to keep doing.”
on the team returning to winning
“It was super fun. You want to be on the winning side every time, even though most of the time that’s not possible. We’re trying to be a bright spot. We’ve got the fires going on in our city, and it’s taken effect on the whole entire city. People lost their homes. It’s good to know that we can be a little bright spot for the people watching.”
on Dylan Andrews’ performance
“We’ve been pushing as much confidence into Dylan as we can. I’ve played against Dylan since I was in fifth grade, and in middle and high school. We always talked about teaming up together. I know what he’s capable of doing and he had a great week of practice. He’s been in the gym and it shows. We’re all super happy for him to continue it. He averaged about 13 points last year. He can score, he can pass, he can defend, he can do a lot of things. We almost scored 100 points tonight, and he was a big contributor to that. It shows what he can do.”
UCLA forward Eric Dailey Jr.
on his role as a leader on the team
“I feel like our mindset shifted. I know we hit a wall as a team in the last four games. I was encouraging guys to be confident in themselves, and it looked like it worked, so I’m going to keep doing that.”
on switching back to the clear mask
“The black one was hard to see out of. It was cool for the pictures, but other than that. I can’t wait to get the mask off – it’s going to be scary.”
on the small parts of his game that contribute to winning
“I think it’s just effort. I try to play hard, I try to be all over the place. I talk to my teammates and my teammates put me in the right place. I think being active is the most important thing. That’s part of toughness, being active, vocal, and grimy. That’s what I bring to the table for this team.”
Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery
on UCLA’s shooting percentage
“They got it going early. They shot it well from the perimeter. Our ball-swing defense got better as the game went on. It wasn’t good early. I think our shot selection and our execution offensively, when they were hitting, was not what is needs to be, especially on the road.”
on UCLA making their first nine shots from the field
“They were really aggressive. They shot it well, not only inside, but also on the perimeter. I thought we worked really hard in practice the last couple of days, so I thought we would be better. We have to give them [UCLA] credit for it. We were better as the game went on, but we’ve got to be better at the start.”
on how the long flight home will benefit the team
“I think we have a really good group, guys with character and we have veteran guys. We will try to move on from what has not been a good trip and learn from some of the mistakes we’ve made. We’ll remain positive and I want them to remain positive with each other. We’ll start preparing for our next opponent and recognize the things that happened tonight that moving forward is not acceptable with regard to nine straight buckets to start the game [by UCLA]. Like I said before, minus 10 on the glass and we had uncharacteristic turnovers. We had nine turnovers out of our point guard position. Those guys are usually really good with the ball. We’ve got to be better there.”