Postgame Quotes – UCLA 94, UC Irvine 64
POSTGAME QUOTES – Exhibition Game
UCLA 94, UC Irvine 64
Los Angeles, Calif. (at Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom Financial)
October 28, 2025
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
opening statement
“Obviously, I was happy to get a lot of guys minutes. I figured it was no use playing Donny [Dent] in the second half. I had to play him the whole first half because the other two guys kept fouling. So, he got enough out of tonight, and the chance to get Trent [Perry] a lot of minutes. He’s a young guy, he’s still good, he’s got to learn he’s not going to make the NBA in one night. He puts too much pressure on himself. He’s a great kid though. He’s going to be a great player; he wants to play well so bad. That’s a good thing; you can deal with a guy who cares too much. It’s the guys who don’t care that’ll get you fired. Trent cares, so it’s good to get him a lot of minutes, get him out there, because you’ve got to realize you’re going to have nights; Tyler [Bilodeau] was one for seven at San Diego State, it just happens. Tonight, he’s eight for 10. So, everybody’s still a work in progress guys. I know the score got out of hand; at some point we were up 43. So, they don’t come down and just throw one pass and shoot. They come down and run a play, and if it doesn’t work, they’ll run another pick-and-roll, everything they do they make him defend. When we broke down, they couldn’t shoot. They couldn’t hurt us when they did put it down. They executed, they found the open man a lot, we had some breakdowns caused by their organization, their coaching, and their execution. When it happened, they just weren’t able to make us pay to stay in the game. That being said, we have to give our guys a lot of credit, they came out ready to play. It’s been hard for us, AP [Anthony Peoples Jr.] has been out, his knees have been bothering him. Obviously, Eric [Dailey Jr.] has been out. Donny got sick, missed a day. So, they saw one of our practices in the last week, because it’s nowhere near what it used to be. We just don’t have enough bodies. So, we try to just do a lot of teaching without wearing Tyler and Skyy [Clark] and those guys down because it’s a lot of wear. Obviously happy with Xavier Booker, I know you’re probably going to ask about him.”
on Donovan Dent’s performance
“He had eight assists and one turnover tonight. He had three deflections. I told him to get a foul just to show me that you care about defense. He’s like a coach, so he knows we’re kidding, but at least he got a foul. He didn’t get any at San Diego State. He’s improved immensely, but real Donny hasn’t started yet. But I tell you, on this team, he does not need to be superman. I think there’s times, because he had to do it at times last year for his team, he tried to put the cape on. And there’ll be times where maybe he has to do that here, but Skyy Clark is as good of a college guard as you’re going to play with. I told you guys last year that it was coming. I can’t imagine what that kid has been through. Now that he's back home in California and he’s got his personal life settled, sadly so, with the passing of his dad Kenny. But with his family closer, his brothers and sisters closer, he can just focus on basketball. He can score whenever he feels like.”
on Eric Freeney
“He’s a young kid. One thing about him, he’s tough. He had great defensive play, he had two steals and a blocked shot. With this team it is going to be hard for him to get a lot of minutes. But when he gets his minutes he has to make open shots, and play great defense and rebound. Our rebounding tonight was obviously way better than it was at San Diego State. Coach Turner is upset, I talked to him at the half court. He’s done an unbelievable job, he’s a great coach. The backboard is what he’s upset about, that’s what I’m most happy about. I worry at times on just relying scoring with one shot cause of our talent. Jamar showed you 13 and 10 and three steals.”
on Jamar Brown’s play
“With Jamar Brown you never have to coach effort or attitude. Jamar Brown plays at 100%, I could not ask him to play harder than he plays. These guys who just walked in, they both need to play harder on defense, and they can. Jamar can’t, he can play smarter at times, but his effort is always at maximum and his attitude is always as good as you could ever ask for.”
on the team’s shooting
“First of all, both of our big guys can shoot. In a horse game they are as good as some of these other guys, or better. Especially in Book’s case, with him playing the five, there are advantages. Tyler wanted to play the four, I said that’s great, just know you aren’t going to be as open as much. When you play the five, most big guys are going to let you shoot. So he is going to be more open than he ever was at Michigan State, and you saw that tonight. We told him it was going to happen, and let it fly. With Tyler, he is still figuring out where his shots are going to come from at the four. He has to have more movement, and getting himself open. You can only work on so many things, so we’ve been trying to work on our flow, our half court offense. The way we play defense, they’re not getting a lot of post-ups in practice. We’re going to need that, from both of them. We’re going to need to get the ball pointedly inside in our half-court set, knowing it’s an advantage for us. We haven’t done a lot of that in practice, we need to get better at that.”
on Eric Dailey Jr’s health
“I would say, he was on the court today, and it’s just day by day. He’s day by day. I won’t let him play until he’s comfortable, and he needs to feel comfortable. It’s a long season, we have a lot of guys. I’d say he is doubtful. We have four practices to get him ready and I don’t know if that is enough. He’s too big a part of our team. As good as we look at times, you have to remember he is not out there. Not only is he not out there as a really talented player, he’s not out there as a guy who knows how to play at UCLA. That’s where Jamar has done such a great job, because he looks like he’s been in our program. But, I would say doubtful. He strained his knee, there’s no structural damage. He had a bone bruise and there is swelling so you can’t really advance him until he can do stuff without the knee swelling. It’s just based off of what he can handle, and there are days where he had the swelling backing down. But he is progressing. He’s at that point where he’s starting to really progress.”
Senior forward Tyler Bilodeau
on who helped him get his shooting stroke back
“It was Coach (Cronin) for sure. I do a lot of shooting work with Trey Doty, one of our new assistants, but Coach took me after practice. My feet were getting kind of too narrow, so he put a towel in between my feet and kept passing me the ball and just catch-and-shoot threes.”
on how long he worked on those shooting drills
“I would say it was about 15-ish minutes after practice. But I was kind of working on it in the days after.”
on how his shooting stroke felt tonight
“Yeah, it felt good.”
on his transition to playing the 4
“I think it’s been good so far. Like Coach said, I’m still trying to find where I’m going to get my shots a little bit. But I feel more natural in the 4 spot. It’s great having a center like Book [Xavier Booker] being able to play with it. It’s been good so far. Just got to keep working at it.”
on Jamar Brown filling in for Eric Dailey Jr.
“I think Jamar has been great. Every single day he brings 100 percent. We see him rebound like that every single day. We know what he can do. He can shoot the ball really well. Great teammate. It’s great to have him this year. Like I said, he works unbelievably hard.”
on if the offense feels faster compared to last year
“It’s for sure faster. Everyone can run, everyone can shoot 1-through-5. We’re trying to get rebounds and get out and push it in transition, and having a guy like Donovan Dent, he can breakdown any defense coming off screens and 1-on-1s. Like you guys saw out there, [he’s] and unbelievable passer. Just having a guy like that spacing the floor and running, that’s how we want to play this year for sure.”
Junior forward/center Xavier Booker
on confident he feels
“I mean it feels great. Obviously, it’s new beginnings for me. Man, I’ve put it in a lot of work this offseason and just getting comfortable with the guys. Just earning the trust of my coaches, teammates, everybody around the building. Definitely the past few months I’ve seen a lot of improvement in my game and that’s obviously built confidence through practice. Today, I felt comfortable and pretty confident, just going out there and trying to play free not overthinking things. Just playing how I know I can play.”
on how the team feels six days out from opening tip
“Personally, I think we are in a good spot as a team. We’ve put in a lot of work every day defensively and offensively. We’ve spent a lot of time working on a lot of different things. I feel pretty confident in our team, especially going into the first game next week.”
on working on his post-up game
“Yeah, I feel like that’s something that’s kind of always been in my game whether it’s posting up or just attacking off the dribble. Like you said, I’m still working on my back to the basket aspect of my game. It’s a work in progress and I’m getting better every day with it.”
on the pick-and-roll action with Donovan Dent tonight
“I feel like it worked pretty well. Especially these last few months, the coaches really worked on me making sure I’m hitting guys on screens and getting the right angles on my screening. I feel like I’ve gotten a lot better at it as the months go on.”
UCLA 94, UC Irvine 64
Los Angeles, Calif. (at Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom Financial)
October 28, 2025
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
opening statement
“Obviously, I was happy to get a lot of guys minutes. I figured it was no use playing Donny [Dent] in the second half. I had to play him the whole first half because the other two guys kept fouling. So, he got enough out of tonight, and the chance to get Trent [Perry] a lot of minutes. He’s a young guy, he’s still good, he’s got to learn he’s not going to make the NBA in one night. He puts too much pressure on himself. He’s a great kid though. He’s going to be a great player; he wants to play well so bad. That’s a good thing; you can deal with a guy who cares too much. It’s the guys who don’t care that’ll get you fired. Trent cares, so it’s good to get him a lot of minutes, get him out there, because you’ve got to realize you’re going to have nights; Tyler [Bilodeau] was one for seven at San Diego State, it just happens. Tonight, he’s eight for 10. So, everybody’s still a work in progress guys. I know the score got out of hand; at some point we were up 43. So, they don’t come down and just throw one pass and shoot. They come down and run a play, and if it doesn’t work, they’ll run another pick-and-roll, everything they do they make him defend. When we broke down, they couldn’t shoot. They couldn’t hurt us when they did put it down. They executed, they found the open man a lot, we had some breakdowns caused by their organization, their coaching, and their execution. When it happened, they just weren’t able to make us pay to stay in the game. That being said, we have to give our guys a lot of credit, they came out ready to play. It’s been hard for us, AP [Anthony Peoples Jr.] has been out, his knees have been bothering him. Obviously, Eric [Dailey Jr.] has been out. Donny got sick, missed a day. So, they saw one of our practices in the last week, because it’s nowhere near what it used to be. We just don’t have enough bodies. So, we try to just do a lot of teaching without wearing Tyler and Skyy [Clark] and those guys down because it’s a lot of wear. Obviously happy with Xavier Booker, I know you’re probably going to ask about him.”
on Donovan Dent’s performance
“He had eight assists and one turnover tonight. He had three deflections. I told him to get a foul just to show me that you care about defense. He’s like a coach, so he knows we’re kidding, but at least he got a foul. He didn’t get any at San Diego State. He’s improved immensely, but real Donny hasn’t started yet. But I tell you, on this team, he does not need to be superman. I think there’s times, because he had to do it at times last year for his team, he tried to put the cape on. And there’ll be times where maybe he has to do that here, but Skyy Clark is as good of a college guard as you’re going to play with. I told you guys last year that it was coming. I can’t imagine what that kid has been through. Now that he's back home in California and he’s got his personal life settled, sadly so, with the passing of his dad Kenny. But with his family closer, his brothers and sisters closer, he can just focus on basketball. He can score whenever he feels like.”
on Eric Freeney
“He’s a young kid. One thing about him, he’s tough. He had great defensive play, he had two steals and a blocked shot. With this team it is going to be hard for him to get a lot of minutes. But when he gets his minutes he has to make open shots, and play great defense and rebound. Our rebounding tonight was obviously way better than it was at San Diego State. Coach Turner is upset, I talked to him at the half court. He’s done an unbelievable job, he’s a great coach. The backboard is what he’s upset about, that’s what I’m most happy about. I worry at times on just relying scoring with one shot cause of our talent. Jamar showed you 13 and 10 and three steals.”
on Jamar Brown’s play
“With Jamar Brown you never have to coach effort or attitude. Jamar Brown plays at 100%, I could not ask him to play harder than he plays. These guys who just walked in, they both need to play harder on defense, and they can. Jamar can’t, he can play smarter at times, but his effort is always at maximum and his attitude is always as good as you could ever ask for.”
on the team’s shooting
“First of all, both of our big guys can shoot. In a horse game they are as good as some of these other guys, or better. Especially in Book’s case, with him playing the five, there are advantages. Tyler wanted to play the four, I said that’s great, just know you aren’t going to be as open as much. When you play the five, most big guys are going to let you shoot. So he is going to be more open than he ever was at Michigan State, and you saw that tonight. We told him it was going to happen, and let it fly. With Tyler, he is still figuring out where his shots are going to come from at the four. He has to have more movement, and getting himself open. You can only work on so many things, so we’ve been trying to work on our flow, our half court offense. The way we play defense, they’re not getting a lot of post-ups in practice. We’re going to need that, from both of them. We’re going to need to get the ball pointedly inside in our half-court set, knowing it’s an advantage for us. We haven’t done a lot of that in practice, we need to get better at that.”
on Eric Dailey Jr’s health
“I would say, he was on the court today, and it’s just day by day. He’s day by day. I won’t let him play until he’s comfortable, and he needs to feel comfortable. It’s a long season, we have a lot of guys. I’d say he is doubtful. We have four practices to get him ready and I don’t know if that is enough. He’s too big a part of our team. As good as we look at times, you have to remember he is not out there. Not only is he not out there as a really talented player, he’s not out there as a guy who knows how to play at UCLA. That’s where Jamar has done such a great job, because he looks like he’s been in our program. But, I would say doubtful. He strained his knee, there’s no structural damage. He had a bone bruise and there is swelling so you can’t really advance him until he can do stuff without the knee swelling. It’s just based off of what he can handle, and there are days where he had the swelling backing down. But he is progressing. He’s at that point where he’s starting to really progress.”
Senior forward Tyler Bilodeau
on who helped him get his shooting stroke back
“It was Coach (Cronin) for sure. I do a lot of shooting work with Trey Doty, one of our new assistants, but Coach took me after practice. My feet were getting kind of too narrow, so he put a towel in between my feet and kept passing me the ball and just catch-and-shoot threes.”
on how long he worked on those shooting drills
“I would say it was about 15-ish minutes after practice. But I was kind of working on it in the days after.”
on how his shooting stroke felt tonight
“Yeah, it felt good.”
on his transition to playing the 4
“I think it’s been good so far. Like Coach said, I’m still trying to find where I’m going to get my shots a little bit. But I feel more natural in the 4 spot. It’s great having a center like Book [Xavier Booker] being able to play with it. It’s been good so far. Just got to keep working at it.”
on Jamar Brown filling in for Eric Dailey Jr.
“I think Jamar has been great. Every single day he brings 100 percent. We see him rebound like that every single day. We know what he can do. He can shoot the ball really well. Great teammate. It’s great to have him this year. Like I said, he works unbelievably hard.”
on if the offense feels faster compared to last year
“It’s for sure faster. Everyone can run, everyone can shoot 1-through-5. We’re trying to get rebounds and get out and push it in transition, and having a guy like Donovan Dent, he can breakdown any defense coming off screens and 1-on-1s. Like you guys saw out there, [he’s] and unbelievable passer. Just having a guy like that spacing the floor and running, that’s how we want to play this year for sure.”
Junior forward/center Xavier Booker
on confident he feels
“I mean it feels great. Obviously, it’s new beginnings for me. Man, I’ve put it in a lot of work this offseason and just getting comfortable with the guys. Just earning the trust of my coaches, teammates, everybody around the building. Definitely the past few months I’ve seen a lot of improvement in my game and that’s obviously built confidence through practice. Today, I felt comfortable and pretty confident, just going out there and trying to play free not overthinking things. Just playing how I know I can play.”
on how the team feels six days out from opening tip
“Personally, I think we are in a good spot as a team. We’ve put in a lot of work every day defensively and offensively. We’ve spent a lot of time working on a lot of different things. I feel pretty confident in our team, especially going into the first game next week.”
on working on his post-up game
“Yeah, I feel like that’s something that’s kind of always been in my game whether it’s posting up or just attacking off the dribble. Like you said, I’m still working on my back to the basket aspect of my game. It’s a work in progress and I’m getting better every day with it.”
on the pick-and-roll action with Donovan Dent tonight
“I feel like it worked pretty well. Especially these last few months, the coaches really worked on me making sure I’m hitting guys on screens and getting the right angles on my screening. I feel like I’ve gotten a lot better at it as the months go on.”