Postgame Quotes - UCLA 90, Arizona State 77

POSTGAME QUOTES
UCLA 90, Arizona State 77
Los Angeles, Calif. (at Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom Financial)
December 17, 2025

Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
opening statement
“What a great defensive first half. Held them to 33 percent and 12 percent. They’ve got some guys that can score and are super fast. We had a tough whistle in my opinion, but obviously I’m biased towards my side. They shot 17 free throws in the second half, and they were trailing. We’ve got to get better defensively. We can’t give up 36 paint points, 18 layups. We can’t give up 51 paint and free throw points combined. We got away with it tonight because we scored 90.”

on Donovan Dent’s effectiveness on offense
“I knew this was going to be a good game for him. Just the style of play.”

on Dent’s confidence
I’ve just been trying to work with him on his shooting, and I’ve told him he just has to shoot when he’s open. I thought (Dent) and Skyy really played great. Trent was really good in his minutes. We’re going to have to play some three-guard lineup more. There were a lot of times where they were playing (Andrjia) Grbovic at the three at 6-11, so it’s hard to play three guards. He was too big for Jamar (Brown) a couple times. Right now, three guards might be our best lineup.(Xavier) Booker sprained his ankle in practice. Steven (Jamerson) got in foul trouble. Brandon (Williams) played 20 minutes; played some good, solid defense.”

on if the style of the game helped the offense have a good night
“They fly up and down. They’re a gamble team, they try to steal the ball from you and pressure you, and they play hard. It’s a faster game. There’s more transition, which I think helps a faster guard like Donovan Dent.”

on Skyy Clark’s three-point shooting
“He’s a great shooter. Numbers don’t lie. Every shooting drill we do is on the clock and we count shooting percentage. His numbers are as good as any player I’ve ever coached, including David Singleton. I’ve just got to get him more shots. I made the team tell him at halftime. I asked them, ‘Do you want (Clark) to pass up open shots?’ and they all screamed ‘No’ at him. He’s a great kid, he’s unselfish, but we’ve got to find a way to make sure we get him more shots.”

on the impact of Arizona State shooting so many free throws
“It puts a lot of stress on me. Some of those we made some bad fouls, some of those I can’t say what I really want to say. But they get to the line a lot.”

on Steven Jamerson’s play
“He’s just got to play without fouling. We need his defense, and we need his shot blocking. He had a couple big follow-up dunks on the break, but he got in foul trouble.”

on Brandon Williams’ play
“He does what I tell him to do. That’s a great thing for young kids out there. He does what I tell him to do, and he does it with toughness. It’s amazing how important that is. If you do what the coach tells you, he will play you over guys with more talent who won’t do what they tell them. On this team we’ve got enough talent, but we need somebody to do all the dirty work. We are in desperate need of that on this team.”

on if Williams can help with rim protection
“He’ll take a charge, and he won’t get out of the way. He’ll put his chest on a guy and won’t get backed down. We’ve got to continue to work with Steven and Booker on their post defense.”

thoughts on the team’s offense this season
“All I do is think about is how we lost three games and what I should’ve done. So asking me if I’m happy is probably a rhetorical question. You know I’m not. We’ve got some guys who can score. All we have to do is not take bad shots. We’ve got enough talent that if we play smart and play unselfish, that shouldn’t be a problem for us.”

UCLA senior guard Donovan Dent
on the confidence in his performance tonight
“Coach giving me confidence, it helps a lot when your team helps instill confidence in you behind your back.”

on any messages that stuck with him
“They all just told me ‘be yourself, we know who you are, you came here for a reason, just be you.’ That’s all you wanna hear from your teammates going through this stuff. Just absolutely, absolutely be there for you.”

on his aggressiveness tonight
“I saw how they were playing with defense in the five-man, and I feel like I kind of reject the wall screen a lot. When they would look away, there was a weak wall screen. I think I was kind of reading what they were doing and going with that. We knew they were gonna go heavy with the wall screens.”

on how he reminds himself of who he is
“I definitely go back and watch film. When you’re going through stuff like that, you kind of want to see what you could do again. Watching old highlights, old clips, remind you of what you can be and who you are. My family has been really supportive behind my back with that. They are constantly telling me, so it makes it easier to bounce back from stuff like that.”

on hearing the crowd’s early reaction to the play
“It’s amazing. There were actually two plays I think, one with the big man as well, I think that’s what you’re talking about. Skyy being up there too. It’s just a lot of fun when your teammates are out there having a blast. It makes the game fun, it makes you want to play more. It’s awesome.”

UCLA senior guard Skyy Clark
on what makes the team able to play at an elite level
“I think it's really important. We’re kind of at the head of the snake, and I think if we get the team going it’ll help the offense a lot. But honestly, we got so many dudes on the team who can score. Tyler had a big game for us, he’s had a bunch of big games for us. Booker’s had some good games for us. Trent Perry, he gave us some really good minutes tonight. It’s definitely important for us, but we got a lot of people that can score and do a lot of stuff.”

on how he’s feeling from the three point line
“Definitely feeling good. My teammates, they find me, and just trying to do my best to reward them and get them an assist.”

on what he saw from Brandon Williams example of toughness
“Some really good minutes on defense, on the boards, everything. He’s just like a disruptor, kind of like a Draymond Green. He’s a super important guy for us. The more we can get out of him, it’s only going to take our team further.”

Arizona State Head Coach Bobby Hurley
opening statement
“It just felt like we were chasing them all night. Our defense in the first half was a problem. We were in foul trouble and committing bad fouls. We gave away too many points at the free throw line. We just can’t give up ninety points against a caliber of a team like UCLA, especially them being here at home. We had a couple of stretches in the second half, but it just wasn’t enough.”

on how the team never gave up
“I really liked our approach in the second half. We had an eight to 10 minute stretch in which we had some good opportunities. We just didn’t have enough answers on defense, we have a ways to go to reach that plateau.”

on if he was pleased about the overall game
“You never want to lose one game, but I was pleased with the effort. I just want us to try to string together some wins. It goes to say a lot that we are losing to a team that played Arizona until the end and played well against Gonzaga. We just have to play good teams and get exposed and get punched in the mouth. Tonight, we kind of got punched in the mouth, but we will learn from this.”

Recent Results

Upcoming Events

Postgame Quotes - UCLA 90, Arizona State 77

University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics

Postgame Quotes - UCLA 90, Arizona State 77