Postgame Quotes - UCLA 108, Cal Poly 87

POSTGAME QUOTES
UCLA 108, Cal Poly 87
Los Angeles, Calif. (Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom Financial)
December 19, 2025

Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
opening statement
“I’d like to give Cal Poly credit. They came in ready to play and Mike did a good job. Obviously, the kids made a lot of shots in the first half. You know they made it hard for us to play a center in this game, and you can see why I couldn’t. They put five guys behind the line. It was just drives and kick, but our guys weren’t ready for that. I don’t think they understood the extent of Cal Poly’s commitment to that style. Obviously, we have a scouting report, we watch film, and we talk about it. I told them that they’re going to shoot more threes tonight then they usually shoot, because that’s their best chance to win. Our guys rallied up and give them credit. They tightened up the defense in the second half, and we forced 24 turnovers and built up a 27-point lead. I’m upset with the guys at the end of the game for giving up baskets because it hurts your metrics. I don’t believe in get in and having fun. You have a responsibility to get in there and don’t give up baskets and don’t give up threes.”

on defensive struggles in the first half and fouling three-point shooters
“Fouling three-point shooters is the worst play in basketball. I’ve gone literally years with it happening zero times. Nobody coaches that more than me – not just the three, but the jump shooter as well. You are not allowed to foul a jump shooter if you play for me, ever. If you’re that close, then that means the shot is contested. You can deduce that – so I don’t care if he makes it, because he’s shooting a contested shot. “

on Xavier Booker’s playing time and having rolled an ankle several days ago
“No, I wasn’t concerned, but I was trying to play the most mobile team we could play.”

on Tyler Bilodeau’s free throw line success
“It’s about time. I could do that in this suit I have on now. He’s shooting almost 90 percent, which is 20 percent more than last year and he should be. He was off balance last year. That’s why he missed a lot of free throws. A lot of his misses were long last year. He would fall forward on his follow-throughs and he would be crossing the line. We have worked on his balance. He’s an unbelievable kid and he’s worked hard at it, so he’s reaping the benefits.”

on Skyy Clark’s hot shooting
“I just want him to shoot the ball and stay aggressive. I don’t want him counting misses. We got guys on this team who need to give us toughness, defense and rebounding. We got guys who can score as we had three players who scored a combined 70 points tonight. The other guys need to give us toughness, defense, and rebounding for us to win. I thought that Eric [Dailey Jr.] did a great job. I thought that’s where his focus was. He had number 10 for most of the second half, and we tried to keep him on 10. He said ‘Coach, I’m just gonna stop him. That’s all I’m going to worry about.’”

on the team’s overall defensive performance
“There’s obviously some things that I am not happy about. Our preparation wasn’t what it needed to be. I don’t believe in ‘We told them’. That’s how you get fired. Your job is to make sure your team does what you tell them to do, by any means necessary. We failed tonight. I’m not happy with myself or my staff for the way we came out defensively. From the first three they hit, we helped off, and the guy banged it in. That’s what they want you to do. We didn’t get our point across tonight. The guys had a great attitude at halftime and did a great job adjusting.”

on what was said at halftime
“I give our players credit. They understood. And they were talking amongst each other. They understood some of the mistakes they made. Trent [Perry] wasn’t trying to block the two threes where he fouled. He was trying to contest, but when you jump and land it his space, they’re going call it. You can’t jump towards the guy. I thought our effort to guard the ball and turn them over was much better in the second half. That’s how we got out on the break and got them uncomfortable. We were extremely soft on the ball and soft in the gaps in the first half. It’s my biggest challenge with this team. Finding a guy or two, where their mind is on defense. Skyy’s [Clark] mind always is and his effort is always maximum. He fouls too much sometimes, when I don’t need him to. You have intuition as a coach. You can tell. I just told Eric [Dailey Jr.] I don’t care what the stat sheet says. I could tell his focus in the second half with stopping number 10 and playing defense. I can tell what a guy’s minds is, and that’s the art of coaching. You can throw the stat sheet away. You can tell when a guy is locked in, his effort levels, you can tell where a guy’s mind is at.”

on Jamar Brown’s contributions
“Jamar, obviously, his three-point percentage did not reflect, until the last couple games, the great shooter that he is. His percentage is now catching up to how good of a shooter his is. Defending without fouling, for him, because his effort is always good. Sometimes it puts him into bad fouls, a scenario when we struggle. Sometimes he’s overaggressive. He was awesome. In his minutes, I would bet his minutes were a huge plus. There’s a reason I started him in the second half. A lot of games left. You dream your whole about the opportunity that he's got, right? And that is what I try to tell him and Donny [Dent]. You can sit there and seize it or watch it pass you by. I see it every day from a talent standpoint.”

UCLA senior Skyy Clark
on Coach Cronin telling him to stay aggressive, and how that’s impacted his mindset
“Honestly, just listening to that. My teammates trust in me, and they’re finding me for open looks. I’m just trying to make their job easier.”

on what’s caused improvement in scoring
“Staying at a place and having the same coaching staff that trusts me and pours into me has been huge. I’m at the same school as last year, so I’m used to the system and the coaching staff. I’ve been with some of the guys who had been here previously. I think that helps a lot for sure.”

on finding Tyler Bilodeau early when he has mismatches in the post
“He just says that at his position, there aren’t a lot of people, if anyone at all, that can guard him down low. Just making sure we find him down there. It’s a bucket nine out of ten times.”

UCLA senior Tyler Bilodeau
on what has contributed to his increase in shooting percentages
“Just the coaching staff and my teammates believing in me. Trusting my work and trusting my teammates. Tjat os all I can do to try and win games.”

on his change to his free throw shooting routine
“Yeah, I changed my free throw routine a little bit from last year. Worked a lot with my guys Trey Doty and Joe Pasternak. Just trying to stay balanced and finding my target on the rim early.”

UCLA senior Donovan Dent
on what the team needs to do to become a better defensive team
“We stepped it up in my opinion, in the second half. We didn’t come out flat like we did in the first half. They had eight or nine threes in the first half. That was the majority of their field goals. We’ve got to come out into the game with better defense, but the second half we stepped it up.”

on coming out flatter against weaker opponents
“I definitely think that’s fair to say. Again, that’s just something we need to harp on as a team. These teams are coming to play. Cal Poly came to play today, all the credit to them. We’ve just got to come out from the jump.”

on what he’s learned from Coach Cronin and defensive principles
“I think he just wants me to be active at all times. I tend to relax a little bit when I’m off the ball, and he’s been trying to change that with me. He thinks my on-ball defense could be a bit more disruptive, and I think I did a better job of that tonight. Just listening to him and getting active in the lanes and getting steals. I think it's more so just being disruptive all around the game, not just taking breaks when I’m off-ball.”

on his season high in assists and trusting his teammates
“It’s pretty easy when I’m kicking the ball to a guy shooting 50 percent from three. It’s easy to get assists when you have people like that shooting. Then, when all else fails, I just hit Tyler on the duck in. We have a lot of weapons on the offensive side, so assists come pretty easy.”

on whether he looks to more for shooters, specifically Skyy, with the hot hand when passing
“Absolutely. If they’re trailing, I’m going to hit them every time. He [Skyy] was six of 12 from three tonight. You’ve got to find him. You can’t miss him on any open looks.”

Cal Poly head coach Mike DeGeorge
opening remarks
“Our guys are really excited. We have a lot of young guys and international players, so we’re learning how to play together. We played position-less basketball, so there’s really a lot of layers to what we do. The difference is also how the international game is played. The guys are really excited to play here, and they are fully engaged. The guys really understood the tradition here [at UCLA]. I thought we really took a step forward today.”

on the overall play of the team
“The main thing during this game is we were slowing down and starting to make better decisions. We really connected the dots tonight as a team.”

on the difference between the first and second halves
“UCLA started picking up the ball pressure. Despite us having an inspired effort, they sped us up which led to turnovers.”

on where his team goes from this point
“We have Idaho at home and then we have Christmas break. Our approach is really good, and we were excited to compete. We came out with a lot of energy tonight. It seems like when we played other teams of this caliber, our energy was more conservative, and it was almost like we were playing not to lose.”

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Postgame Quotes - UCLA 108, Cal Poly 87

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Postgame Quotes - UCLA 108, Cal Poly 87