University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics
Postgame Quotes - UCLA 82, Washington 80
POSTGAME QUOTES
UCLA 82, Washington 80
Seattle, Wash. (Alaska Airlines Arena)
December 3, 2025
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Menโs Head Basketball Coach
on responding to adversity
โConference basketball, youโre not blowing anybody out. Weโre in the Big Ten. They have real players, and they have a first-round draft pick. Guyโs a first-round draft pick. Heโs got 29 and 10 and 32 minutes, three assists, one steal. Great win for us. Obviously, we would have liked to put them away. Fatigue was a factor with no Trent [Perry]. Eric [Dailey Jr.] had foul trouble, which really took him out of the flow. Got his third immediately and his fourth immediately. Heโs got to grow out of that, because we really need him. Basically, you are playing without Trent and Eric tonight so to many minutes for some guys. Tyler was cramping because he only had a practice and a half to get ready for tonight. He didnโt go until Monday, and then I backed him down yesterday, just to make sure I didnโt overdo it because he had that injury. Huge win with the circumstances of being short-handed. Tyler was coming back and hadnโt had much conditioning at all.
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on the Bruinsโ guard play at Washington
โGreat guard play โ had 17 deflections. Those two guys [Donovan and Skyy] are 13-for-22 from the field and 6-for-7 from three, 10-for-12 from the foul line. They combined for three or four steals and 11 assists. Great guard play. But we were able to get Tyler the ball when they started switching. This was a struggle for us at the end of the Arizona game, and cost us the game. It cost us the Cal game. Being able to get Tyler the ball when we need baskets. They were switching smaller people on to him, and Donovan and Skyy tonight played like real quarterbacks. Not only did they score, they got him the ball when we needed to get him the ball when we had the advantage. One, Stein [Hannes Steinbach] was in foul trouble, so put him in more foul trouble. Two, they were switching guards onto him, and thatโs when Tyler was able to go on his run and make baskets.โ
on the Bruins switching to zone defense in the first half
โFirst five possessions, they had five layups. We have been working on it, and we still have a lot to do. The biggest problem for us is rim protection from the five spot. I have to teach these guys how to block a shot or take a foul โ that or I just go and play Brandon Williams, he will go try and block a shot. Play him a the five. Thatโs a problem. We played zone most of the night and give up 40 points in the paint, and we win easy. Late, we made two bad plays. Jamar backed up and gave their best shooter a three. We were sitting in the timeout. Skyy and Donovan are saying, โHey, they are going to drive it, weโre up four, donโt foul.โ The guy that said donโt foul, fouled. Now he said he tried to get out of the way, but you canโt leave it up to the officials in that situation. In the NBA, thatโs nothing. In college, they call it every time because in college, they call what looks like a foul.โ
on the offense late in the game
โToo much standing around. The last two [plays], we were trying to burn the clock. We ran a play to Tyler and he didnโt โ he throws it to Jamar Brown, who is a shooter, not a playmaker. If youโre not going to shoot it, you have to throw it to Skyy or Donovan. That was disappointing execution.โ
on Donovan Dentโs play
โHeโs digging himself out with effort in practice. Coming home, with so much expected of him, and then getting an oblique injury, at the same time gets a foot injury, gets off to a bad start and feels the weight of the world on his shoulders. Itโs my job to help him through it. A long time ago I came home, took a job at Cincinnati and got beat in the Big East โ and our tallest guy was 6-6. You just have to fight through it. They are going to talk about you โ just remember it, just get to work, just remember it, make it motivate you. Iโm pretty good at not giving up, teaching a guy how to fight through something. Iโve got my weaknesses but that isnโt one of them, so Iโm proud of him. Heโs got it in him, but maybe I have to help him.โ
on the teamโs effort
โThey were great. I donโt think they understood how good Washington was to start the game. We didnโt know [Hannes] Steinbach was going to play. I think their speed, thatโs why we used the zone, because their speed off the dribble is excellent. Once we were able to negate that. They were coming into the game making 20 free throws a game. Not because they have a post guy, because they are driving the ball. They can go get fouled with the best of them. They are making 20 free throws a game means they are taking about 28. Those are big tips, no layups, no free throws. We got away from that late. They are going to make a few shots, but we gave up too many layups late.โ
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UCLA senior guard Donovan Dent
on the keys to the victory against Washington
โWe had to lock in on the defensive side. That was the key in the game for us โ deflections. In the first four-minute media [timeout] we had zero, and after the second one, I think we had nine. It was just momentum from there.โ
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on how much UCLA had been working on the 2-3 zone defense
โWe worked on it a little bit this whole week. And we were more worried about the press, just to slow teams down and give them some trouble late in the shot clock. The main one was the press.โ
ย
on his level of comfort and confidence
โI mean, really it was my mindset, it wasnโt anything mechanical or anything like that. Over these eight days, during the break, my family and my close circle helped me.โ
ย
on UCLAโs double-digit lead falling down to one point and what happened there
โWe kind of allowed it. We were taking some late clock shots, just trying to run the clock down. But it was more on the defensive side. We finished the last seven and a half minutes with zero deflections. And in those first four minutes, and the final seven minutes, our defense went to crap. It wasnโt so much on the offensive side. We just let them get in a rhythm and let them hit some big threes, a lot of big threes. It was on the defensive side.โ
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on how much of a gut-check win this was for UCLA
โThis was a must win for us. We were preaching all week that weโd had some letdowns in the non-conference, but this was a must-win for us. We knew that. We came in with that mindset.โ
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on the performance of Skyy Clark and Tyler Bilodeau
โI mean, that is what weโre going to thrive off of. We know our roles. Skyy is one of the best scorers in the country when he is really going. Tyler gives us consistent games. Itโs really great to have him back in the rotation today. Thatโs our system and that is what will help us win games. We can continue to work from there.โ
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UCLA senior guard Skyy Clark
on what it feels like when his shot is falling routinely
โItโs a lot of fun. Itโs a lot more fun when the ball is going in. So my teammates were finding me and it was just one of those nights.โ
ย
on UCLAโs sense of urgency on the road and being down by 11 points early
โYeah, I am super proud of how we handled it. We could have folded right there, but we crawled back and got the win. It was definitely a must win. We feel like we dropped one to Cal and we couldโve had Arizona as well. It definitely was a must win.โ
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on how UCLAโs zone defense helped the team
โIt definitely helped us a lot, but I still feel like we gave up too many points in the paint. Thatโs something weโve got to keep harping on until we get it right.โ
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on what contributed to UCLAโs 16-point lead wilting way in the final minutes
โYeah, that is something weโve got to get better at as a group. I feel like the more that we play, the more weโll get better at executing down the stretch.โ
ย
on what he saw out of Donovan Dent tonight
โI just saw Donovan Dent today, and he was just looking confident. He wasnโt second guessing or nothing.โ
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on the strong stretch by Tyler Bilodeau in the second half
โThat was bigtime. We needed that for sure. That got us going in the second half.โ
ย
UCLA 82, Washington 80
Seattle, Wash. (Alaska Airlines Arena)
December 3, 2025
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Menโs Head Basketball Coach
on responding to adversity
โConference basketball, youโre not blowing anybody out. Weโre in the Big Ten. They have real players, and they have a first-round draft pick. Guyโs a first-round draft pick. Heโs got 29 and 10 and 32 minutes, three assists, one steal. Great win for us. Obviously, we would have liked to put them away. Fatigue was a factor with no Trent [Perry]. Eric [Dailey Jr.] had foul trouble, which really took him out of the flow. Got his third immediately and his fourth immediately. Heโs got to grow out of that, because we really need him. Basically, you are playing without Trent and Eric tonight so to many minutes for some guys. Tyler was cramping because he only had a practice and a half to get ready for tonight. He didnโt go until Monday, and then I backed him down yesterday, just to make sure I didnโt overdo it because he had that injury. Huge win with the circumstances of being short-handed. Tyler was coming back and hadnโt had much conditioning at all.
ย
on the Bruinsโ guard play at Washington
โGreat guard play โ had 17 deflections. Those two guys [Donovan and Skyy] are 13-for-22 from the field and 6-for-7 from three, 10-for-12 from the foul line. They combined for three or four steals and 11 assists. Great guard play. But we were able to get Tyler the ball when they started switching. This was a struggle for us at the end of the Arizona game, and cost us the game. It cost us the Cal game. Being able to get Tyler the ball when we need baskets. They were switching smaller people on to him, and Donovan and Skyy tonight played like real quarterbacks. Not only did they score, they got him the ball when we needed to get him the ball when we had the advantage. One, Stein [Hannes Steinbach] was in foul trouble, so put him in more foul trouble. Two, they were switching guards onto him, and thatโs when Tyler was able to go on his run and make baskets.โ
on the Bruins switching to zone defense in the first half
โFirst five possessions, they had five layups. We have been working on it, and we still have a lot to do. The biggest problem for us is rim protection from the five spot. I have to teach these guys how to block a shot or take a foul โ that or I just go and play Brandon Williams, he will go try and block a shot. Play him a the five. Thatโs a problem. We played zone most of the night and give up 40 points in the paint, and we win easy. Late, we made two bad plays. Jamar backed up and gave their best shooter a three. We were sitting in the timeout. Skyy and Donovan are saying, โHey, they are going to drive it, weโre up four, donโt foul.โ The guy that said donโt foul, fouled. Now he said he tried to get out of the way, but you canโt leave it up to the officials in that situation. In the NBA, thatโs nothing. In college, they call it every time because in college, they call what looks like a foul.โ
on the offense late in the game
โToo much standing around. The last two [plays], we were trying to burn the clock. We ran a play to Tyler and he didnโt โ he throws it to Jamar Brown, who is a shooter, not a playmaker. If youโre not going to shoot it, you have to throw it to Skyy or Donovan. That was disappointing execution.โ
on Donovan Dentโs play
โHeโs digging himself out with effort in practice. Coming home, with so much expected of him, and then getting an oblique injury, at the same time gets a foot injury, gets off to a bad start and feels the weight of the world on his shoulders. Itโs my job to help him through it. A long time ago I came home, took a job at Cincinnati and got beat in the Big East โ and our tallest guy was 6-6. You just have to fight through it. They are going to talk about you โ just remember it, just get to work, just remember it, make it motivate you. Iโm pretty good at not giving up, teaching a guy how to fight through something. Iโve got my weaknesses but that isnโt one of them, so Iโm proud of him. Heโs got it in him, but maybe I have to help him.โ
on the teamโs effort
โThey were great. I donโt think they understood how good Washington was to start the game. We didnโt know [Hannes] Steinbach was going to play. I think their speed, thatโs why we used the zone, because their speed off the dribble is excellent. Once we were able to negate that. They were coming into the game making 20 free throws a game. Not because they have a post guy, because they are driving the ball. They can go get fouled with the best of them. They are making 20 free throws a game means they are taking about 28. Those are big tips, no layups, no free throws. We got away from that late. They are going to make a few shots, but we gave up too many layups late.โ
ย
UCLA senior guard Donovan Dent
on the keys to the victory against Washington
โWe had to lock in on the defensive side. That was the key in the game for us โ deflections. In the first four-minute media [timeout] we had zero, and after the second one, I think we had nine. It was just momentum from there.โ
ย
on how much UCLA had been working on the 2-3 zone defense
โWe worked on it a little bit this whole week. And we were more worried about the press, just to slow teams down and give them some trouble late in the shot clock. The main one was the press.โ
ย
on his level of comfort and confidence
โI mean, really it was my mindset, it wasnโt anything mechanical or anything like that. Over these eight days, during the break, my family and my close circle helped me.โ
ย
on UCLAโs double-digit lead falling down to one point and what happened there
โWe kind of allowed it. We were taking some late clock shots, just trying to run the clock down. But it was more on the defensive side. We finished the last seven and a half minutes with zero deflections. And in those first four minutes, and the final seven minutes, our defense went to crap. It wasnโt so much on the offensive side. We just let them get in a rhythm and let them hit some big threes, a lot of big threes. It was on the defensive side.โ
ย
on how much of a gut-check win this was for UCLA
โThis was a must win for us. We were preaching all week that weโd had some letdowns in the non-conference, but this was a must-win for us. We knew that. We came in with that mindset.โ
ย
on the performance of Skyy Clark and Tyler Bilodeau
โI mean, that is what weโre going to thrive off of. We know our roles. Skyy is one of the best scorers in the country when he is really going. Tyler gives us consistent games. Itโs really great to have him back in the rotation today. Thatโs our system and that is what will help us win games. We can continue to work from there.โ
ย
UCLA senior guard Skyy Clark
on what it feels like when his shot is falling routinely
โItโs a lot of fun. Itโs a lot more fun when the ball is going in. So my teammates were finding me and it was just one of those nights.โ
ย
on UCLAโs sense of urgency on the road and being down by 11 points early
โYeah, I am super proud of how we handled it. We could have folded right there, but we crawled back and got the win. It was definitely a must win. We feel like we dropped one to Cal and we couldโve had Arizona as well. It definitely was a must win.โ
ย
on how UCLAโs zone defense helped the team
โIt definitely helped us a lot, but I still feel like we gave up too many points in the paint. Thatโs something weโve got to keep harping on until we get it right.โ
ย
on what contributed to UCLAโs 16-point lead wilting way in the final minutes
โYeah, that is something weโve got to get better at as a group. I feel like the more that we play, the more weโll get better at executing down the stretch.โ
ย
on what he saw out of Donovan Dent tonight
โI just saw Donovan Dent today, and he was just looking confident. He wasnโt second guessing or nothing.โ
ย
on the strong stretch by Tyler Bilodeau in the second half
โThat was bigtime. We needed that for sure. That got us going in the second half.โ
ย