University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics
Postgame Quotes - Iowa 74, UCLA 61
POSTGAMEย QUOTES
Iowa 74, UCLA 61
Iowa City, Iowa (Carver-Hawkeye Arena)
January 3, 2026
ย
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Menโs Head Basketball Coachย
on changing to a smaller lineup in the second half
โIt was a minor part of it. I mean Tyler [Bilodeau] and Donny [Dent] had eight turnovers in the first half. I would say that that was the biggest problem in the first half.โ
ย
on what sparked the second-half comeback
โWe played the second half, Tyler and Donny had no turnovers. There you go.โ
ย
on the focus in the second half
โYou know, I donโt know if I buy all that. I was paranoid about being off as long as we were. We try to do things in practice to simulate games. Obviously, now weโre wondering if we didnโt do enough. As a coach, you beat yourself up. Iโve never had a team be off for that long, since I was a coach at Murray State when you had two weeks off before playing in the NCAA Tournament. We looked lethargic early. Tyler [Bilodeau] missed a dunk. Booker missed a layup. We missed four baby bunnies to start the game and just a step slow. What changed in the second half, our defense was much better. We held them to 36 percent, and 10 percent from three. We wouldโve had a chance, we got it to four, but we had some really dumb fouls โ really bad fouls, at half court. There were four off the top of my head. When a team is struggling to score the last thing you want to do is put them at the line. And that was being told to the guys over and over, every dead ball, and every timeout. Donโt foul. Donโt foul. Make them beat us. That was the whole thing at halftime. Keep the ball in front and letโs see how it goes. I think guys were too concerned about โฆ [Bennett Stirtz] hit a couple threes in the first half. We get too spread out, we get beat off the dribble. If you canโt guard the ball, you canโt be a good defense. You have to stay out of help against good teams. I think they only had one assist in the second half.โ
ย
on how to keep a team sharp during a long break
โWell, you canโt go gangbusters every day. You try to stagger it, talk to your training staff. I donโt like talking about that because I donโt like excuses. We didnโt guard the ball in the first half. There was a stretch when we had four point-blank shots at the rim. We started getting down. I mean, you canโt run better offense than that.โ
on Donovan Dentโs second-half performance
โIt was the way they were playing us. They were trying to take the three away, so we adjusted and tried to get the ball to the middle and let him attack down the lane. He did a good job with it.โ
ย
on the first-half performance
โWe just really lacked the toughness to execute on both ends. Our toughness changed, and we went from 24 down to four down. Itโs disappointing how soft we were in the first 20 minutes. Extremely disappointing. I have to throw my coat and rip a suit to be able to get some guys to play with some toughness.โ
UCLA senior forward Tyler Bilodeau
on playing this game after a long break
โIโm not going to make excuses. Weโve got to be ready to play, myself included. I think defensively we just had some mishaps โ weโve got to keep the ball in front. Offensively, turnovers, I canโt have five turnovers in the first half.โ
ย
on the missed shots at the rim in the first half
โStuff like that is going to happen. You just have to keep getting it done on the defensive end. Just keep trusting in the offense.โ
ย
on if the smaller lineup helped the comeback in the second half
โYeah I think it did. I think B-Will [Brandon Williams] gave some really good minutes.โ
ย
on how the team limited the turnovers in the second half
โI think just staying composed. Just trusting the offense and what weโre trying to get.โ
ย
on Donovan Dentโs second half performance
โHeโs fun to play with. Just getting him in those ball screens and letting him get downhill.โ
ย
UCLA senior guard Donovan Dent
on the teamโs second half performanceย
โWe played our style of defense. I think we took away a lot of that in the second half. We got to be smarter towards the end of the stretch with the dumb fouls. I think we just found our flow. We canโt play much worse than we did in the first half, so we just found our flow.โ
ย
on the fouls towards the end of the gameย
โItโs just discipline. We canโt keep doing silly fouls towards the end of the game.โ
ย
on his individual play in the second half
โI think I just needed the break, mentally. That helped me a lot. I just went in the second half, and I just played the offense I knew I could play.โ
ย
on playing this game after a long break
โIt was just us. We werenโt off 10 days, we were at practice. Thatโs not an excuse. Me and Tyler [Bilodeau] are the senior vets, we canโt give us our first nine turnovers. We talked about it, we just got to be better there.โ
ย
on building on the second-half performance
โWe gotta figure out how to navigate Skyy [Clark] โ hopefully heโs healthy, but weโll see what happens there. We just got to get better as a team and work together.โ
ย
Iowa 74, UCLA 61
Iowa City, Iowa (Carver-Hawkeye Arena)
January 3, 2026
ย
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Menโs Head Basketball Coachย
on changing to a smaller lineup in the second half
โIt was a minor part of it. I mean Tyler [Bilodeau] and Donny [Dent] had eight turnovers in the first half. I would say that that was the biggest problem in the first half.โ
ย
on what sparked the second-half comeback
โWe played the second half, Tyler and Donny had no turnovers. There you go.โ
ย
on the focus in the second half
โYou know, I donโt know if I buy all that. I was paranoid about being off as long as we were. We try to do things in practice to simulate games. Obviously, now weโre wondering if we didnโt do enough. As a coach, you beat yourself up. Iโve never had a team be off for that long, since I was a coach at Murray State when you had two weeks off before playing in the NCAA Tournament. We looked lethargic early. Tyler [Bilodeau] missed a dunk. Booker missed a layup. We missed four baby bunnies to start the game and just a step slow. What changed in the second half, our defense was much better. We held them to 36 percent, and 10 percent from three. We wouldโve had a chance, we got it to four, but we had some really dumb fouls โ really bad fouls, at half court. There were four off the top of my head. When a team is struggling to score the last thing you want to do is put them at the line. And that was being told to the guys over and over, every dead ball, and every timeout. Donโt foul. Donโt foul. Make them beat us. That was the whole thing at halftime. Keep the ball in front and letโs see how it goes. I think guys were too concerned about โฆ [Bennett Stirtz] hit a couple threes in the first half. We get too spread out, we get beat off the dribble. If you canโt guard the ball, you canโt be a good defense. You have to stay out of help against good teams. I think they only had one assist in the second half.โ
ย
on how to keep a team sharp during a long break
โWell, you canโt go gangbusters every day. You try to stagger it, talk to your training staff. I donโt like talking about that because I donโt like excuses. We didnโt guard the ball in the first half. There was a stretch when we had four point-blank shots at the rim. We started getting down. I mean, you canโt run better offense than that.โ
on Donovan Dentโs second-half performance
โIt was the way they were playing us. They were trying to take the three away, so we adjusted and tried to get the ball to the middle and let him attack down the lane. He did a good job with it.โ
ย
on the first-half performance
โWe just really lacked the toughness to execute on both ends. Our toughness changed, and we went from 24 down to four down. Itโs disappointing how soft we were in the first 20 minutes. Extremely disappointing. I have to throw my coat and rip a suit to be able to get some guys to play with some toughness.โ
UCLA senior forward Tyler Bilodeau
on playing this game after a long break
โIโm not going to make excuses. Weโve got to be ready to play, myself included. I think defensively we just had some mishaps โ weโve got to keep the ball in front. Offensively, turnovers, I canโt have five turnovers in the first half.โ
ย
on the missed shots at the rim in the first half
โStuff like that is going to happen. You just have to keep getting it done on the defensive end. Just keep trusting in the offense.โ
ย
on if the smaller lineup helped the comeback in the second half
โYeah I think it did. I think B-Will [Brandon Williams] gave some really good minutes.โ
ย
on how the team limited the turnovers in the second half
โI think just staying composed. Just trusting the offense and what weโre trying to get.โ
ย
on Donovan Dentโs second half performance
โHeโs fun to play with. Just getting him in those ball screens and letting him get downhill.โ
ย
UCLA senior guard Donovan Dent
on the teamโs second half performanceย
โWe played our style of defense. I think we took away a lot of that in the second half. We got to be smarter towards the end of the stretch with the dumb fouls. I think we just found our flow. We canโt play much worse than we did in the first half, so we just found our flow.โ
ย
on the fouls towards the end of the gameย
โItโs just discipline. We canโt keep doing silly fouls towards the end of the game.โ
ย
on his individual play in the second half
โI think I just needed the break, mentally. That helped me a lot. I just went in the second half, and I just played the offense I knew I could play.โ
ย
on playing this game after a long break
โIt was just us. We werenโt off 10 days, we were at practice. Thatโs not an excuse. Me and Tyler [Bilodeau] are the senior vets, we canโt give us our first nine turnovers. We talked about it, we just got to be better there.โ
ย
on building on the second-half performance
โWe gotta figure out how to navigate Skyy [Clark] โ hopefully heโs healthy, but weโll see what happens there. We just got to get better as a team and work together.โ
ย