Postgame Quotes - UCLA 77, Washington 73

POSTGAME QUOTES
UCLA 77, Washington 73
Los Angeles, Calif. (Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom Financial)
February 7, 2026

Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
opening statement
“Happy with the win. Fourth game in 12 days. Guards playing 40 minutes. I thought Eric [Dailey Jr.] got better as the game went on. No need to ask, I’m completely unhappy with the officiating. Defensively, it’s a fight everyday with this group. I just talked to them. They’re great guys. I love them. We’re not going anywhere if we keep giving up 50 percent from the field – our season will end really quickly. We got offensive talent, but we got to have some guys who care about defense. Our problem is that our best defender has been out for a month. Hopefully he can string together some practices, because we don’t play for a week. I desperately need a few days off and our team does too. Happy with the win. [Hannes] Steinbach is going in the first round. Wesley Yates and Zoom Diallo can play in the NBA, as well. Happy with the win.”

on what adjustments were made in the second half
“If you want to be a good offensive player, you don’t take bad guarded shots, off-balance shots, one-hand shots. Just don’t do it – don’t throw hard passes. Easy pass to the open man, they call them 100 percent passes. This is really simple. Slow down, get your feet set, shot fake, so you can read the defense. Slow them down. There’s article on ‘slow down’ that Jason Kidd did one time. He was still playing, it was late in his career. We weren't doing that the first half. We were not doing it. We had no ball movement. We were stagnant. It's the dog days and it's hard to get a rhythm – we can't really practice, because I can't get Trent or Donny hurt.”

on Trent Perry’s production
“Can’t believe he missed one [free throw]. I was upset because he ran and stood in the corner, but thank goodness Eric [Dailey Jr.] knocked them both in. You know, I'm watching him in high school a lot, trying to recruit him, and then his teammate. That does not surprise me. There's a reason, it's called free agency. Like, nobody likes the truth. They say, ‘Oh, man, this guy's bad for the game and all this stuff.’ The game is everybody's a free agent every spring, and you have so much money – some have way more than others, whatever. Transparency will tell you, I had a desperate plea to keep Trent. What he's doing hasn't surprised me at all. Here, let me tell you. Here's another one, so you want to make good decisions? Find a guy with talent that has character and work ethic. He will improve. He will improve.”

on how fatigue has affected the team
“We have a problem with what I would call brain death. Brain death. You're supposed to switch the screen, and we just don't. And one of Tyler missed a free throw, nobody was guarding Peterson. Now, we got four guys back, and we can't match up with them on a missed free throw. Look guys, I'm really happy. I think that we're 9-4 in the Big Ten. The Big Ten has some unbelievable teams. But this team possibly has three NBA players. One, for sure. Wesley Yates been hurt most of the year, and he played 40 tonight. I saw what he did last year, and I know where he was rated. I see his body, his size. I’m happy with the win. In this league, you got to just win and get to the next one. That said, we are going nowhere if we don't become a better defensive team. Not just us, a lot of people. We are going nowhere. Not just us, not just us – a lot of people. Last year, the three best teams at the end – Duke lost a heartbreaker. Houston and Florida, they were by far the three best defensive teams in the country. Look at them. If we don't learn how to defend, we're not going anywhere.”

on the chemistry between Donovan Dent and Trent Perry
“Oh, it's been great. It's been great. They are both great guys. We get great guys by design on our team. Back to free agency. You get to pick who you offer to come back. Just like guys get to pick who goes into portal. See, it goes both ways. See, I ran into Doc Rivers a couple summers ago. He said, Hey, man, you guys need to quit complaining. I got guys stuck on guaranteed contracts that don't even try. I think he was out of a job at the time. Should have tried coaching the NBA. We can't. So, you know, the one-year deal is a two-way street. So they're great guys, both of them, so it doesn't surprise me at all. The key's been keeping them upright and healthy because they're playing so many minutes. Donny in the last three games, we've played, what, 50, 40, and 36, and it his last three games.”

on navigating Tyler Bilodeau’s foul trouble
“You know, he's the best. I'll miss him dearly. He's been huge, you know, Wayne Tinkle found him and did a great job with him at Oregon State. Because he, you know, he wasn't a high rated guy. He grew a little when he got a lot stronger. You ever seen his twin brothers, great kid? About six, five, six, six. And Tyler just kept on growing. And Wayne [Tinkle] did a great job, but when Tyler works hard, he just keeps getting better. That being said, when the head coach says, listen, I'll put you in, do not foul. They're gonna run a play right at you. Do not foul the guy. He found a guy that hasn't scored for them in like five games before he even had the ball fighting around the post. And this is why, this is why my mom died rest their souls, right? I should have went to law school. The hours are a lot easier on the soul than this. It literally happened 15 seconds after I told him. But he's a great guy, I know. I don't know what it would be without. At halftime, I see he's got four shots. To me, coaching is not that hard. Make sure your best players hit the most shots. Got my more shots, become a better player.”

on Donovan Dent’s performance
“Ten assists, three steals in 40 minutes. I agree with you. You control the game. We are not going anywhere. If he doesn’t. I told him after the Ohio State game, man. Go down swinging – go down swinging. You know? Don't just be out there. Don't be afraid to fail. Give everything you got. Go down swinging. You're a senior, you give everything you got. We ain't going anywhere if you don't.”

UCLA senior Donovan Dent
on Coach Cronin showing emotion during the game
“It gives us juice. I think we actually went on a defensive run after that, where we kind of held them to a little bit. I mean, it just gives you juice. Like, when your coach is fired up, it gets you fired up. Trent [Perry] hit a big three right after that. It just gets you in the right head space.”

on when everything clicked for him at UCLA
“I would say after that loss to Ohio State. We had a bumpy ride back, you could say that, as far as within our group, the locker room, coaches, getting it. So, I would say at the Ohio State game a lot of people came in to me and talked to me and just gave me confidence. That’s all the main thing they’re trying to do is like remind me of who I was, and I think after that game I kind of just had a little switch in my mindset and have just been playing good.”

on controlling his emotions
“I would just say, experience kind of helps a lot. I think last year, if I was kind of in that position, I'll probably, you know, do a little too much and I do, I do too little, to be honest. And I think the experience now just kind of helps me stay composed and stay calm and, you know, trust the work that I put in.”

on the team’s defensive effort
“I started early. I mean, we let Wesley Yates get off to another hot start, kind of like we did from the kid from Rutgers [Kaden Powers]. We've just got to start the game better off. We can't just have lapses during the lapse of the game. We will go stretches where our defense looks phenomenal, we’re playing amazing, and then we'll go lapses where it just looks like we don't know what the hell we're doing out there. I think we just got to clean that up, and just be better at it.”

on his chemistry with Trent Perry
“I think it's amazing right now. I find him at all times. I found him earlier in the game in a transition three. When someone's that hot from the three, kind of how Skyy was before he got out, I said you just got to find them. He is shooting the hell out of the ball from three. You’ve just got to find him and be smart with it.”

UCLA sophomore Trent Perry
on Coach Cronin showing emotion during the game
“Yeah, same with Donny [Dent] and, you know, it gets you fired up. In the moment [when Coach Cronin received a technical foul], I was like, ‘Coach, we don’t do that.’ We went on a run and we got the job done.”

on the fan turnout tonight
“Yeah, we just keep it growing – just keep the fan base growing. Just keep winning. I think winning in L.A. means a lot, and if you win, a lot more people, especially in L.A., they want to support you. I think that's just a motivation factor for us as well.”

on the Bruins being able to close out games and how important that is
“I mean, just watch film, talk it over. I mean, in those types of situations, you have to look back on it and just watch the tape back. I mean, at the end of the day, we're probably going to be in those types of situations again. But, you know, just again, just learn from it. We're just glad we're able to get this one out of the way.”

on if the team tried to give Tyler Bilodeau more shot attempts in the second half
“I mean, just find the open man, you know, just find the mismatch. You know, I think we also did a great job of just trying to trust Tyler and feeding the post a lot more. But yeah, at the end of the day, you just have to find the open man, and we were able to find Tyler in the second half, and he was able to convert a lot of and-ones and free throws.”

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Postgame Quotes - UCLA 77, Washington 73

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Postgame Quotes - UCLA 77, Washington 73