Postgame Quotes - UCLA 83, USC 72

POSTGAME QUOTES
UCLA 83, USC 72
March 3, 2018
Los Angeles, Calif. (Galen Center)

Steve Alford, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
opening remarks
“Tonight we were undermanned again, with no Jaylen Hands tonight, and I thought that guys just stepped up. All of them had great effort. But, Wilkes and in particular Aaron Holiday, what a monster effort for him – all 40 minutes. Wilkes gets stitches at halftime, comes out and does this thing. Chris Smith had great minutes in the second half. Our bigs were terrific. Alec Wulff hadn’t played all year, comes in and he busts a three. I just thought all of our guys played really hard. I appreciate their efforts. We’ll get that bye that we were really looking forward to, and we’ll get some momentum as we head to the Pac-12 Tournament.”

on the career-high 34-point effort from Aaron Holiday
“Well, he’s been giving us effort all year long. For him to get 34 or whatever it was and to do the things that he did in this building with all the things that’ve been going on, with the pressure of the game and the magnitude of the game, it speaks volumes to how special of a player he is. We have been saying that all year. He’s a very, very special player.”

on what he told his players at halftime, with UCLA trailing 43-40
“I liked where we were. I thought we were doing a lot of good things. It was just about being a little bit more patient, offensively. We knew that they were going to mix their defenses. I thought we had struggled a bit with that, early, and then we got in a good rhythm to end the first half. And then defensively, I thought we settled down. We had to zone a lot in the last eight minutes [of the first half] because Aaron had two fouls. I just opted to zone and keep him in, versus staying in man [defense] and taking him out. He did a great job of not picking up that third, and we got it to be a one possession came [before halftime]. Then, in the second half, we were able to man throughout the second half.”

on how UCLA was able to contain USC’s Jordan McLaughlin
“Well, he’s special. He’s a special player. If there is any containment, it’s Aaron Holiday. I mean, you just look at what Aaron does, night in and night out. Aaron is very special and he had one of those special nights.”

on what this win means to the team moving forward
“Well, we’re going to have fun. This is going to be a nice bus trip back to Westwood. And I want them to enjoy this tonight. We had the last game of the Pac-12 [schedule]. It was a battle, you know, to get this win and to get another road win. It puts us in a great situation. We’ll get a little bit more rest, which will be great for us. We will take tomorrow off and we’ll get back to work on Monday. It’s not anything in particular, it’s just about building on what we did tonight.”

on how this road win could affect UCLA’s resume for an NCAA Tournament bid
“It’s huge. You get a road win at this time of the year, it’s huge. And to do that against a team like USC, where I think they’ve lost just one game in here [since the start of Pac-12 play]. Washington beat them to start the [Pac-12] season, and they had not lost since. Between the top two teams in our league, we went 3-0 against. So, I think that bodes very. very well for us.”

on freshman Kris Wilkes’ injury
“He just got stitches in his mouth.”

on freshman Jaylen Hands’ status this week (sprained right ankle, day-to-day)
“That, I have no idea. It was a sprained ankle, and I just don’t know what his timeline is.”

on the Bruins’ being tough defensively within the interior in the second half
“I thought that was a key. Our efficiency on defense was in the 80s in the second half. That was a big key. I thought we contested twos, we also contested their threes. I can’t remember what it was, but I think we held them to five threes. We made 13 threes, and they make five. Those are the types of numbers that we are looking for.”

on the significance of Kris Wilkes and his 22-point effort against USC
“Well, it was big. Kris has been very consistent when you look at freshmen across this league. He has been extremely consistent for us all year. He came up big. I thought that during those last eight minutes of the game, offensively, we were able to get them where they had to guard us in man, and I thought that Wilkes was able to get away from them, and then we switched it up and went with Aaron. That mixture worked well. Both of those guys really worked what we’d like to do on offense.”

on the importance of a three-pointer by Alex Olesinski (second half) and Alec Wulff (first half)
“It was just making a good play. It was a good basketball play. And then, you know, what Alex did with making that three and then you’ve got Alec Wulff in the first half, a guy who doesn’t play much, he made that three. And then Prince didn’t make shots tonight but I loved his effort. The effort that we gave, defensively, that is what we’re looking for. And if we can build on that, I think that we’re a team that is hard to guard. We’ve got enough weapons to score. It is just a matter of whether we can consistently defend, and we did that tonight.”

on the consistency of freshman Kris Wilkes
“Well, I’ve said it all year. I think that if you look at freshmen throughout this league, he is easily in my opinion one of the top five freshmen in our league.”

UCLA junior Aaron Holiday
on scoring 34 points at USC and getting the victory
“I’m just excited that we got the W. This means a lot for us, getting that third or fourth slot [in the Pac-12 Tournament]. So, it gives us a bye in Las Vegas, and I’m just happy we got the W.”

on being in the zone
“Tonight, I was just hitting. It feels good, obviously, and I’m just focused. That’s really all that it is. I’m just glad that I was hitting out there.”

on what the difference was for UCLA in the second half
“We got stops. We limited them to one basket and we got stops and ran, so that really helped our transition. Once we got stops, they weren’t scoring and we were. That really helped.”

on being able to defend USC guard Jordan McLaughlin
“It was fun. It’s always fun to play against great point guards in the Pac-12. He’s a great player, all around. He can pass, shoot, score. He can do it all. So, it was fun.”

on whether it takes a load off his shoulders to have a guy like Kris Wilkes on his team
“Yeah, I have confidence in my whole team. So, I know that all of them can make shots when their name is called, basically. It’s not overwhelming, but it is great to know.”

on his reaction to senior Alec Wulff hitting a three-pointer midway through the first half
“He does it every day in practice. He’s one of our best shooters, so there was no reaction from me.”

on being down a man (Jaylen Hands, ankle injury) and how that affected his mentality
“I felt like we had a next-man mentality. Obviously, Kris [Wilkes] came to play, as did Alex, Tom, Prince, so we had that next man up mentality and I had to do what I had to do. So that’s every night, just come out and play hard.”

on how the win at USC helps UCLA’s resume going forward
“For sure. We got the last win before the Pac-12 Tournament. Let’s just go out there and see what we can do.”

on what will make UCLA successful in the upcoming Pac-12 Tournament
“Playing defense. Our offense will come, I know that because we can put up big numbers. We’ve just got to guard, and we’ll be all right.”

on UCLA playing with what appeared to be more intensity on defense after halftime
“I felt like we did all right in the first half. Coach just said to continue to fight and let’s limit them to one basket. If they miss, we’ll just get the rebound and run and that’s what we did. It worked out for us.”

on if it’s any more special to have beat the crosstown rival for the fourth straight game
“It’s obviously a rivalry there. But to be honest, I’m just happy that we got the win.”

on UCLA having gone 3-0 this season against Arizona and USC, the league’s top two teams
“I mean, we’re 3-0 against them in a tough conference. Obviously, we don’t get that much pub, but it’s a pretty tough conference and the top teams are obviously really good. It always helps us to get those wins, leading up to the tournament, and even in Vegas.”

USC head coach Andy Enfield
“It was a tough game for us. UCLA played extremely well offensively. They hit shot after shot in that run. It was hard stopping them. I’m proud of our team, they finished in second place in the Pac-12. This game won’t define our season. UCLA played well. Give them credit. We tried our best to stop Holiday and Wilkes. We missed a lot of open shots, a lot of 3s, a lot of shots at the rim. They outplayed us the last 10 minutes.”

on UCLA junior guard Aaron Holiday
“Holiday is a very good player. He split ball screens and got in the lane.”

on the team’s mood after losing on senior night
“We’re all disappointed, especially being senior night. At the same time, we have a lot to play for in Las Vegas.”
on finishing second in the Pac-12 regular-season standings

“Our league is extremely deep. That is why I think our accomplishment of coming in second is tremendous. Our players have achieved a lot this year. We had a lot of good wins. We just have to stay focused and try to do our best in Las Vegas.”

USC senior Jordan McLaughlin
“Every loss is tough, especially against your rival and on senior night too. We just couldn’t get stops.”

on Aaron Holiday
“Holiday is a good player. He won the battle. He was just being aggressive, getting in the paint and knocking down shots.”

on what he saw and tried to do, offensively
“I was just staying aggressive, taking what the defense gave me. Then they switched and put a bigger guy on me.”

USC senior Elijah Stewart
on what this loss means
“In the Pac-12, anyone is vulnerable.”

on emotions of playing his final home game at USC
“Coming in, I was trying to stay mellow, not get emotional. It was a rollercoaster, up 10, then down. Nowhere in the game did we think we’d lose.”

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Postgame Quotes - UCLA 83, USC 72

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Postgame Quotes - UCLA 83, USC 72