Postgame Quotes: UCLA 84, Coastal Carolina 71
November 17, 2014 | Men's Basketball
UCLA 84, Coastal Carolina 71
November 16, 2014
UCLA head coach Steve Alford
opening statement
"Really happy with this win. We were very concerned with it. Our staff kind of compared it to Drexel in last year's opener. Drexel I think would have had a really good year had they not suffered a lot of injuries after our game. That was a hard-fought one for us. This is kind of the same team, a lot of veterans, a lot of experience. [Coastal Carolina] won their league, won their league tournament and got into the NCAA Tournament. This will be a team that, if they stay healthy, will win their league again this year. We had a lot of concerns for our team coming into this game, and we had a little bit of adversity in the first half offensively. We had some more adversity defensively in the second half. I think that's good for a young team to see how we handle it. I was very pleased with how we handled it. We had good balance again; five guys in double figures, two guys with double-doubles. We took care of the ball again, another low turnover game. You see Coastal Carolina, that's the sign of a good team, a veteran team; they can come on the road and turn the ball over 10 times. This is a really good win for us. May not look like it right now, but I know we're going to look at this as we move on as a really good win because this team is scary, and I like what we did."
on the lack of transition points…
"We scored 84. I can't imagine we scored all 84 in the half-court. As I look back at the game, I can't imagine we didn't have anything in transition. Obviously not like the first game; we're not going to average 113 points, we know that. On a night where we shot 43 percent, but we got to the free-throw line, where we were 22 out of 26. I didn't think the offense flowed as well tonight, but I think [Coastal Carolina] defensively, they're veterans, they get it, they've been doing it longer. Getting over 50 in the first half against this team; this is three out of four halves now where we've been over 50 points. I just thought it was a tough first half for us defensively, but they had a lot to do with that.”
On if they entered the second half with a plan to go inside more…
“Well we wanted to do that in both halves. We did it in the first half, but I thought we missed a lot of easy ones. Not just bigs. I thought our bigs missed some layups, and our guards missed some easy looks. I wasn't so upset with the start of the game. I thought 10 minutes in, our offense was looking pretty good, and we just didn't make shots. We didn't finish inside, we didn't make jump shots. I thought that affected us on who we were offensively. We kind of stood around, and we didn't keep the ball moving. I told the guys in timeouts, we just have to keep doing what we're doing. We got very slow and methodical in the last 10 minutes of that first half. That's what our talk was at halftime. We have to get people moving, get the ball moving, more pace and tempo, and I thought we did that in the second half.”
Kevon Looney (Freshman, Forward)
“I've been practicing more on my free-throws and practicing more on my offensive rebounds. I felt much more comfortable tonight.”
On half-court offense…
“It was our first time really playing in the half-court. [Coastal Carolina] really took away our transition opportunities. But, I think once we start playing more, we'll get better in the half-court.”
On the second half…
“In the second half, their shots were a lot longer, so I was in better position to get rebounds. I also think we shared the ball a lot better. I think once we move the ball more, we'll get a lot more assists.”
On establishing a post presence…
“We wanted to establish a post presence and get easier opportunities to score. We wanted to take advantage of our length against this squad.”
Isaac Hamilton (Sophomore, Guard)
“Honestly the first 10 minutes, guys were stagnant; the ball movement was really slow. During the timeouts, we made the adjustments; that's what good teams really do. Our coaches really wanted us to move the ball more.”
On coaching during timeouts…
“They were telling us that a lot of screens were not being set. We also talked about moving the ball a lot more.”
Tony Parker (Junior, Center)
“It's fun to compete with Kevon [Looney] to get rebounds; we are always talking about it during the games.”
On rebounding…
“It's tough rebounding on the team because everyone is a lot longer than last year. We always talk about the battles in the locker room.”
On Coast Carolina's style of play…
“This is a different type team, so we had to get used to their system. I knew they would double-team in the post because I'm familiar with one of their assistant coaches.”
On Thomas Welsh's play …
“Thomas [Welsh] is a good kid, sometimes he over-thinks, but he's going to be really good for this program. This game was kind of physical inside, so next time I have to do a better job preparing him for that.”
Coastal Carolina Head Coach Cliff Ellis
“In the second half we got tired and had to make some substitutions. We took Badou Diagne out of the game, and he had 11 rebounds. UCLA is so strong, and they get so many rebounds, and we had to take him out during that stretch. The difference in the game was UCLA's size and strength.”
On tonight's game…
“We didn't shoot the ball extremely well, but we didn't turn the ball over. With the trip coming out over here and all that goes into travel, I'm proud of the team. You've got to give UCLA credit. This is a team that could go real deep in the NCAA Tournament.”
On the play of Badou Diagne…
“He kept us in the game with his rebounding. He made a lot of plays and had a stellar game. He was the one guy who could answer the size of UCLA. We had no one else.”
On the play of his frontcourt…
“It was a struggle for our big guys. They battled but couldn't get a real handle on it, but there really, truly were a lot of good things we did tonight. The difference was the 15 offensive rebounds that UCLA got.”
On UCLA…
“They're just good. We did not embarrass ourselves; we fought them, and we kept it close for a while.”
