POSTGAME QUOTES
UCLA 72, Colorado 59
January 31, 2015
UCLA Head Coach Steve Alford
Opening statement…
“I'm extremely proud of our team. This was a big week for us after going on the road and losing a couple and then getting Tony (Parker) back in the mix. We practiced well this week and we put together two really good games. I thought it was 80 minutes of good basketball for us. We've got a good rhythm to us. That next step that we talked about it, we kind of got it going when we got that win on the road against USC under our belt. Hopefully we'll have an injury-free practice week and we can go full load into the road trip. There are a lot of good things that happened this week and our guys deserve it.”
On Kevon Looney and Isaac Hamilton's play…
“Kevon (Looney) had another double-double tonight. In 50 percent of the games he's played in, he's had a double-double; there's not a lot of freshmen in the country that can say that. I thought Isaac's (Hamilton) two games defensively this week on (Delon) Wright and (Askia) Booker were tremendous. Our defense this week was really good and that was great to see.”
On what the team was doing to pressure Colorado…
“We've had three practices this week where we've had a full boat. It's important because now in practice it's Tony (Parker) versus Thomas (Welsh) and now Kevon (Looney) has Jonah Bolden guarding him. Now our bigs are going at one another and through that competition they're getting better. We haven't been able to do that a lot. We really improved in practice this week with our ball pressure and we contested shots. I think the difference in our defense the last two games is that we contested shots. Even in scramble mode, we've had to contest shots and we did that tonight.”
Norman Powell (Senior, Guard)
On the difference between home and road games this year…
”Just going out, playing aggressive and doing the things we need to do. We just have to focus more as a team on the road. I think this home stand is really going to help us this week with our effort level and trusting one another. When we execute on defense it opens up everything and relaxes everybody.”
On what's led to his recent scoring success…
”I'm just trying to provide energy. I'm trying to do all the little things to help my team win. I'm keeping the energy up and the young guys feed off of that. I'm just trying to stay up beat and focused on the task at hand.”
Isaac Hamilton (Sophomore, Guard)
On slowing down Askia Booker…
“He's a good transition player so we tried to 'cup' him and get into him when going through screens. We played hard and just tried to out-work him. We just tried to make it as tough as possible.”
Kevon Looney (Freshman, Forward)
On what the difference was when the team extended the lead to 19…
“We really focused on rebounding. In the first half they (Colorado) had a lot of offensive rebounds. We were playing good defense, but they were getting too many second chance points. Then, during that stretch we started rebounding the ball and pushing it in transition. Norman (Powell) is one of the best players in the country in transition and he showed it.”
Colorado Head Coach Tad Boyle
Opening statement…
”We came out shooting the ball really well and for some reason, we go into these droughts. We talk about it in our timeouts what we're supposed to do, but for some reason we just don't get it done. We had eight possessions and six of those possessions were turnovers. When it started happening, some of our guys started losing their confidence. Some of our guys had their heads down.”
On how they came out with energy in the second half…
“It's a bit frustrating, but I'm not going to use the excuse that we ran out of energy. These are young kids. A couple of the turnovers, we had the ball where we wanted it, but we just couldn't finish plays.”
On UCLA's performance…
“They did a great job in attacking the basket. Our biggest problems were turnovers and being impatient. I would say patience is the main thing we have to focus on.”
Jaron Hopkins, Colorado (Sophomore, Guard)
On his performance…
“I don't feel good about it. We didn't really come out with enough energy.”
On his injury…
“It's my ankle. It kind of felt stiff and sore. My ankle is about 70%. I just have to get back to Colorado and strengthen it. It's very frustrating, but the things about injuries, they can happen whenever.”
On turnovers…
“Coach tells us to play free and we didn't really play that well tonight. We just made too many turnovers.”