University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics
Postgame Quotes: Monmouth 84, UCLA 81 (OT)
November 14, 2015 | Men's Basketball
POSTGAME QUOTES
Monmouth 84, UCLA 81 (OT)
November 13, 2015
UCLA Head Coach Steve Alford
“This was a really tough opener obviously. I thought Monmouth played really well. We knew we were going to be in for a really tough game. We tried to explain it to the guys and I must have done a really poor job of getting that point across to them. Last year they played four big-time schools really tough. They have all of those guys back, plus a really good transfer in [Je'Lon] Hornbeak. They turned us over 23 times, and our guard play was atrocious. We couldn't handle the basketball, we couldn't make free-throws, and we couldn't make lay-ups. When you don't do those things and then you don't guard in the last 10 to 15 minutes, it makes it hard on you. Jonah [Bolden] was out tonight for disciplinary reasons, but we expect to have him back on Sunday. Hopefully that will make a difference in our rotation because our rotation was a little slight tonight and we ended up having guys log a lot of minutes. We obviously have a ton of work to do.”
On Aaron Holiday running the point
“Obviously we have to get Bryce [Alford] back on the ball. Our guards had way too many turnovers tonight and that's part of the point guard's role; you have to take care of the basketball. Our most glaring problem was that we couldn't handle the ball against a team that doesn't deny much. They turned us over 23 times.”
On what Monmouth was doing to get to the line late in the game
“They drove the ball hard and we missed some rebounds late. When we had a two or three point lead, we could have secured it, but we didn't. They drove us a little bit late, but I'll have to look at the tape. Without Jonah [Bolden] tonight, we were a little bit limited on being able to go guards against them. I thought Thomas [Welsh] was outstanding. Obviously, Tony's [Parker] stat line was tremendous for him having to guard a guard. I thought both bigs gave us a lot. We had a 13-point lead inside 10 minutes, and we have to finish the game. In my opinion, when you have that type of lead, your guards have to take care of the game and we just didn't do that.”
Senior center/forward Tony Parker
On what went wrong in the game
"We boarded pretty well, they just played harder than us. They had 13 assists, and we had 23 turnovers. We can't have 23 turnovers. That decides games.
On the message after the game
“We've got to play better. Certain guys need to step up and respond. We were two men short. Jonah (Bolden) and G.G. (Goloman) are great playerse, but that's no excuse. We could have played a better ballgame, definitely.”
On if they took Monmouth lightly
"We really turned the ball over a lot. Credit them on their defense. They did well with playing passing lanes and being more active than we were. But we had 13 assists and 23 turnovers. That's not the type of team we are. Not at all. We probably led in almost every other category. They had 16 steals. It's hard to beat a team when they get 16 steals and you have 23 turnovers."
Junior guard Bryce Alford
On what went wrong in the game
"A lot, obviously. Didn't play well from the start. I thought we started decent, but it was a game where the whole time we couldn't control the ball. The majority of that's on me. You can't blame Aaron (Holiday) who's just a freshman playing in his first game with jitters and stuff like that. I've been here. I can't have a five assist, four turnover kind of night; a lot of that is on me as a leader, as a point guard, and as someone who's been here three years. We can't have games where as a team, we had 23 turnovers. That's not acceptable.”
On the turnovers
“A lot of them were unconventional turnovers. We had guys running into each other, balls coming off our knees out of bounds. A lot of it had to do with bad spacing and not being on two feet and making grounded and smart plays. That's just unacceptable. All of our guys have to be better.”
On what the message was to the team after the game
"Not much said. They kind of left it up to us. Obviously a loss like this hurts very much. Pretty disgusted in the way that we played, to say the least. Isaac (Hamilton), Tony (Parker) and myself, we've been there and been through everything you can imagine. We've got to step up and bring this team together and make sure we're ready to go.”
Monmouth Head Coach King Rice
“This win is for our school, our program, our Athletic Department, our President. This was a momentous win for us. I really have to thank Steve (Alford) for this. We played in this tournament and I begged Steve over the summer to play us. I felt like something like this would be good for our program. I've known Steve and Coach Broussard for a very long time.”
On the experience for his team
“I just knew this would be a great trip for our kids to actually play in Pauley Pavilion on John Wooden Court. We've taken a lot of lumps in the past, but we finally got a win. I told these kids that if we stayed together, great things would happen.”
About adversity
“These guys just didn't want to hear my mouth. I coach these guys really hard. I watched their (UCLA) tape like 14 times. I knew some of their out-of-bounds plays and some of their tendencies. I also knew that Bryce (Alford) was very good. I've been watching him since high school. He is a lot better than you think. I've been really watching Tony (Parker) as well. I tried to recruit him when I was at Vanderbilt. He has really improved.”
Monmouth Junior guard Collin Stewart
On tonight's win
“We just basically stuck to what we know. Once they pulled ahead of us, we just kept our poise and got the win."
On their preparation for conference play
“This game really doesn't prepare us yet for conference. We haven't really started thinking about conference yet.”
