Postgame Quotes: UCLA 87, Kentucky 77
December 04, 2015 | Men's Basketball
POSTGAME QUOTES
UCLA 87, Kentucky 77
December 3, 2015
UCLA Head Coach Steve Alford
“I'm really proud of our guys. Obviously, we have a few freshmen who weren't a part of last year's game, but we have a lot of veterans here who were. When you go through what we had to go through last year playing Kentucky, it would have been real easy to show up and play tentative. I'm a huge boxing fan. When you get knocked out, you might want to get back in the ring, but you still fight a little tentative. We got smacked last year. We led this game for a lot of the 40 minutes and did it against this Kentucky team. I have so much respect for Coach Calipari; the job that he does is phenomenal. For our guys to fight the way we fought against the number one team in the country was great. It's not like we've gotten off to a blazing start this year, but we're growing. We didn't get one of these games last year. I couldn't be more happy and proud of this group of young men. I think we're going to build a lot of confidence and trust out of this; it was a great night for us.”
On where this win ranks in his career...
“There have been a lot of fun times, but this one is very special because of what happened last year. Not only were they the number one team in the country, but we had seven points at the half last season. To turn that around and get a win this year in front of our home crowd; our guys needed it. Our guys needed to have fun in this environment and win. Hopefully we build from this. We grew on Sunday against CSUN and we grew again today and that's what we're trying to do here early in the season.”
On the play of the big men…
“Part of the game plan was to get the big guys going. Kentucky is long and athletic and we're big and physical. We wanted to be aggressive right from the start and I thought our guards did a good job getting the 'bigs' the ball, and they made shots. Thomas [Welsh] was terrific and Tony [Parker], who was a little under the weather, gave us everything he had. I thought Jonah [Bolden] came in and did some really good things, but Thomas was a handful for them. For our sophomore center to get 21 points and 11 rebounds against this team and against the likes of Skal [Labissiere], was impressive. Their inability to stop Thomas was huge.”
UCLA junior guard Bryce Alford
On driving to the basket…
"You know that we watched a lot of film and studied their tendencies and we found that they liked to block shots, so we knew we were not going to score over their length. We just wanted to drive and kick.”
On the game overall…
"Tonight's win was pretty nice. We heard a lot this week about keeping it competitive. I think we did a good job of doing that.”
On the team's confidence …
"We were confident when we came into this game. We knew that no one was giving us a chance, but we believed in ourselves.”
On the post advantage…
"We knew we had an advantage at that position, I feel we have the best post guys in the country in Thomas and Tony. We have a lot of confidence in these guys.”
On Prince Ali's dunk…
“That was really something. Anytime you can look up and see Baron Davis going crazy, that is something special. The energy in the building was really incredible tonight.”
UCLA sophomore center Thomas Welsh
On being better than last year/percentage…
"I'm not sure percentage-wise how much I've improved, I'm just trying to get better. The guys just give me the ball in great opportunities to make shots. I just really wanted to focus on defense and transition defense, the coaches really emphasized that this week.”
On the strength/post advantage…
“The post game was really about angles. I just really wanted to hold down the paint.”
UCLA freshman guard Aaron Holiday
On the difference from last year to this year…
"Obviously, I was not there last year, so I really wanted to come out and bring energy, so that what happened last year wouldn't happen again.”
On his rebound advantage…
“I felt like I didn't play well the first game, so since then I've wanted to come out and prove myself. I'm just trying to get better every day.”
Kentucky Head Coach John Calipari
" Their coach out-coached our coach. Their guards out-hustled our guards to extra balls. They executed better than us. We got kicked and every once in a while this stuff happens. It's disappointing that they beat us to every loose ball and they were more physical inside than us. With Marcus [Lee] getting hurt, now I'm playing guys that I don't play that much. But that's no excuse, you know. I'll say it again, their bigs out-played us, out-hustled us, their guards made better plays than our guards. Isaiah [Briscoe] went to the goal and did some really great stuff. Their coach did a great job preparing his team. I thought they were going to play zone and they never went to the zone, they didn't have to. My hat's off to UCLA and to Steve [Alford]. Steve did a great job.”
Kentucky sophomore guard Tyler Ulis
On if his injury affected his game…
"My arm hurts, but it doesn't really matter, I still played. We took a loss. I still tried to come out and play, to give it my all, I still was on the court so it doesn't matter [how bad my arm was injured]. We have a couple of guys who are fighting [injuries] right now but we'll get there this season. We'll get to practice and demand more of [our] guys.”
On what to take from this game…
“We learned that anyone can beat us. We can't just win on talent, we have to work hard. They played a great game. I don't remember the last time they missed a shot. The big kid [Thomas Welsh] was making all his pops. Tony [Parker] was getting and-ones and was making free throws. They had a great all-around game. I give them credit with how they played.”
