University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics
Postgame Quotes - UCLA vs. LBSU
December 07, 2015 | Men's Basketball
POSTGAME QUOTES
UCLA 83, Long Beach State 76
December 6, 2015
UCLA Head Coach Steve Alford
Opening statement
“Before we start, I want to congratulate Adam Wright and the UCLA men's water polo team for getting the nation-leading 113th NCAA Championship. It was exciting they beat USC 10-7 tonight. I just want to give them a really big shoutout and congratulations to Adam and his team. That's a terrific honor. Basketball- wise, this was going to be a tough game, and we knew it. That team has played a lot of good teams already. They are used to playing a difficult schedule. We knew it would be hard coming off the Kentucky win. But we can't be a team of excuses; we need to be one of growth. And we did grow. We did a good job of valuing the ball in a game that went up and down. Tony (Parker) and Thomas (Welsh) each had another double-double. Bryce (Alford) and Isaac (Hamilton) were scoring and taking care of the ball. We're still not as nasty as I want to be, though. We're going to take a break for finals, but we have another tough contest at Gonzaga. All in all I'm pretty pleased. They are a well-coached team and a very good team.”
On being worried about this game
“I was worried about the emotion we put into Thursday night and the fact that we had Long Beach State and the respect I have for (Long Beach State Head Coach Dan) Monson and his team. I was very concerned about this one. I knew they would be very well-prepared and well-coached. I know how potent they are offensively. They made 13 threes last night and turned around and made 11 tonight. But we made seven, so we didn't get outshot there as bad.”
On Long Beach State's 3-point shooting
“We know they're going to be a three-point shooting team. Losing 11-7 in 3-pointers isn't a huge issue. They beat us on the free throw line by three, we beat them on the boards. We're starting to value the ball. Considering how they like to shoot the three, it wasn't bad. It wasn't great but it wasn't as big of a difference in the game as I thought it could.”
On seeing more nastiness
“I thought we did a real good job against Kentucky because we helped each other and got into stance. When I watch this film, I don't think we'll see that we got into stance. This is the first year we're going big-big. That's a tough assignment. Tony (Parker) is out there guarding guards. I thought we did a good job on (Travis) Hammonds because he's a guard playing the four spot, but it's a little bit different. That becomes difficult when our bigs are constantly on the floor. We are going to work on that. But Gonzaga it's big-big, Carolina is big-big. When we get into Pac-12 play, it's going to be the same. But this is going to prepare us for Pac-12 season.”
UCLA junior guard Bryce Alford
On the game plan compared to the Kentucky game
“It's difficult to adjust since it's an opposite team. You go from one team that you want to shoot the three to a team where you have to stop the three. We did a decent enough job to win.”
On the team's energy tonight compared to the Kentucky game
“It's hard to match; I think it would be that way for any team. It's hard for us, but it's good for us to grind it out and get the win.”
On defense
“Against Kentucky, we were a lot more vocal. I think we should have gotten into a better stance and talked more on the defensive end. I thought in the first half we were quiet, but we did a better job of talking in the second half.”
UCLA senior forward/center Tony Parker
On the team's effort
“I think we played well. Tom [Welsh] came out hard and played well even though he missed a couple of chippies. Overall I think we did well.”
Long Beach State Head Coach Dan Monson
“We came out and fought. I really liked our fight tonight, especially for having played four games in six days. In the end, their [presence] inside was too big. We wore down a bit, and some shots were forced by fatigue. We are a good basketball team, but we have to be better and continue to grind.”
“Our focus was to try to get the guards to give up the ball and to scramble on the bigs. [Their post players] were the problem. We knew we'd get some rebounds but allowing offensive rebounds was the biggest problem. They are good enough on the first shot, but giving them 11 extra shots? That's the ball game.”
“We want to sustain what we did tonight. We played a really solid 30 minutes. But we have to understand that this was a great team, and you have to sustain that effort the whole game against good teams.”
