University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics
Postgame Quotes: Arizona 57, UCLA 47
February 22, 2015 | Men's Basketball
Arizona 57, UCLA 47
February 21, 2015
UCLA head coach Steve Alford
opening remarks
“I thought that we did a lot of good things. We were much better tonight, I thought, in a lot of areas than what we were on Wednesday in Phoenix. I'm really proud of the guys that way. There's a reason why these guys [Arizona] have won 35 games in a row [at home]. They are a great rebounding team. We got beat up on the glass on this trip, but I thought that we battled. We really fought. We had a good run to start that game and we had another good run to start the second half. The rebounding got away from us and we had three guys foul out, so that made it really tough on us. But you have to give them credit, as they held us to just one offensive rebound. They are easily the best defensive rebounding team in the country by a long shot and they proved it again tonight. That's what good teams have to do. I thought that we defended them well. We did a lot of good things to them in the half court. We took away most of their transition and most of what we wanted to take away. We just couldn't get the offensive rebounds that we normally get.
on UCLA opening the second half on a 17-0 run
“I think that our guys felt good about the first half. We just got in serious foul trouble. We were putting together all sorts of lineups in the first half, and that affected us. We have been a pretty good team all year at starting the second half. It was very similar to the first half, in that we got stops and we took transition away. We got a lot of defensive stops in the half court. I'm really proud of our guys. We were down 14 at half and then six or seven minutes into the second half we were tied. We did a tremendous job of battling back. And in the last four or five minutes, they showed their championship form and they won that last four minute game.”
on UCLA's ability to shut down Arizona's starting five
“That's what was hard. We did such a great job with that, but I know they've got such a great bench. I know that Sean loves their bench. Their bench in the first half really hurt us. [Dusan] Ristic and [Gabe] York really hurt us in the first half. We did a much better job of that in the second half. In the second half, their starters nor their bench scored. We had to foul late and if we don't have to do that, they have about 20 points in the second half. You really can't fault anything that we did defensively. I thought that we moved the ball offensively, we really fought and we drove it hard. We did the things that we wanted to do. It just came down to they were able to make a few more plays than we did.”
on having three bigs in foul trouble being a worst-case scenario
“Yeah, we had Noah playing the four. That's the first time that he has had to do that this year. That's the first time that G.G. has had to play the five. And you are doing that with five minutes left in the game. That makes it hard. That makes it really tough. But G.G. and Noah did a great job of fighting and doing the things that they could do to help us win. When you don't have your starting center in and you don't have your backup center in with those final five minutes and then you lose Kevon, that makes it hard on us.”
on other teams figuring out how to get Tony Parker into foul trouble
“I'm not sure. That's hard. He went through about two to three weeks there where he wasn't getting into foul trouble. Watching tape, I think that foul trouble for the most part has to do with being out of position. Whether it's Tony or whoever, if you are out of position, you run the risk of getting into foul trouble. I think that Tony has to really concentrate on getting back into position. We cannot have him in foul trouble. We have got to have him on the court.”
on whether it was difficult to find a rhythm in this game
“I thought that we had a rhythm to start the game and we had a rhythm to start the second half. They got in a rhythm when they went to their bench. I don't know that they really ever had a rhythm in the second half. You can come into a building like this and take them out of a lot of those things, obviously, we are not into moral victories, but I really liked how our guys fought tonight. I thought that we played well and that we got better. Now, we've got to get home. Again, we catch up with the schedule. We are done with our road games. We would have like to have had a couple more, but we didn't get it. But we have a chance here, with one game at a time, we have a chance to get to 19 wins before you go to the [Pac-12] Tournament. That's got to be on our guys with their approach and it's got to start on Wednesday against Washington.”
