POSTGAME QUOTES
UCLA 84, Arizona 75
Monday, Nov. 2, 2026
Las Vegas, Nev. (T-Mobile Arena)
UCLA’s Mick Cronin
The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
opening statement
“Obviously, I have a lot of respect for Arizona. Coach Lloyd and their players, especially a couple of returning guys, in [Ivan] Karchenkov and Motiejus [Krivas], those guys are tough, man. They're going to get a lot better as time goes. Hopefully, we're gonna get a lot better as time goes. I thought, our defense got us separation and our rebounding. Our rebounding is exponentially improved, and we took care of the ball. Got us enough of a lead, and Trent's [Perry] one of the best closers in the country. He got my friend Dave Rabibo two state titles because he didn't miss a free throw. That's the least of my worries. If we can get the lead, he's like Mariano Rivera at the foul line.”
on some of the new players that stepped up in the win
“Well, I would let these guys comment on that because they're highly intelligent. Better grades than me. So, I'll let them answer that, but what I would say is that we have great people on our team. They're smart enough to understand that the least important thing on the stat sheet is total points. They get it. They understand that basketball is about what you do without the ball, how you communicate, and everything else that contributes to winning. Nikola [Kusturica] is 17, but he understands that. It starts with the older guys. He's started a lot of games at Texas Tech, Trent's [Perry] been around, and Eric [Dailey Jr.] and Book [Xavier Booker] are all about the right things. So it's not a fight for me with these guys at all. They get it. They totally get it, and they believe it. They know that field-goal percentage matters more than total points, and they know defense wins.”
on Joe Philon III’s contributions
“He knows he's a kickout shooter. He didn't think we passed the ball enough in that first one. Again, like JoJo, he really understands that. These guys are high-level guys offensively. Right now in Joe's career, he's a high-level rebounder, athlete, and defender, but he's a kickout shooter. You don't shoot it unless somebody kicks it out to you after we've broken down the defense. You don't hunt the three. I'm not speaking for him, but he's so smart that I would guess that was what his thought process was. He knows the first one was maybe a little too early. After that, though, he was wide open. Somebody drove the ball, turned, and threw it back out to him. He had two guys on him, so Joe knows that's the time to let it fly.”
on the importance of getting a win like this early in the season
“Huge. They're going to win a lot of games, man. I don't know exactly how many games they've averaged over the last three years, but I'd guess it's close to 30. So when you get a win over a team like that, it's massive.”
on what he learned about the team tonight
“Look, it would have been nice to win by 10 or 15 points. But now that it happened, and Book [Xavier Boooker] hit that three without hesitating, that was a big moment for him. We told him in the locker room that even though he didn't play a lot of minutes, that was a huge basket because we desperately needed it at that point in the game. The way they were playing everybody else, they were denying JP [Jaylen Petty] and helping every time Niko [Nikola Kusturica], Trent [Perry], and Eric [Dailey Jr.] got into the paint. They were leaving Book open. The guys moved the ball, and that was probably the best part of it for me. You get a lot out of a game like that. We also got some film on our press offense, which is obviously my fault. We didn't spend enough time on it. I went over it at halftime because I knew it was coming, but I didn't dedicate enough practice time to it. When you can get a quality win, learn some things, and get valuable film to teach from, that's important. We just have to make sure we stay humble. We're headed back to L.A. now, and Arizona is a top-five team. So everybody is going to tell these guys how good they are. You have to stay humble. You have to stay hungry. You have to maintain humility.”
on Ivan Kharchenkov’s performance for Arizona
“Elite, elite player. I told them. People have wondered why certain NBA executives are smart. There's a reason he's on draft boards so high. He's as good at getting to the lane as you’ll see. As he continues to develop his three-point shot, he's going to have a long, long pro career. He's a really tough kid and a great player. I thought we did our best job defensively. Mo [Krivas] got into some foul trouble, but he still played 31 minutes and only made two baskets. We did a tremendous job on Mo. Obviously, Kharchenkov kill us, though.”
on the Arizona-UCLA rivalry post-conference realignment
“I think, you know, I just worry about UCLA. All that other stuff? I'm worried about these guys. I don't even think about that. That doesn't even cross my mind. A lot of people get up here and try to BS people. I don't. It honestly doesn't cross my mind. You know why it's good to play them? Because they're really good. Playing a team like that makes you better, and if you can win, you get a great win out of it. That's the way I look at it. That's why I didn't spend any time worrying about playing them.”
UCLA Guard Jaylen Petty
on Nikola Kustarica’s vision
“Niko's young, but he's a very smart player. He has vision and he could pass very well. We all trust him to create for himself and for others. What I'm saying is, he hit me because I was open, he has vision, so just gotta knock it down.”
on taking over the offense when others were in foul trouble
“I'm just trying to win, so like I just got to step up to the plate, do what coach asked me to do, and you know, play hard.”
on what he learned about his team in the win
“Our team just doesn't quit. Like coach said, we all have great attitudes. We all want to win and come together, and that's what we're going to do. When we huddle up, like, the game's not over; we gotta keep working hard. We got to keep playing hard because it's like, you know, the toughest team wins; you got to just be tougher.
UCLA Guard Trent Perry
on the team mentality
“Shout out my guys first off, Joe Philon III and Stink (Azavier Robinson), you know, they, they know their role. Diving for loose balls, being aggressive on defense, but especially my guy Sergej Matura. You know, he came out first half and, and he was fearless. I mean, if you watched our first two exhibition games, he hardly ever played. He probably came in second half, 5 minutes left, late, no warm up, and he came out here fearless, and I've been talking to him, especially like, you know, keep your head up. You're a player, you're on this team for a reason, and I'm so proud of him. He showed up, he hit two 3s, and one big and-one. I love this team, you know, everybody's coming here to play and everybody knows what, what they're capable of.”
on playing on a neutral floor against Arizona
“I prepared my guys for that. Like for the past week I said hey, the Arizona fans, they travel like no matter where it's at neutral sites, even in Florida they're going to travel a lot and they're gonna pack their stadium out. So I told them all we have ourselves at the end of the day, and you know we came together and we, we got a lot of chemistry, so again I'm proud of them.”