POSTGAME QUOTES
North Carolina 94, UCLA 78
Las Vegas, Nev. (Orleans Arena)
November 23, 2018
Steve Alford, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
on difference between first half and second half
“Yeah, I thought the ball really moved and then when they cranked it up… You know, this is a lesson. We played two Top-10 teams. I think both these teams are Top 10, 15. Hopefully we learned a lot of lessons. We go back and we can work and get better on things. We had probably 10 minutes in last night’s game and I thought, tonight, our first 20 was really good. So now we’ve got to figure that out. We’ve got to figure out what that looks like and what this looks like playing differently. Second half, we really got back to standing and holding the ball and ball didn’t move. We only had five assists the second half and then that affects our shooting. And then I thought, defensively, we had a lot of breakdowns in the second half. I loved how we battled in the first half. I thought we had a lot of breakdowns, defensively, in the second half.”
on what North Carolina did differently between two halves
“The one thing they did, they denied more. They cranked up their pressure and they switched the ball screens. We immediately started working on that out of timeouts and guys can’t figure out, one of how you’re going to get open and then two how you’ve got to continue to go downhill on ball screens and get the ball to the post. We just couldn’t do that in the second half.”
on if Jaylen Hands is more effective when he is distributing the ball
“I think it’s crucial for our offense and that’s what we told him at halftime, how really good he was. I thought he was terrific in the first half and we said, ‘Go get 16 assists!’ That’s film that he’s got to watch because I thought in the first half he was really good. I thought he ran his team the way he’s got to run his team. And the second half, I just didn’t think it was like the first half.”
on freshman Moses Brown
“Well, with Moses, it’s a good lesson that the difference of this level’s about. And so now he’s got to learn. He’s a freshman, he’s got to look at this tape. He checked in once without going to the scorers’ table. They’re lessons that he’s got to learn. What’d he get, eight minutes? Maybe eight minutes tonight. We’ve got to have him out there 20-plus. These are all lessons, and he’s got tough matchups. These two teams are big, they’re aggressive, they’re strong. It’s something, he’s got to watch tape and he’s got to learn from this. I think he will. He’s a hard worker.”
on if he thought this game was step in right direction.”
on if Friday’s game was a step in the right direction after losing to Michigan State
“I thought the first 20 of not knowing how we would respond as a young team after being smacked last night, we were anxious to see, in a quick turnaround how we would respond and I thought we responded really well. I probably made the mistake of praising them at halftime, but I really liked how we responded and then, I thought, when Carolina cranked things up, we didn’t handle that very well. Kind of got smacked in the face in the first half last night, smacked in the face in the second half of this game. So now we take this back and this has got to be 40 minutes of really learning, diving into it individually, as a team and, I don’t know, I think we’ve got four games at home here. We’ve got to really get better in those four games before we take off again.”
on redshirt freshman Cody Riley
“I think he’s doing a lot of good things. Just got to get in shape. He’s missed a lot of time. He’s probably missed close to five weeks of practice. It’s not his fault, but now he’s got to work himself back into shape, because right now he’s about two minutes and we’ve got to get him out. He was pretty efficient.”
on what UCLA’s coaches told the team after losing to Michigan State
“We were very honest with them. Showed them the first 10 minutes of the game where they got punched. I think it was maybe 24-7, about 10 minutes in. That’s getting punched in the face. We haven’t been punched in the face yet. They’re a young group and I wanted to show them that this is what getting punched in the face looks like. And so they needed to see it on tape and, I think, the thing I appreciate is how they responded today. They were prideful, they knew that wasn’t who they were, but they haven’t seen that kind of team. And they haven’t seen a Carolina team. I think Michigan State’s as good as anybody, in my opinion. They’ve got good age and then this Carolina team, they have started three seniors, and one’s a five-year guy. We don’t have any of that. I just think these are two really good teams that are big, are athletic. It exposed some of our weaknesses and now we’ve got to get back and get to work and turn those weaknesses into non-weaknesses. I liked how we responded. Didn’t finish the second half the way I wanted, but we did respond better.”
on the wide-open nature of Pac-12
“It’s all about who gets better here in the next five weeks. We’re got as good a chance as anybody. We’re going to play a demanding schedule. We got Hawai’i, [which] just beat Utah. We got LMU, who’s undefeated. We got Notre Dame, who’s obviously very, very good. We got a Belmont team that – I know how good they are. Coach Byrd does a great job with them. That’s all before we get Ohio State and Cincinnati. We got some great opportunities ahead of us, but in the next two weeks, we got to get better.”
UCLA redshirt freshman Cody Riley
on UCLA’s productive first half against North Carolina
“Yeah, I felt like when we first came out, we were all together. In our locker room, we had been talking about what we had to do. We came out, and we were all on the same page. That’s [what can happen] when we all come out like that.”
on watching back tape from the loss to Michigan State in preparing for Friday’s game
“It was hard, but at the same time, it was great. We were able to learn a lot of things, and it is also good to see, as a visual. It’s good to see what we did wrong and see how we can improve, instead of just hearing it. So, that was great.”
on how the team handled the quick turnaround from Thursday to Friday
“Yeah, we came back to the hotel, got some food and then we went down to our team room and watched film for about an hour. Our coaches just talked us through, talking about what we can improve on and what we need to do, because it is a quick turnaround before that game against North Carolina the next day.”
on why UCLA faltered in the second half
“In the second half, they kind of changed their defensive scheme. They got into us. And with us being a young team, we didn’t adapt to it. At the same time, like I said, it’s early in the season and it can be a good learning experience, so we will go back to L.A., go back home, watch the tape, talk to each other, and I think that this adversity is just going to bring us a lot closer.”
on how he feels, physically, after having missed time with various injuries
“Me, personally, I’ve been dealing with a lot of adversity, just coming back from a jaw injury and I had messed my knee up earlier in the preseason. That’s no excuse, at all. When we get back, I’ll just go hard at practice. Coach has told me that I’ve been out of shape, and that’s on me. And it’s just something that I’m going to improve on.”
on what he has been doing to get back into shape
“It’s just about going as hard as I can, while in practice. Every time that I step on the floor, it’s about going game speed. That’s what will get me into better shape.”
UCLA sophomore Kris Wilkes
on what happened to his leg in the final minutes of the game
“Yeah, just a little cramp. It’ll be all right.”
on the Bruins’ first half and how UCLA pulled themselves together early in the game
“You know, really it was just about us playing hard. I think that we got too comfortable, though. Unfortunately, it came back to bite us. We’ve just got to learn to play all 40 minutes. You know, I’ve been harping on that every time that I come out here. When you talk about playing all 40 minutes, unfortunately it’s the same thing that happened tonight.”
on his team potentially getting a bit too happy at halftime
“I think we got too comfortable. I think that Coach [Alford] was on us, but I felt like he needed to be on us a little more. I’m not blaming him, at all, I think that it’s all a players thing, and then that unfortunately comes back to bite him, too, when we don’t play hard. It’s always those first four minutes, five minutes, that really stand out. And in the second half, during those first four or five minutes, we got whooped. We got down and then it’s hard to get back against a well-coached and a really good team like that.”
on whether North Carolina was more aggressive with their defense after halftime
“Yeah, I think so. I think that our guards got a little bit startled. You know, they played with a strong deny and really hard on traps. I think that we need to get more back cuts, and we didn’t do that, so that didn’t help our offense out a lot.”
on Coach Alford’s discussion with the team after UNC tied the contest, 48-48
“It was about how soft we are. We’d talked about it at halftime, about how they were going to come out. You knew, we knew what was going to happen. He gave us the answers to the test as he always says. And, you know, we still failed it. They came out and just kicked us.”
on what the Bruins need to do to improve, moving forward
“[Playing all 40 minutes] I mean, that is the main thing. We can beat anybody when we play all 40 minutes. It’s just about being more experienced and guys learning from things like this. You know, Moses, J. Hill, guys who really haven’t ever played college basketball, they’ve got to learn from this and learn how to play all 40 minutes, and we’ll be just fine.”
on whether he and his teammates were encouraged by the effort against UNC
“Yeah, I mean I’m never happy about a loss, ever. But, you know, I think that this is a really good opportunity for us to go back and watch a lot of film, see what we did wrong, fix our mistakes, and come back better next game.”