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Postgame Quotes - UCLA 83, Kentucky 75
POSTGAME QUOTES
UCLA 83, No. 7 Kentucky 75
New Orleans, La. (Smoothie King Center)
December 23, 2017
UCLA head coach Steve Alford
opening remarks
“I thought today, we really put it together. Our guys have had a lot thrown at them. There were a lot of different man defenses thrown at us, coverages thrown at us, and then some zone. I thought our offense really handled that well. I was really pleased with our defense. I thought we did a great job on the backboard. We limited their second [chance] opportunities. We did the same thing at Michigan. These are teams that have really taken pride in their board play, and we’ve done a good job on the backboard. That’s pretty important moving forward. So, it’s a great time for our guys to get a couple days off with the break. Hopefully our guys can travel safe. And the guy to my right [Aaron Holiday] was awfully big down the stretch. He proved what type of quality player that he is. So, just very happy about this performance.”
on his players being able to handle the travel and distractions
“Well, just growing as a basketball team. We’re always preaching to just control what you can control. Whether that’s noise on the outside like Aaron had talked about, the noise that we’re not very good, but these guys have just controlled that from the inside out. And they’ve just continued to work to get better. Then you have the distraction of what has happened to their teammates, and what’s going on here, and he [Aaron] mentioned it – don’t forget that this is UCLA and academics at UCLA, that’s the top of the food chain. It’s the most applied to university in the world, and for a reason. This place is a high, high level academically. So when we are going through finals or we’re taking midterms – our guys took midterms while in China – you have a lot going on. We practiced for five weeks where we thought we’d have 11 guys in that rotation and overnight that goes to eight. The trip to China really impacted our schedule and can really crunch what you want to do. Our time in China really took that first week, when you’re opening the season of college basketball. Our team also lost one game [in December] due to the fires in Los Angeles. So, we’ve had a lot going on and there’s been a lot thrown at these guys, and while five of our eight [rotation] guys didn’t play last year, we’re seen a lot of great growth. For me as a coach, that’s just what you want to see. We are a better basketball team now that we were on the first of November. And that is what you want to see. I like where we’re at, and I like where we are as we go into league play. That doesn’t necessarily mean wins, but I like the demeanor of this team. Now, we have to be able to handle success as we move forward, having beat a very good basketball team. How we handle that success now as we go into our matchup against Washington State will be a key.”
on how importance it is for UCLA’s freshmen to see that they can win a game like this
“Absolutely. And we have been showing them clips, a lot about last year. Especially offensively. When our ball has been stagnant and we have held it, we tried to show them clips of this year’s team versus last year’s team of how that ball moved. This [Kentucky] is an elite shot-blocking team. We wanted to drive and kick and not drive and try to finish. I’m not sure how many blocks they ended up with, but they had one at halftime. I thought we did a really good job of not challenging their shot-blockers. We enticed it and then we wanted to kick out. We had guys who made open looks. It’s things like that which we’ve been showing our guys on tape of last year’s team. Now, it’s good for them to see that, that ‘You know what, we can win a game like this too.’ It’s not just with our freshmen, but it’s also Alex [Olesinski] and Prince [Ali], who have been a part of our teams, but really didn’t play [last year]. So, now those guys who have not been a part of it, there’s now a sense of it that they can grab onto, where if we can keep growing, we could be pretty good.”
on the value of a veteran guard like Aaron Holiday
“He’s unbelievable. I’ve said all along that he’s like a pit bull who is just going to come at you. I’ve loved coaching him. These have been three great years here. When he was a freshman, we missed the [NCAA] tournament and he started every game. And then the next year, his sophomore year, we had a great recruiting class and then he doesn’t start. He comes off the bench, and in my mind there wasn’t a better player off the bench in the nation than Aaron Holiday. And his numbers all went up, and now boom here in year three he’s thrust into, ‘Hey you’ve got five new guys who you need to lead.’ The guys from last season are gone. He has just handled it tremendous. It doesn’t matter what you throw at him. He just gives you everything that he’s got. That’s the thing that I appreciate about Aaron.”
UCLA junior guard Aaron Holiday
on UCLA’s poise down the stretch
“Yeah, we showed great poise. At the end of the game, it was maybe two minutes left and all I kept saying was that we’ve got 30 seconds. We’ve just got to take care of the ball and run that shot clock all the way down, and we’ll be in good shape. So, that’s what we did. Obviously that Michigan game didn’t end like we’d wanted it to. [In that game] I was the main reason, and I had seven turnovers tonight, too. But I’m just glad that we got the win.”
on playing in the New Orleans venue that his brother Jrue calls home
“Well, it’s always special to play where your brothers play. Obviously he’s doing really well right now, so that’s good. But just to get the win out here, it’s just awesome.”
on what the Bruins’ win over Kentucky means in the bigger picture
“It means a lot. First off, it shows that we can win, even though we’re young. And second off, it shows that we’re actually good. I’m tired of people saying that we’re not good just because we had mishaps at the end of a game or whatever it is. It just shows our team chemistry and how good we are right now at a young age.”
on the key for UCLA to handle its travel schedule and any distractions
“I couldn’t tell you – plus, we’ve got school in there too. Man, we’ve just stayed focused throughout the entire game, in every game that we’ve played, we’ve just stayed focused. Coach did a great job letting us know what we were going to do beforehand. It’s just about keeping us ready at every game, for every moment.”
on whether this game was one that he had circled on the calendar (because of Jrue)
“Yeah, I’d rather have him be at the game, but obviously he’s playing right now. But, it’s a game. I think I’m going to play hard every night. That’s really all I can do.”
on UCLA’s defensive adjustments
“We just – again, Coach [Alford] drew up a good game plan and we went right to it. Obviously, we had our game plan coming in and we executed very well on the defensive end.”
on his mentality late in the second half in a close contest
“Just to calm down. Obviously, we got a little bit rushed there toward the end. I had some turnovers. But just to calm down and stay poised. Coach kept preaching it to us and our teammates kept preaching that to us, so that’s really what we had to do.”
UCLA 83, No. 7 Kentucky 75
New Orleans, La. (Smoothie King Center)
December 23, 2017
UCLA head coach Steve Alford
opening remarks
“I thought today, we really put it together. Our guys have had a lot thrown at them. There were a lot of different man defenses thrown at us, coverages thrown at us, and then some zone. I thought our offense really handled that well. I was really pleased with our defense. I thought we did a great job on the backboard. We limited their second [chance] opportunities. We did the same thing at Michigan. These are teams that have really taken pride in their board play, and we’ve done a good job on the backboard. That’s pretty important moving forward. So, it’s a great time for our guys to get a couple days off with the break. Hopefully our guys can travel safe. And the guy to my right [Aaron Holiday] was awfully big down the stretch. He proved what type of quality player that he is. So, just very happy about this performance.”
on his players being able to handle the travel and distractions
“Well, just growing as a basketball team. We’re always preaching to just control what you can control. Whether that’s noise on the outside like Aaron had talked about, the noise that we’re not very good, but these guys have just controlled that from the inside out. And they’ve just continued to work to get better. Then you have the distraction of what has happened to their teammates, and what’s going on here, and he [Aaron] mentioned it – don’t forget that this is UCLA and academics at UCLA, that’s the top of the food chain. It’s the most applied to university in the world, and for a reason. This place is a high, high level academically. So when we are going through finals or we’re taking midterms – our guys took midterms while in China – you have a lot going on. We practiced for five weeks where we thought we’d have 11 guys in that rotation and overnight that goes to eight. The trip to China really impacted our schedule and can really crunch what you want to do. Our time in China really took that first week, when you’re opening the season of college basketball. Our team also lost one game [in December] due to the fires in Los Angeles. So, we’ve had a lot going on and there’s been a lot thrown at these guys, and while five of our eight [rotation] guys didn’t play last year, we’re seen a lot of great growth. For me as a coach, that’s just what you want to see. We are a better basketball team now that we were on the first of November. And that is what you want to see. I like where we’re at, and I like where we are as we go into league play. That doesn’t necessarily mean wins, but I like the demeanor of this team. Now, we have to be able to handle success as we move forward, having beat a very good basketball team. How we handle that success now as we go into our matchup against Washington State will be a key.”
on how importance it is for UCLA’s freshmen to see that they can win a game like this
“Absolutely. And we have been showing them clips, a lot about last year. Especially offensively. When our ball has been stagnant and we have held it, we tried to show them clips of this year’s team versus last year’s team of how that ball moved. This [Kentucky] is an elite shot-blocking team. We wanted to drive and kick and not drive and try to finish. I’m not sure how many blocks they ended up with, but they had one at halftime. I thought we did a really good job of not challenging their shot-blockers. We enticed it and then we wanted to kick out. We had guys who made open looks. It’s things like that which we’ve been showing our guys on tape of last year’s team. Now, it’s good for them to see that, that ‘You know what, we can win a game like this too.’ It’s not just with our freshmen, but it’s also Alex [Olesinski] and Prince [Ali], who have been a part of our teams, but really didn’t play [last year]. So, now those guys who have not been a part of it, there’s now a sense of it that they can grab onto, where if we can keep growing, we could be pretty good.”
on the value of a veteran guard like Aaron Holiday
“He’s unbelievable. I’ve said all along that he’s like a pit bull who is just going to come at you. I’ve loved coaching him. These have been three great years here. When he was a freshman, we missed the [NCAA] tournament and he started every game. And then the next year, his sophomore year, we had a great recruiting class and then he doesn’t start. He comes off the bench, and in my mind there wasn’t a better player off the bench in the nation than Aaron Holiday. And his numbers all went up, and now boom here in year three he’s thrust into, ‘Hey you’ve got five new guys who you need to lead.’ The guys from last season are gone. He has just handled it tremendous. It doesn’t matter what you throw at him. He just gives you everything that he’s got. That’s the thing that I appreciate about Aaron.”
UCLA junior guard Aaron Holiday
on UCLA’s poise down the stretch
“Yeah, we showed great poise. At the end of the game, it was maybe two minutes left and all I kept saying was that we’ve got 30 seconds. We’ve just got to take care of the ball and run that shot clock all the way down, and we’ll be in good shape. So, that’s what we did. Obviously that Michigan game didn’t end like we’d wanted it to. [In that game] I was the main reason, and I had seven turnovers tonight, too. But I’m just glad that we got the win.”
on playing in the New Orleans venue that his brother Jrue calls home
“Well, it’s always special to play where your brothers play. Obviously he’s doing really well right now, so that’s good. But just to get the win out here, it’s just awesome.”
on what the Bruins’ win over Kentucky means in the bigger picture
“It means a lot. First off, it shows that we can win, even though we’re young. And second off, it shows that we’re actually good. I’m tired of people saying that we’re not good just because we had mishaps at the end of a game or whatever it is. It just shows our team chemistry and how good we are right now at a young age.”
on the key for UCLA to handle its travel schedule and any distractions
“I couldn’t tell you – plus, we’ve got school in there too. Man, we’ve just stayed focused throughout the entire game, in every game that we’ve played, we’ve just stayed focused. Coach did a great job letting us know what we were going to do beforehand. It’s just about keeping us ready at every game, for every moment.”
on whether this game was one that he had circled on the calendar (because of Jrue)
“Yeah, I’d rather have him be at the game, but obviously he’s playing right now. But, it’s a game. I think I’m going to play hard every night. That’s really all I can do.”
on UCLA’s defensive adjustments
“We just – again, Coach [Alford] drew up a good game plan and we went right to it. Obviously, we had our game plan coming in and we executed very well on the defensive end.”
on his mentality late in the second half in a close contest
“Just to calm down. Obviously, we got a little bit rushed there toward the end. I had some turnovers. But just to calm down and stay poised. Coach kept preaching it to us and our teammates kept preaching that to us, so that’s really what we had to do.”