Postgame Quotes - UCLA 96, Washington State 82
UCLA 96, Washington State 82
Los Angeles, Calif. (Pauley Pavilion)
December 29, 2017
UCLA head coach Steve Alford
opening statement
“Really proud of the guys. To get a big win like we did against Kentucky and then to come back and to open up the conference season at home after a break, I thought the guys played well. I thought we really competed and played hard. If there was a negative I thought they made too many 3-pointers, but that’s what they do, we just didn’t get them off the line as much as we wanted to. We dominated the free throw line. I thought we scored at a very high level and valued the basketball with only seven turnovers in our conference opener at home. We had some good growth tonight. We had some guys, Prince [Ali], I told him afterwards that I don’t think he had a very good shooting night but he guarded well and there’s growth in that. When your shots not going in you have to do some other things and I think he did some really good things. Jaylen [Hands] got hot in the second half which is good to see. Aaron [Holiday] was spectacular. That was a special night for him and I’m really happy from him and Thomas [Welsh] for both of them going over 1,000 career points. That’s something special. When you’re playing in a place like UCLA, to go over 1,000 points it tells you what you’ve done in your career and both of those guys did some really good things.”
on Aaron Holiday and Thomas Welsh both reaching 1,000 career points
“They’ve been playing well all year. You just want them to be successful and keep growing. You look at their lines, Thomas had another double-double with three assists and no turnovers, while Aaron scores 33, has 11 rebounds with four assists, no turnovers and makes all of his 3-pointers. It was a pretty special night out of both of them. That’s what you have to have. We had some guys that were a little antsy. I wouldn’t say nervous, just antsy. It was their first conference game, at home to open the conference season. I thought both Chris Smith and Kris Wilkes played better in the second half. I though Jaylen [Hands] was much better in the second half. We have one game under our belt and now we have a quick turn around with a team that’s hot. A team that’s got a couple of wins against top-25 teams. It’ll be a great contest on Sunday afternoon.”
on how team responded after Washington State cut lead to two
“I’m really proud. If you play a conference game and never trail you’re pretty happy about that. We played a 40-minute conference game and were never behind. I love what our team did. I liked some of the things we did defensively. They shot a really high percentage, especially in the second half, so we need to go back and look at the tape for things like that. We outrebounded them and were the bigger more athletic team and that showed out. We were able to wear them down a little bit. You have to give them credit as they had a lot of guys make shots. Credit to them but we will have to go back and look at it because 14 made threes on 35 attempted threes is not what we want to produce defensively. But we had eight kills, a kill for us is when we have three stops in a row. If you get eight in a game that means you’re doing some good work. We did some good work and yet we had some breakdowns too where they were able to hit some 3-pointers out of it. But when you lead the entire game you’re pretty happy about it.”
on Aaron Holiday’s minutes
“My staff said something to me in both the first half and the second half about a good time to give Aaron a rest and I said no both times. He’s just very crucial to our team. I’ll have to pick and choose when I get him rest. Tomorrow will be a day of rest for him. We will find times for him. We get into a routine after this week of Thursday-Saturday games. We will be able to get him a lot of rest even if that means day off Sunday and maybe even Monday. We have a lot of young guys that need reps. We will start finding him some rest in practice now that we have more bodies. Unless he is in foul trouble he will be out there a long time. We are just a whole different team when he is on the court. He had a very special night. He was really good defensively to start the game. He frustrated [Washington State’s Malachi] Flynn all night. Flynn ended up with nine points on 3 of 9 shooting and a lot of that had to do with Aaron. He got it done offensively but he was really good defensively.”
UCLA senior center Thomas Welsh
on reaching the 1,000-point milestone
“Yeah, it’s special to score 1,000 points at a place like this. It was pretty funny. I actually made that first one, the crowd was getting loud. I was trying to shoot a free throw, but it was hard to concentrate because everyone was starting to scream in the stands. It’s special to hit that mark, but at the end I’m just glad we won. Just got to get that momentum going for the next game.”
on reaching the 1,000-point milestone on the same night as Aaron Holiday
“It’s special, yeah. He’s a player. He’s a bulldog. He’s fighting every night out there. He’s a guy that’s great on the court, great off the court. We have a special bond after playing with each other for three years. I’m just really excited for him. To drop 33 points and hit the 1,000-point mark on the same night is pretty special.”
on G.G. Goloman
“I think he brings a lot to the team. Like you said, he has a ton of intangibles, he’s good in the post, he’s a great 3-point shooter. He can do a lot of things offensively to hurt you. He’s a 7-footer, he’s extremely agile on the defensive end, too. That’s the thing he does—he gets hustle plays and comes up big at big moments for us. Like you said, he doesn’t show up in the box score as well tonight, but he’s a guy that brings it every single night and makes great plays for us.”
UCLA junior guard Aaron Holiday
on scoring career-high 33 points
“Just blessed. That’s all I can say. I’m just happy to help my team win, to be honest.”
on having zero turnovers
“Very happy. Especially after the last couple games. I’ve been turning the ball over too much. I just made in an emphasis not to turn the ball over. It worked out this game.”
on joining 1,000-point club with Thomas Welsh
“Yeah, again a blessing. I knew we were almost there. I didn’t know how many points we were away. It’s great to do it on the same night.”
on who made the call to switch him onto Carter Skaggs defensively
“I don’t remember if [Coach Alford] did or not. I just wanted to stop the guy who’s scoring. I feel like my defense is pretty good, even though [Skaggs] is what, 6-5? I feel I can guard him. That’s what we did.”
on how team responded after having lead trimmed to two in second half
“Just stay poised. We’ve been there with Michigan, Kentucky, games before that—Georgia Tech. We just stay poised and we learn from those experiences and that obviously helped us with this game.”
on Jaylen Hands
“Overall, he’s a great player. Obviously, he’s learning, but I think he’s going to be big for us down the stretch. He’s obviously a good shooter and… he’s getting better on defense. That’s all we can ask right now.”
UCLA freshman guard Jaylen Hands
on how much playing alongside Aaron Holiday has helped his growth
“It’s really helped. Especially on the offensive side, because defensively he’s so good and keeps coming. In practice, there are no fouls—you just do whatever you want almost. It helps when I get into the game to manage pressure… So it really helps me. And also defensively. I’m going against one of the top point guards in the nation…”
on playing with unselfish big man like Thomas Welsh
“Yeah, it’s really fun. To speak to that, like you said, he had [999] points and was under the rim and threw it out. So that really speaks to Tom’s character and how he plays. It’s always fun playing with him, just to know that if you plan to get open you can get the ball…”
Washington State Head Coach Ernie Kent
opening statement
“It’s a really tough place to open up the Pac-12 schedule, at UCLA and at USC. But you just have to roll with the schedule. We have some of our guys who have never played here before, so they didn’t understand the energy and the tradition in this building; you really can’t duplicate that. Against UTEP and Kansas State, we really had a chance to win, but, like I said, we have to be a lot tougher. Too many times we did things and were right there, but we just couldn’t get past the part where we needed to make a tough play. (Aaron) Holiday had a monster game.”
on the pace of the game
“I felt like the pace really favored us, but we just couldn’t hit shots, and, like I said, Holiday just had a monster game. I’m also really proud of Milan (Acquaah). He had a really great game.”
on where the team goes from here
“The first thing we do is watch film. We zero in on our errors and get better. We don’t want to see things that have been errors in the past. Our kids are consistent, and they listen, they can score the ball, and they’re very coachable. But the main thing we didn’t get better at was toughness. Our guys need to understand that we have to make a tough play when a tough play is needed. USC is a veteran team, and they’re going to make us play possession by possession. You can’t really duplicate that in practice; we just have to go through the experience.”
Washington State sophomore guard Carter Skaggs
on his four consecutive three-pointers
“I really love playing in this environment; nothing really fazes me. I just wish I could have gotten an earlier start. I just love it when the ball goes in.”
on the performance of UCLA’s Aaron Holiday and Thomas Welsh
“Those were the only two guys that we were really worried about. Obviously there were some other guys; they have some McDonald’s All-Americans over there, but Holiday and Welsh were the two main guys. We just feel like we have to get tougher. We really talked about it. Just like against Kansas State, we lost by three after being down by 19.”
on where the team goes from here
“Like I said, we have to get tougher, and I know for me, it’s a thrill because I didn’t get any DI offers. I had to totally go the prep route, so I really thrive in situations like this.”