Postgame Quotes - UCLA vs. Presbyterian
POSTGAME QUOTES
UCLA 80, Presbyterian 65
November 19, 2018
Steve Alford, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
opening remarks
“Well, we’re really pleased with the start. Really disappointed with the first 15 minutes of the second half. I thought we were really making growth in the first half and then we took about two steps back in the second half. Lot of new things going on. Cody (Riley) now getting some minutes and we’ve got to get some guys adjusted to some things. I thought it was as careless as we’ve been since we started the season. Our turnovers were extremely careless and that hurt our defense and they were able to do the things that they do really well and that’s shoot the 3. I think our guys have got to look at just the carelessness with the basketball. We’ve been doing a good job of taking care of it—tonight we didn’t do that. Proud of J. Hill (Jalen Hill). I thought he had a tremendous night. Not only did he get 20 rebounds, but three assists, no turnovers, got a blocked shot, got a steal, made all of his free throws. Or almost, five out of six. I just thought he was really good. Loved his activity. Thought that’s the motor that we’ve got to have out of J. I thought he was a huge bright spot tonight.”
on if carelessness came from big lead
“Yeah, and just being inexperienced. This is an inexperienced team. We’ve talked about it. This was Cody’s first minutes. This is J. Hill’s fourth game. This is (Jaylen) Hands and (Kris) Wilkes and (Chris) Smith, the fourth game of their second year. Jules (Bernard) and David (Singleton) haven’t played. Kenny (Nwuba) hadn’t played. It’s just so much inexperience. I think, 41-19 and we were so dominant in the first half, defensively, but we tried telling them at halftime: some of that was fool's gold because they missed a lot of open looks off of our turnovers. I think we had maybe 10 turnovers at halftime and that was a concern and we talked about that at half. Then it got worse in the second half with handling the ball and they made those threes. It’s a good lesson. We want to learn lessons, obviously, as we build here. And that’s what I told them in the locker room, but it is, to their credit, it’s good to learn lessons and still get wins.”
on Cody Riley’s debut
“Well, I thought he did some good things. Obviously, the other guys have had a good month of games when you look at the scrimmage that we had. I think he might have played in the exhibition game, did not play in the scrimmage… and then hadn’t played. This is all new for him and I did like his activity. We weren’t going to play him any more than 20 minutes and he got 16. I like what he did. Like a lot of the guys, too many turnovers. He’s a very good ball handler and very good passer. No assists, three turnovers is not what we want. But he had five rebounds and I liked his activity in and around the rim. I think he’ll continue to get better as he gets more minutes and gets more games under his belt.”
on if he wants more paint touches for Moses Brown
“Well, we are getting paint touches. I thought he did a good job of kicking things out until the second half and then he tried shooting out of the doubles team. Those are things he’s going to learn and this ended up being a tough game for him once they start making those 3s because he’s a legit center and they’re not really playing with a center. A lot of times, they’re playing five guards, so it becomes a pretty difficult game for him. He didn’t quite get the minutes that he’s usually going to get because we decided to go smaller and switch everything.”
on his team’s interior defense
“Again, it’s good, but there’s some fool’s gold. They’re not a team that scores in the paint. They came in making 12 3s—I’m not sure how many they were shooting. Shot 45 3s. Forty-five of their 63 shots were 3s. When we defend it well, it helps us because we’re able to get out and go in transition and I thought we were able to do that. The Flagler kid (Adam Flagler) got hot. He got really hot in the second half. I thought, in the first half, nobody was really bothering us at all, then he did all of his damage in the second half and we just couldn’t control him.”
UCLA sophomore Jaylen Hands
on allowing Presbyterian to cut into the lead in the second half
“I think we gave up a lot of threes. [Presbyterian] took, I think, 22 threes at half, if I remember. They didn’t go in a lot in the first half. In the second half, they started making them. It’s something we have to go back and correct. I know down the stretch, for me, I was disappointed in the way I turned it over. For me, this game will be really helpful to go back and watch and look at the turnovers I had and see how I can get better from that.”
on what caused increased turnovers on offense
“I know, for me. It’s probably a lack of focus. You know, I’m big on film, so just being able to have this game on film to watch it and get better from it. It’s better that it happens in a game that we win, instead of a game that we lose, so I really want to focus on that. That was my biggest takeaway from this game, so we’ll get better at it.”
UCLA sophomore Kris Wilkes
on Presbyterian freshman Adam Flagler’s performance
“The whole second half overall we had a lot of defensive breakdowns and he just got hot. We should have been able to stop him, but he just had a good night.”
on how team responded when lead was cut to three
“I think it was a little bit of Coach [Alford] getting on us, and a little bit of our pride. I feel like our pride got taken away a little bit by them coming in and making that run, period. We were up by what, like 20? The first group didn’t do too great. The second group, they followed right behind us, so we just have to learn to play through the whole 40 minutes. I think we’ve been playing a lot of great 20-minute ball, but just playing a whole game throughout needs to go up more.”
on if tonight’s game is a good test before playing Michigan State this week
“Yeah, yeah, no doubt. Since I’ve been here, I think that’s been our big fault—playing the whole 40 minutes. Tonight was a great test. Hopefully, we’ll come in and we’ll play them on Thursday and we’ll be ready to play the whole 40 minutes and it will be a good game.”
UCLA redshirt freshman Jalen Hill
on if he knew how many rebounds he was getting and what it took to be so effective on the glass
“Of course, I knew. I mean, I was going to go get them. I just had high activity and I just did what I did for my team. I stayed in my role and that’s what I did.”
on upcoming opponent Michigan State
“Michigan State is a really good team, but it’s just basketball. We’re just going to go in there and play a game, so I’m as excited as I am for any game, really.”
Presbyterian Head Coach Dustin Kerns
opening remarks
“To play against basketball royalty in UCLA and in a historic venue like Pauley Pavilion was special for our program. UCLA is the biggest team in America and makes scoring and defending difficult. I was proud of our fight and made it a one-possession game late in the game. We showed a lot toughness and this made us better."