Postgame Quotes - UCLA at Washington State
POSTGAME QUOTES
UCLA 87, Washington State 67
Pullman, Wash. – Beasley Coliseum
January 30, 2019
UCLA interim head coach Murry Bartow
on what he saw with his team tonight
“It helps when the ball is going in. I thought that our guys played two pretty good halves. We were up by seven at half, and then in the second half we got off to a good start. We kind of rode that starting lineup for a while. I don’t think that we subbed for the first, maybe, nine minutes or 10 minutes in the second half. Again, that was a good win. We played now for the last 80 minutes, we have put together 80 pretty good minutes through our last two games.”
on facing Washington State, and UCLA’s preparations
“They beat Cal by 20 and Stanford beat them by about 10, but we prepared hard for this game. We were really concerned about this game. So, to come on the road and to win by 20, that’s a pretty good win."
on how key the team’s ball movement was in making shots
“Big. Big. We had 15 assists, but it is always encouraging when we have five guys who are in double figures. That means that we’ve been spreading it around we are moving it. Washington State plays multiple defenses. So, they had been in a 1-3-1, a 2-3, they were in man. I thought that we did a pretty nice job of adjusting and figuring out what they were in. Our ball movement tonight was pretty good.”
on UCLA committing just 11 turnovers
“Well, that is encouraging. We had too many at half. I think we had seven or eight of those in the first half. So we probably had around three in the second half. Again, ball movement was good and our passing was better. We made some shots. And then, on defense, we did enough good things to win, and we rebounded well.”
on the first five possessions in the first half going astray and Jaylen Hands getting pulled early
“I mean, there is no message. It’s just, I am going to play guys who are playing well. So the message was just to sit him for a minute. I think that he ended up playing over 30 minutes in the game. He played a lot of minutes. But, the one thing that he knows I hate offensively is that I hate turnovers. He had four turnovers in the first half. But in the second half, I thought that he really played well. He was a big key for us tonight.”
on how he handles having two days between games on the road
“A lot of film work tomorrow. We won’t do anything on the floor tomorrow, but it’ll be a lot of film work and cleaning up from this game. Preparing for Washington, and then obviously we’ll practice on Friday and play the game on Saturday.”
on what makes Washington’s zone defense so effective
“It’s really good. It would take me too long to tell you, but they really spread it out. They are long. They are athletic and they’re experienced. They have got good players at all of those positions. Obviously, they’re coached well by Mike, coming from Syracuse. And they just are incredibly long and incredibly athletic. They cover a lot of ground. You get the ball to the sweet spot of the zone, but then they clamp down on you. It is just a really good zone. We will have to try and figure out some things that we’d like to do well to see if we can score some baskets against it.”
on whether he’s really given much thought to getting a first-round bye in the Pac-12 Tournament
“Not really, no. I’m just thinking about today’s game and when we practice next. I mean, no, I really haven’t looked at that. But, again, not to avoid that, we are so day-to-day with this team. We are still so young, so we’re just putting everything that we have got into each and every day. We haven’t given that any thought.”
on getting a chuckle out of Prince Ali when he exited the game in the second half
“Well, Prince, I get on Prince all the time because he doesn’t rebound enough for us. He told me today that he would get us six rebounds, and sure enough, he got us six. That is what he was telling me there. That’s what he told me.”
on UCLA shooting over 40 percent from 3-point range for the first time in weeks
“Well, it was big. It was big. I thought we moved the ball well, and we made shots. Again, Washington State plays multiple defenses, so we had to adjust on the fly. Are they in 2-3? Are they in 1-3-1? Are they in man? I thought our ball movement was pretty good against each of those three defenses. When the ball movement is good and the passes our good, you have got better rhythm, hopefully, making the shots. We were able to make some shots.”
on Moses Brown making a few more free throws
“Wow, was that good. We were 18 for 24. The two guys who have struggled the most – Cody Riley goes 6 for 6, Moses goes 4 for 7. We have repped it a lot. That doesn’t mean that you will make them in the game. But we have spent a lot of time repping it, and you just have to give our guys credit. They’re starting to make a few more of them now.”
on tinkering with Moses’ free throw technique and form
“I liked his form on the four that he made. I liked his form on the four that he made, a lot. But we are not going to mess too much with his technique, just so that his routine is solid. And we try to infuse him with confidence. To me, that is more important than his technique.”