Postgame Quotes - UCLA vs. California

POSTGAME QUOTES
UCLA 98, California 83
January 5, 2019

UCLA interim head coach Murry Bartow
opening remarks
“It was a good win. Good win. It’s been a hard week, as I just told the players. It’s been a really tough week. The players have worked incredibly hard. We’ve lifted. Every single day in the last six days has been a lift day. We’ve lifted hard, we’ve gone two-a-days. We went twice yesterday. We’ve gone twice a lot this week because we’ve been out of school, but I’m pleased. I’m pleased with what we’ve done this week. It’s been a tough week, but I think we’ve gotten a lot out of this week. Just looking at the stat sheet, six guys in double figures. Whenever you can spread the scoring around, that’s always a good thing. Six guys in double figures. I thought David Singleton was huge for us, especially in the first half. He was big for us. Anyways, good win. We had a rebounding advantage, we turned the ball over too much, but again, trying to speed things up, trying to get the pace right, trying to run on makes and misses. Ninety-two [points] one game and 98 the next. Some good things. A lot of things we’ve got to clean up. There’s a lot of things about that game that I probably didn’t like, but any time you can score 98 in a game, it’s a pretty good night.”

on defensive pressure getting things going for UCLA in second half
“It did. We like to press and probably put some more different types of formal pressure in. We need some days to be practice, to be honest. We think we can tweak some things there and maybe give teams some different looks. We’ve kind of remained in that 1-2-2, kind of a three-quarter press, but we think we can add some things and change some things that might help us. Again, the guys are excited right now, they’re playing well. It’s just two games, but it’s a good start. Good start to the conference season.”

on method to getting aggressiveness out of players
“We’ve got good players. We’ve got a lot of speed. We’ve got a lot of athleticism. We’ve got a lot of depth. As I think I said last time, I don’t think we have as much physicality that I’d like, maybe as much grit as I would like, but we do have all kinds of speed and athleticism and length. Starting Monday afternoon, that’s really all we’ve talked about in practice is speed. Every drill we’ve done is speed. We’ve done a lot of 2-on-0 drills, advancing the ball, we’ve done a lot of 3-on-0 drills, 4-on-0 drills, but everything has been predicated on speed. We’re just getting some carryover on some of that. We’re just trying to play more aggressive at both ends.”

on Jules Bernard and David Singleton
“I love David as a shooter. David is, long ago nicknamed him ‘Sniper.’ He’s a heck of a shooter. Can really, really, really shoot. And he’s an incredible kid. He’s a crazy worker. Works incredibly hard. And then Jules, I just call him a bulldog. He is a tough, ornery guy. Sometimes he dips his head, makes a little bit of a bad decision here or there, but the good outweighs the bad. He’s just an aggressive, aggressive player, which I really love. Both those guys are really important to us.”

on pulling Moses Brown out early
“The reason I took Mo out, he’d fumbled two or three balls and we just got him to the bench and loved on him a little bit and got him right back into the game fairly quickly. Moses is going to miss some free throws, he’s going to do some things, but Moses is a heck of a player. We’re a different team when Moses Brown’s on the floor. We brought him out, visited with him, patted him on the hip and told him to get back in. The other night he had 17 and 10, tonight he had 16 and nine. He’s not a great free-throw shooter, but I’m going to tell you, he can run and run and run and run and that’s what he does every day in practice. He never takes a second of a practice off. He’s a very fun player to coach.”

on making extra pass and getting the ball inside
“We love to get the ball in the paint. We love also to take the clean three. We want the clean, naked three. If you don’t get the clean, naked three, then analytically the best shot is get the ball in the paint. We’re trying to get it out, be aggressive, get it into the paint and kind of play inside-out. We can pass it in there, we can dribble it in there, but we just want to get downhill. We want to get downhill, we want to get it up on the glass pretty quick because we think we’re a pretty good offensive-rebounding team. I think we can get better at that. Tonight, we had 12 offensive rebounds on 30 misses. I think that, in the coming weeks, I think you’ll see a big improvement there where we can really flood the glass and get more offensive rebounds. That’s at least what we’re going to try to do.”

UCLA freshman Moses Brown
on turning around his individual performance in the second half
“Coach [Bartow] has a lot of faith in me as a basketball player. Even though I wasn’t catching those lobs early on, he just encouraged my teammates to keep throwing that ball to me. I just thought that, in order for us to win the way we do, I have to have a good game, and I appreciate him for believing in me.”

on team’s current confidence level
“I feel like we’re watching each other get better and the more fun we’re having on the court, the more confidence we’re getting game by game and, also, in practice.”

on team’s current cohesiveness
“It all starts in practice. We’re all happy for each other. We’re all like brothers. You see your best friend score a point, you get happy. Then he passes to you, you score a point. It just goes like that … We all want the best for each other. A stat line like this is a result of us coming together as a team.”

UCLA freshman Jules Bernard
on why he thinks he is getting more playing time
“I don’t know. I think certain coaches are different. We had a tough change and we miss Coach Alford a lot. We love him. But we had a change and this pace fits our playing style a little bit more. We’re active scorers. We like to get the ball out and run and get quick buckets. When we have that sort of freedom, we play more like ourselves and that means we produce more on the floor, giving us more time on the court.”

on how the team is feeling after a tough week that included a coaching change
“I think we’re optimistic. We have two games going in the right direction. We see what we’re capable of. When you give great players confidence, you never know what they can do. We can take this thing really far. Yes, we’ve had a long, hard week of practice, but see the results and that just makes us want to work harder in practice and keep pushing and keep this streak going. So, we’re just going to keep working hard. We’re all going to play our game and, hopefully, we’re going in the right direction.”

on working through ‘stressful’ transitions into college basketball and struggles in December
“I think we’re all great players and, as a great player, you know that when you hit adversity, you need to find a way to get out of it. We had a rough stretch of four games, a four-game losing streak. Deep down, none of us knew that was us. That was not us at all. We’re much better than that and we knew that. We got into the practices and we started working hard. I don’t think we were working as hard as we possibly could earlier. We really dedicated this past week to getting better and turning our season around. It’s an adjustment, but we’re all great players and we can all make that adjustment.”

on team’s current cohesiveness
“In practice, we’ve been really stressing what it is to be a real team. That’s like what [Moses Brown] was talking about. When someone passes you the ball, you score the ball, you point at your teammate and thank him for the good pass, and vice versa. The bench’s energy is important in our games. We ride the bench’s energy. When we’re out there playing and we see our bench standing up, screaming, yelling, clapping, cheering, it really gets us going.”

UCLA freshman David Singleton
on why he thinks he’s getting more playing time
“Based off what Jules said, we like to run. We’re getting more comfortable as the season goes along. We’re working hard, so Coach sees that and he’s trying to get us going, trying to get us ready.”

on scoring a season-best 14 points, all in the first half
“I was just playing basketball. I was attacking when I had the opportunity, just doing whatever it takes to contribute to the team, hunting for good looks.”

on how pressing creates energy for the team and leads to open baskets
“The press provides pressure on the offense. We like to press up on them. We put our best energy guys at the top of the key, so Prince [Ali] and I will exchange and play off of each other. We look for steals and just like to play fast.”

on working through ‘stressful’ transitions into college basketball and struggles in December
“It’s not really stressful at all – it’s basketball. We’ve been playing for a long time, both Jules and I. We just have to find opportunities to score. We have to put in our flow of offense. How we contribute to the team is most important. We’ve found out how to get it going in the Pac-12 Conference.”

on emphasizing ball movement and finding the best shot
“It’s always an emphasis when I’m on the floor, especially as a backup point guard to get everyone good looks and good shots because the more we get going, the more it opens up for everybody else, including me. It’s been an emphasis because when everyone plays well, when everybody’s doing well, everybody touches the ball, swings it, moves it, we all do well. That’s what we want as a team. We don’t want to look good individually because anybody can do that. We want to look good as a unit and as a team.”

California head coach Wyking Jones
on the starting lineup change
“I wanted to shake it up a bit. Guys think that their starting positions are something that is given to them. I wanted to do something different. The guys that started have been working hard and giving us great things in practice, and we decided to go with that lineup.”

on how the non-starters responded
“They responded well. Darius (McNeill) came in and gave us great energy. He was aggressive offensively and played a solid game. We were up 9-2 at one point. Guys who did start came out and scrapped and fought. I think they set a really good tone for the game.”

on Paris Austin not playing due to an injury in Friday’s practice
“It makes a difference. We turned the ball over 19 times. You don’t do that with him in the lineup. They pressed us more, and I think that wouldn’t have happened if he had played. He’s really good at taking care of the ball. Against those guys (UCLA), it’s a problem because they’re so athletic.”

California freshman Connor Vanover
on his overall play today
“I just went out there to play hard. It was my first time back in a while. I knew I had to be in there and try to produce.”

on his minutes played
“Honestly, I was pretty fatigued. I needed more energy, but I just decided to fight through it. I just have to get my minutes back up.”

on UCLA’s Moses Brown
“It was great playing against a guy my size. There are not that many around. I look at film to see how he plays; it was good prep.”

on his shot
“I work a lot on my shot. I just get in the gym and keep working on it.”

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Postgame Quotes - UCLA vs. California

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Postgame Quotes - UCLA vs. California