University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics
Postgame Quotes – UCLA vs. Michigan State
POSTGAME QUOTES
No. 3 Michigan State 75, UCLA 62
Maui Jim Maui Invitational – Fifth-Place Game
Lahaina, Hawai’i (Lahaina Civic Center)
November 27, 2019
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
opening remarks
“Obviously, a physically tough game today. I’m proud of the fact our guys out-rebounded them by one. We took care of the ball. That’s two areas of improvement for our team. Tough to win a game like that when you go 2 for 15 from three. We had some really good looks at times. Really, that's the difference in the game. We get outscored 24 to 6 at the three-point line. That and I thought there was some really tough calls. I thought Prince got one, where [he was] trying to get out of the way, and there's three times where they just dove into us and, it's a blood bath to try to get a rebound. So, I knew that was coming. Been there, done that. Guys have any questions?”
on how he felt his team responded to the challenge of playing a strong opponent in Michigan State
“I think we're still learning. We learned a lot today. Guys learned about playing with their heart. That's really what we talked about. You got play with your heart. That's 75 percent of it. Now, you got to think, you got to play smart, you got to execute, obviously, you can't beat Michigan State, go 2 for 15 from the 3-point line. We had some really good looks. We went through some different lineups. We exploited their help a little bit. We just didn't knock them down. I thought [that was] the big key of the game, [and] we should have been winning at halftime. With the looks we had from the 3-point line in the first half, we were 2 for 10. We had some great looks. But we played a lot of young guys. Jake Kyman is a young kid and he hasn't had a lot of minutes. I went to him. I thought we could use him to be able to get some clean looks and we did. But I've got faith in him. That is a building process for us. We’re still learning. It’s just, it is a night-and-day situation for some of the guys on our team. I thought that Cody Riley played with his heart today. You got to care enough to call your teammate out if he's not physical, or if he's not paying attention. So we're still learning that.”
on UCLA’s struggles with 3-point shooting
“No, we're in the 30s there. We're right where everybody else is in the conference. Today it was bad.”
on the play of Michigan State’s Xavier Tillman
“He's a good player. He's a big strong kid. What I like about him is he's not selfish. That's really what I can tell you. I think he's clearly an unselfish player. Obviously, a big and strong kid, but I don't really – I'm not familiar with him.”
on how the Bruins had scouted and planned for Xavier Tillman
“He can score in the low post. He uses the same move every time, but we did do a good enough job stopping it. But he's a good passer. His numbers show it. He's a good passer out of the post. But all their guys, they pursue the ball, they're physical, then it becomes a blood bath. Three or four times, I felt we could have had an offensive rebound put-back, and there were collisions and no cal. It is what it is. He’s a very good player, though.”
on the performance of Jaime Jaquez Jr., and how he played a season-high 35 minutes
“Hard to take him off the floor right now. Hard to take him off the floor. We're trying to, we are learning what competitive spirit is and playing with your heart. He goes after the ball. Funny as that may sound, it's pretty simplistic. If you watch the guys in green go after the ball, whether they run over people or not, they go after the ball. He goes after the ball. He got eight rebounds. He's our leading rebounder again today. We just played Michigan State. I don’t think we’ll play anybody that rebounds the way they do with the bodies that they have. He's the leading rebounder in the game, so it's just hard to take him off the floor right now.”
on whether he has seen some of Jaime’s positive spirit rub off on some other players
“He's not afraid to speak up, which I appreciate. I thought Cody started to speak up a little bit today. You look at the guys that played the most minutes, those are the two guys I thought played with the most heart today. It's really not that hard to play for me.”
on his comments Tuesday about auditions, and whether he may ultimately narrow down UCLA’s rotation
“No. I didn't get Shareef [O’Neal] in early. I thought the game got real physical, which is not his strength yet. To be honest with you, I told the staff last night I wished Kenneth [Nwuba] wasn't redshirting, as this would have been a good game for him. He's our most physical guy. No, I would like to expand the lineup. I think every coach would like would say they would like to expand the rotation. I'm sure Coach Izzo loves the fact that he's got multiple guys that can play. Right now, I'm searching for five that will play with their heart and compete. I thought we competed at a high level, it’s just hard to win when you go 2 for 15 from three against a team of their caliber, because they make shots. Which really, when the game comes down to it, the rebounding is even, the turnovers are about even, they make shots. The problem is it's hard for us to get – we had chances at offensive rebounds and there was a lot of colliding and collisions. We missed more shots than they did. So my big guys got two offensive rebounds, Riley and Hill.”
on if he’s happy with seeing some growth during UCLA’s three games in Maui
“I thought the only good thing was the way we competed physically today. And I thought that Jaime's voice – see, you guys don't know what goes on behind the scenes. Jaime is not afraid to step up and say something. Enough's enough. Somebody's got to step up and say something. I thought Cody did today. As you are trying to build a program, you have got to realize what we're going to go through. So, people look at me, people call, say, ‘Hey, don't go crazy, it's your first year.’ I get all that. But what I would tell them is, because I've done this two times, this is my third time, you can never accept losing. You can never let your players accept losing. Your players cannot accept it. They’ve got to understand that you can give great effort, which we did today in a lot of ways. But still it can't be okay. It can never be okay. It can never be okay. So I don't want to give you some sort of answer that makes you think that I think, well we grew over here, and kumbaya. It can never be okay. No matter who you play against, it cannot be okay to lose. You have to build that within your locker room.”
UCLA senior guard Prince Ali
on how today’s game fared, compared to last season’s 87-67 loss to Michigan State (in Las Vegas)
“Obviously, I think we're tougher than we were last year. We played tougher. What I remember last year, the game was over in seven minutes. This year, we played the whole game. I thought we could have given ourselves a chance to win. We had some self-inflicted errors. But overall, I thought we played hard. We played harder than last year, and I think that moving forward, we need to continue to play with that type of aggression and passion.”
on being down just three points at halftime and if the pace accelerated a bit in the second half
“It was a big difference. I think at halftime they had 26 points. We gave up almost 50 in the second half. So I mean, we knew coming in defense was going to win this game. If we had been able to replicate what we did in the first half, I think we would have had a better chance of winning this game. So, going forward, that's what is going to win us games. Defense, not offense. That's what we took from it.”
on the production of freshman Jaime Jaquez Jr. against Michigan State
“Yeah, I've been impressed with Jaime since day one. He was playing pickups with us before he even got here. I mean, he cares about winning. That's all he cares about. He lays it on the line for this team. He's a great dude. I think he's going to be a great player here.”
on UCLA’s team struggling from the 3-point arc
“Yeah, I mean, as long as we keep taking good shots, I'm not too worried about that. They will eventually fall.”
No. 3 Michigan State 75, UCLA 62
Maui Jim Maui Invitational – Fifth-Place Game
Lahaina, Hawai’i (Lahaina Civic Center)
November 27, 2019
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
opening remarks
“Obviously, a physically tough game today. I’m proud of the fact our guys out-rebounded them by one. We took care of the ball. That’s two areas of improvement for our team. Tough to win a game like that when you go 2 for 15 from three. We had some really good looks at times. Really, that's the difference in the game. We get outscored 24 to 6 at the three-point line. That and I thought there was some really tough calls. I thought Prince got one, where [he was] trying to get out of the way, and there's three times where they just dove into us and, it's a blood bath to try to get a rebound. So, I knew that was coming. Been there, done that. Guys have any questions?”
on how he felt his team responded to the challenge of playing a strong opponent in Michigan State
“I think we're still learning. We learned a lot today. Guys learned about playing with their heart. That's really what we talked about. You got play with your heart. That's 75 percent of it. Now, you got to think, you got to play smart, you got to execute, obviously, you can't beat Michigan State, go 2 for 15 from the 3-point line. We had some really good looks. We went through some different lineups. We exploited their help a little bit. We just didn't knock them down. I thought [that was] the big key of the game, [and] we should have been winning at halftime. With the looks we had from the 3-point line in the first half, we were 2 for 10. We had some great looks. But we played a lot of young guys. Jake Kyman is a young kid and he hasn't had a lot of minutes. I went to him. I thought we could use him to be able to get some clean looks and we did. But I've got faith in him. That is a building process for us. We’re still learning. It’s just, it is a night-and-day situation for some of the guys on our team. I thought that Cody Riley played with his heart today. You got to care enough to call your teammate out if he's not physical, or if he's not paying attention. So we're still learning that.”
on UCLA’s struggles with 3-point shooting
“No, we're in the 30s there. We're right where everybody else is in the conference. Today it was bad.”
on the play of Michigan State’s Xavier Tillman
“He's a good player. He's a big strong kid. What I like about him is he's not selfish. That's really what I can tell you. I think he's clearly an unselfish player. Obviously, a big and strong kid, but I don't really – I'm not familiar with him.”
on how the Bruins had scouted and planned for Xavier Tillman
“He can score in the low post. He uses the same move every time, but we did do a good enough job stopping it. But he's a good passer. His numbers show it. He's a good passer out of the post. But all their guys, they pursue the ball, they're physical, then it becomes a blood bath. Three or four times, I felt we could have had an offensive rebound put-back, and there were collisions and no cal. It is what it is. He’s a very good player, though.”
on the performance of Jaime Jaquez Jr., and how he played a season-high 35 minutes
“Hard to take him off the floor right now. Hard to take him off the floor. We're trying to, we are learning what competitive spirit is and playing with your heart. He goes after the ball. Funny as that may sound, it's pretty simplistic. If you watch the guys in green go after the ball, whether they run over people or not, they go after the ball. He goes after the ball. He got eight rebounds. He's our leading rebounder again today. We just played Michigan State. I don’t think we’ll play anybody that rebounds the way they do with the bodies that they have. He's the leading rebounder in the game, so it's just hard to take him off the floor right now.”
on whether he has seen some of Jaime’s positive spirit rub off on some other players
“He's not afraid to speak up, which I appreciate. I thought Cody started to speak up a little bit today. You look at the guys that played the most minutes, those are the two guys I thought played with the most heart today. It's really not that hard to play for me.”
on his comments Tuesday about auditions, and whether he may ultimately narrow down UCLA’s rotation
“No. I didn't get Shareef [O’Neal] in early. I thought the game got real physical, which is not his strength yet. To be honest with you, I told the staff last night I wished Kenneth [Nwuba] wasn't redshirting, as this would have been a good game for him. He's our most physical guy. No, I would like to expand the lineup. I think every coach would like would say they would like to expand the rotation. I'm sure Coach Izzo loves the fact that he's got multiple guys that can play. Right now, I'm searching for five that will play with their heart and compete. I thought we competed at a high level, it’s just hard to win when you go 2 for 15 from three against a team of their caliber, because they make shots. Which really, when the game comes down to it, the rebounding is even, the turnovers are about even, they make shots. The problem is it's hard for us to get – we had chances at offensive rebounds and there was a lot of colliding and collisions. We missed more shots than they did. So my big guys got two offensive rebounds, Riley and Hill.”
on if he’s happy with seeing some growth during UCLA’s three games in Maui
“I thought the only good thing was the way we competed physically today. And I thought that Jaime's voice – see, you guys don't know what goes on behind the scenes. Jaime is not afraid to step up and say something. Enough's enough. Somebody's got to step up and say something. I thought Cody did today. As you are trying to build a program, you have got to realize what we're going to go through. So, people look at me, people call, say, ‘Hey, don't go crazy, it's your first year.’ I get all that. But what I would tell them is, because I've done this two times, this is my third time, you can never accept losing. You can never let your players accept losing. Your players cannot accept it. They’ve got to understand that you can give great effort, which we did today in a lot of ways. But still it can't be okay. It can never be okay. It can never be okay. So I don't want to give you some sort of answer that makes you think that I think, well we grew over here, and kumbaya. It can never be okay. No matter who you play against, it cannot be okay to lose. You have to build that within your locker room.”
UCLA senior guard Prince Ali
on how today’s game fared, compared to last season’s 87-67 loss to Michigan State (in Las Vegas)
“Obviously, I think we're tougher than we were last year. We played tougher. What I remember last year, the game was over in seven minutes. This year, we played the whole game. I thought we could have given ourselves a chance to win. We had some self-inflicted errors. But overall, I thought we played hard. We played harder than last year, and I think that moving forward, we need to continue to play with that type of aggression and passion.”
on being down just three points at halftime and if the pace accelerated a bit in the second half
“It was a big difference. I think at halftime they had 26 points. We gave up almost 50 in the second half. So I mean, we knew coming in defense was going to win this game. If we had been able to replicate what we did in the first half, I think we would have had a better chance of winning this game. So, going forward, that's what is going to win us games. Defense, not offense. That's what we took from it.”
on the production of freshman Jaime Jaquez Jr. against Michigan State
“Yeah, I've been impressed with Jaime since day one. He was playing pickups with us before he even got here. I mean, he cares about winning. That's all he cares about. He lays it on the line for this team. He's a great dude. I think he's going to be a great player here.”
on UCLA’s team struggling from the 3-point arc
“Yeah, I mean, as long as we keep taking good shots, I'm not too worried about that. They will eventually fall.”