Postgame Quotes - UCLA vs. Long Beach State
POSTGAME QUOTES
UCLA 69, Long Beach State 65
November 6, 2019
For audio file of UCLA press conference, visit https://soundcloud.com/ucla-athletics
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
opening remarks
“If you can be in a dogfight and win, you get a lot more out of it than if you’re blowing some team out that can’t play basketball with you at home. Give them a lot of credit, though, especially Chance Hunter hit some really hard shots. We’ve got a lot of growth as a team to do. We’re still trying to figure out who to play and with who. Trying to figure out roles on this team and not turn the ball over… we had 42 (points) in the second half because we only had four turnovers. You can’t rebound a turnover. You’re not going to get fouled off a turnover. If we don’t turn the ball over, we’ve got a chance to be a decent offensive team. I think we got a lot of guys nervous when it comes to shooting the ball, but that’s to be expected. The three guys that took the most shots by far on this team are gone, so it’s just going to take us time to find a rhythm, offensively, as we get young guys comfortable. Like I said, great win, give Long Beach State credit. Like I said, they hit a lot of tough shots. Once we stopped giving them layups, we gave ourselves a chance to win the game. We gave up too many layups. We’re still nowhere near where we need to be, defensively because we’ve got to be a great defensive-rebounding team early on until we can get all the young guys comfortable and get some cohesiveness on the offensive end. And I’ll add this for you guys with the questions: this was a hard game for our players to open up with because they play five different defenses, so it’s a lot for young guys to deal with in an opening game.”
on if what he saw tonight was expected from his team
“We’re plus-nine on the glass, second-chance points, difference in the game. Fastbreak. A little bit. In practice, we don’t have a standout guy. We had different guys. There are days Jaime Jaquez has been our best player in practice. You go down the list, we’ve had a lot of days with different guys being the best player… Offensively, I think Cody (Riley) in the low post is probably our best scoring option with the situation. He can finish with strength around the rim. He’s got explosiveness, he’s very tough. What you’ve got to remember is Tyger (Campbell) is a really good player, but he’s a young kid. He’s never played college basketball before and I’m asking him to play a lot of minutes. He’s going to have a great career. We’re just asking a lot of him right now.”
UCLA redshirt freshman guard Tyger Campbell
on if playing 38 minutes tonight was hard on him fatigue-wise
"I wouldn't say so. I'm willing to do whatever I need to do to get the W. Whatever Coach needs of me."
on getting into his first college game
"It was amazing! All the people who came out; it was amazing to see the Den and all the students who came out, looking out into the crowd and seeing my family. It was a great experience, and I'm excited to play all these games in Pauley."
UCLA junior guard Chris Smith
on physical style of basketball
"Last thing Coach said before we went out before tipoff was be the first team on the floor. That just goes a long way. Defense is always something we can control, and playing harder than the other team is always something we can control. We try to do both of those every night."
UCLA redshirt senior guard Prince Ali
on the team's character tonight
"We saw a lot of resilience, a team that was hungry and guys that just wanted to win. When you've got that, it always gives you a chance to win, and that's why we got the W tonight."
on his sprained ankle
"The ankle's a work in progress. But it's the season opener, so I have to come out here and play. It's a work in progress; I'll continue to work on it."
on getting sentimental over his last season opener
"I appreciate you bringing it up. I guess I'm a little sentimental now. I love UCLA. UCLA is a great school. The student section is great. We've got a whole school year, and I'm just looking forward to the rest of the season. Shoutout to the Den, shoutout to the UCLA students, shoutout to everybody. It was a great game; it was a great crowd. It helped us late and brought our energy up, so shoutout to them."
Long Beach State head coach Dan Monson
opening remarks
“We played six players (out of nine) who have never scored a point here and have never scored a point in a college game. I was pleased overall, but I feel the pain for these guys that we couldn’t close out the contest. We have to stretch out these type of games. Our guys are just not seasoned enough. We just have to learn how to close out these games.”
on what him team can learn from tonight’s experience
“We played so well, but we didn’t take advantage of the opportunity to close out these type of games. We are improving. We played better tonight than we played in the two scrimmages that we had. I felt like we had UCLA off-balance, but those last two minutes, we couldn’t take advantage of them.”
Long Beach State junior guard Drew Cobb
opening remarks
“Individually, I felt like I was good in some areas, but in some areas I need to improve. As a team, we played really well, but we kind of relaxed in the second half and they punched us in the mouth. The last two minutes, they really showed more poise than we did.”
on where team goes from here
“We get right back at it. We get in the gym and clean up some things and get ready for Saturday.”