Postgame Quotes - UCLA vs. Washington State
POSTGAME QUOTES
UCLA 86, Washington State 83 (OT)
Feb. 13, 2020
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
opening remarks
“They made a lot of shots on us. Made shots early. I think it was his (Coach Kyle Smith’s) game plan. He’s a great coach and combine that with I don’t think our energy was where it needed to be at the defensive end, so we started trying to trap, started trying to press and trap to wake our guys up. Comfortable teams shoot a high percentage and they were extremely comfortable for a long period of time. A lot of that was their strategy, obviously, with five man (Jeff Pollard) getting four threes. I don’t think he’s made four all season, but you’ve got to adjust. Made enough plays, to me, to go overtime. Obviously, Cody (Riley) was huge for us… huge for us. I thought Tyger (Campbell) was extremely tired at times. His free throws were product of just a freshman playing a lot of minutes, a lot of excitement, expended a lot of energy. Got to try to get him through the last six games as much as we can. Get him as much rest and rehab as possible. I was happy to see Dave (Singleton) make a few big shots, as well. He gives us great leadership, which we desperately need on this team, since we’re so young.”
on having never seen a player score 11 points in overtime before
“You never saw me play in high school, did you? … Yeah, that’s the definition of beast mode. That was beast made. He just did a great job of… we worked hard with him, you know, I think he was a guy that his whole life, he scored because of his size and now he has to score with technique and fakes and balance. So, he did a great job of getting his second foot planted, which gave him strength around the rim. The way he was doing, you could see he was on a mission.”
on this being the start of a tournament
“One-game tournament. That’s it. You get another one on Saturday. That’s got to be our mindset. We’ve got to play with desperation. We didn’t play with desperation, defensively, to start this game. And it’s a dangerous thing, but we come out and we missed a lot of open shots and that’s where you’ve got to step your defense up. I thought we were a little offensive sensitive, which is a dangerous thing as a team. But, eventually we turned it around in spite of what I thought was a great performance by Washington State. I will say this, we had one assist at halftime and ended up with 17. But we were passing the ball in the first half. We just couldn’t get a shot to go down. Jules (Bernard) missed two layups. He’s not trying to miss them. Just couldn’t get one to go in.”
on his team’s resiliency
“Well, you know, I think we’ve grown up a lot… We’ve grown up a lot and I think some guys will take… when Coach is talking, it all sounds like excuses, but the reality of, for our guys, is that none of them have been in the position where they had to play well or UCLA wasn’t going to win. And now all the guys that play are now in that position for the first time. They might’ve played, but they didn’t have to play well for UCLA to win. So, it’s a responsibility of being able to play every play, be an every-play guy—not an everyday—you got to be an every play guy… so it takes time to become that guy, it really does. But the guys did what they had to do, they dug it out and our offensive rebounding, I thought, kept us in it until we finally started making a few shots. Chris (Smith), especially, had seven offensive. We would have been down double figures at halftime if it wasn’t for the offensive glass. We couldn’t make a shot.”
on being first win when team has given up 70 points
“They had 69 in regulation so… But you know you got to win the games, there’s a lot of ways you’ve got to win games. They made shots, they made a lot of plays, we had a lot of dumb fouls late. They shot, I know, six of their last eight points were on free throws, so you’ve got to answer them, be ready to answer them. I mean, if you’re not going to stop them, you’ve got to answer them, you have to put the ball in the basket, or you’re not going to win. Even in overtime, Cody (Riley) was doing his thing and we couldn’t get a stop the first couple possessions.”
UCLA junior guard Chris Smith
on his shot that forced overtime soon after missing a shot
“I was just trying to get on to the next play. I missed, and I was trying to get back and get a stop on defense. It just happened that I had the ball in my hands at the time, and I got an open look. My teammates and coaches tell me to take the open looks, and I hit it. That’s all I was thinking.”
on Cody Riley’s play in overtime
“I was loving it; that’s my dawg. We got in the huddle and I was like ‘man, play defense and feed Cody.’ We did those two things, and we got the dub.”
on the preparation he had on the offensive boards
“There’s no real preparation. I’m always a crasher, no matter who shoots it. If I shoot it, I’m crashing, if he shoots it, I’m crashing. Balls are just bouncing my way. When I get a chance to get a rebound, I grab it.”
UCLA redshirt sophomore forward Cody Riley
on his play in overtime
“Once I got the ball in the post and saw it go in, it gave me a lot of confidence. My teammates got me the ball in the right position, and I was just rebounding aggressively, and the ball went in. It was a good feeling.”
on how his defense feeds into his offensive game
“To be honest, I play one possession at a time. At that time, I was just thinking about getting a stop. Once I saw him going to the basket, I figured he was going to pass it, so I got the block and then you just have to figure out how to score.”
on how this performance ranks for him in his career
“I know I had a game where I had 20 points, but I don’t really pay attention to that. I’m just excited we got the win. It’s all about the team. It’s not really about me. It’s about the team, and we got the win, and we’re trying to go on a streak and win a lot of games and make the tournament. That’s the goal. That’s what we’re really focused on right now.”
UCLA freshman guard/forward Jaime Jaquez Jr.
on the growth of the team after the last game at WSU
“I think definitely as a team we’re making the steps forward to becoming a really good team and becoming a team that other teams are scared to play. We knew going into overtime that we didn’t want a repeat of what happened last time. We went out there, played as hard as we could and got the W.”
on seeing Cody go on a surge in overtime
“He was a monster tonight. That’s all I have to say. He was a monster.”
on what the team talked about at halftime
“At halftime, we were just talking about stops and playing defense. We didn’t play the defense we wanted in the first half, so the second half coming out we just all locked in and tried to get stops one stop at a time and then go to offense, take care of the ball, get a good shot and go from there. One stop at a time was kind of our mentality going into the second half.”
on what the team said down 12 points in the second half
“We said possession by possession. We’ve been in that position a lot of times, and a lot of times, we let it slip away. This was a big step forward in the right direction because we didn’t let it slip away this time. We just kept battling and battling, and eventually we got the W. So we’re making the right steps forward to be a really good team.”
Washington State head coach Kyle Smith
on the last play of regulation
“It was really tough. We knew we would have to have a guy to turn the corner. I didn’t really want to call time out. I just thought we would have gotten a better shot.”
on if he thought he should have called the time out before the end of regulation
“No. I usually don’t call a time out in that situation. I figured Isaac has been playing well, especially in the pick-and-roll, so I thought we had a chance.”
on their road record
“We’ve had no moral victories. We haven’t handled success well. It’s been tough for us to finish. We couldn’t keep (Cody) Riley off the glass.”
on where they go from here
“We’ve got to go to Galen (Center) and play USC.”
Washington State senior forward Jeff Pollard
on tonight’s game
“We’ve got to learn from this and put this behind us.”
on his performance
“I felt the team played pretty good. We just have to take care of the ball down the stretch. We just have to do the little things. Overall, we had our chances down the stretch, but a couple things didn’t go our way.”
on where they go from here
“We’ve got to take the next game, the next possession and the next play. We have to learn from this and get ready for USC.”