Postgame Quotes – UCLA vs. Arizona State
POSTGAME QUOTES
UCLA 80, Arizona State 79
February 20, 2021
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
on Jaylen Clark’s performance with the late rebound and game-winning free throw
“To be honest with you, the rebound was the key. He doesn’t stand around and watch. A lot of guys stand around and watch when Tyger [Campbell] is going to make a wide open four-footer. Jaylen’s pursuit of the ball is probably the best thing he does right now on offense. It lets him exploit his athleticism in a positive way. He’s a really good free throw shooter. I know he’s a freshman and all, but today’s kid, you play for Etiwanda and Centennial the way he did, he played for the Compton Magic, he’s played in big games. You can see he settled down on the second one. He is a very good free throw shooter, so I wasn’t that nervous about that. I wanted him to make the first and miss the second so they couldn’t take it out of bounds.”
on the Bruins’ defense getting several stops in the final few minutes
“So, a few times we tried to change things up. We put Jaylen Clark in at the five a couple times to know if we could switch everything. I was trying to throw the kitchen sink at them, changing up our coverages – did some zone, everything we could to try to slow them down because Remy [Martin] was on one of those rolls. And so was Alonzo Verge. Then you had [Jaelen] House hit a three and [Holland] Woods, which I think he missed his last three, there was ton that Woods and House their auxiliary guys were 4-for-4 from three. It was just their night there for a while, but the only thing that matters on that stat sheet guys is the final score. I kept telling our guys down the stretch then, ‘You cannot come back if you don’t maximize possessions, because you can’t shut them out.’ We stopped turning the ball over. I think we had one in the last 13 minutes. Johnny had a charge. That was really our only turnover in the last 13 minutes.”
on career win No. 400, and whether defense and free throws have been his trademarks
“Yeah, I guess. Getting older, it’s my 18th year. I’ve had a lot of different type of teams. My first year, I thought I was going to be the next Coach Wooden. We averaged 82 a game, we were second in the nation in assists and field goal percentage. Then everybody graduated and I realized I was far from Coach Wooden. Now, I’m just trying to make him and his family here proud. It’s a long road, I guess. I don’t really think about that stuff, but that was very nice of [UCLA Athletic Director] Martin Jarmond presenting me with the game ball in the locker room after the game.”
on If he has ever won a game in which his squad secured its first lead with less than two seconds left
“I don’t know. I don’t think so, but I do not know the answer. I think that happened one time at Cincinnati where we tied somebody. We ran a play, dunked it at the buzzer, and then won in overtime, but I’m not sure if we trailed the entire game that game. I just remember we ran a play, it looked like I actually knew what the heck I was doing, we got a dunk at the buzzer, and we won in overtime. But I’m not sure if we trailed the entire game. I would probably say no. I would probably say no.”
on switching to a zone defense for Arizona State’s final possession
“I’ll tell you my opinion from a lifetime of doing this sitting next to my dad at two years old behind his bench, so I’ve been behind a bench my whole life. They called a foul on the rebound and Tyger got fouled. We tied the game on that. I just felt that with their speed and quickness they were going to drive the ball and jump into us and they were going to call a foul on us. It was a tie game. I didn’t want to lose the game at the foul line. I think if you’re going to lose the game, you’ve got to try to make somebody make a shot to beat you. I told the guys in the huddle that’s why I wanted to do it. We were pretty confident we knew what they were going to do against the zone. We had Jules and Tyger at the front of the zone with the pick and roll and the blind side, and they did a great job defensively at the front of the zone dealing with that. They drew up what was coming, and the key was getting the rebound. I did that since I figured they were going to just drive at us, and the whistle was going to blow. If we lose, you say, ‘What the heck is he doing in the zone, man?’ If we won, I’m going to get something to eat.”