POSTGAME QUOTES
UCLA 76, Utah 61
Salt Lake City, Utah
February 25, 2021
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
on whether this was UCLA’s best start-to-finish performance of the season
“Utah is a very good team. We made them look average tonight. I thought our guys played excellent defense. Utah got hot late and started firing in some threes or we would have had a chance to hold them to 50, to be honest with you. I thought once we stopped turning it over early, we calmed down and, offensively, our execution got really, really good for a long stretch of time. When we take our time and share the ball, we get the mismatch we want against their switching and attack it, then we can get back on defense. We can set our defense. That was really our game plan. Keep them out of transition by running good offense and executing on offense. When you get on the road if you take your time and execute on offense and make the other team play 5-on-5. You can’t throw gas on the fire with home teams and let them get steals, blocks, take bad shots and next thing you know they are running it down your throat on a 10-0 run. We never let them get that type of run on us. I think that’s why it was one of our best performances start to finish.”
on getting the ball in the post to Cody Riley
“It’s the first time he’s been healthy in three weeks so it’s huge for us. We have shooters and you can establish the low post when you have shooters then you see your offense flow like ours did tonight. He had bounce in his step yesterday, really the last couple of days. He blocked a shot on a run yesterday and I was like, 'Oh, okay.' He hadn't even come close to doing anything like that in a couple weeks. Tonight was the closest he has been to 100 percent since the ankle injury. That was huge for us.”
on the play of Jules Bernard
“He played a great game. Jules is a guy when he takes his time, he can really shoot and then his strength comes into play. He gives us some athleticism and some toughness and some rebounding. We desperately need that with Chris Smith out. We need him in the lineup for athletic reasons and toughness reasons.”
junior guard Jules Bernard
on how far this team can go in March
“I've said it a lot this season, we have a lot of weapons. When we play together and play with confidence, I feel like we are a very tough team to stop, especially when our defense is going like it was today. When we are getting deflections and then we are rolling on the offensive side I feel like we are a very tough team to stop.”
on the team’s confidence this season
“Just throughout practice the coaches have been telling us to play with confidence, make the right plays, be aggressive, pass when they converge on you but when you are open shoot the ball, and if you have an opportunity to score, score. They have been really preaching confidence and I think that encouragement helps our team.”
on the team being in sync with four players scoring in double digits
“I feel like we had a couple open opportunities, especially coming off of our screens, our side pick and roll screens. They went under on a few of us and we knocked them in and I feel like those open shots sort of got us going and caught us in a flow. From there we kept getting open shots and knocking them in. I feel like those early open shots really helped us throughout the game.”
UCLA 76, Utah 61
Salt Lake City, Utah
February 25, 2021
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
on whether this was UCLA’s best start-to-finish performance of the season
“Utah is a very good team. We made them look average tonight. I thought our guys played excellent defense. Utah got hot late and started firing in some threes or we would have had a chance to hold them to 50, to be honest with you. I thought once we stopped turning it over early, we calmed down and, offensively, our execution got really, really good for a long stretch of time. When we take our time and share the ball, we get the mismatch we want against their switching and attack it, then we can get back on defense. We can set our defense. That was really our game plan. Keep them out of transition by running good offense and executing on offense. When you get on the road if you take your time and execute on offense and make the other team play 5-on-5. You can’t throw gas on the fire with home teams and let them get steals, blocks, take bad shots and next thing you know they are running it down your throat on a 10-0 run. We never let them get that type of run on us. I think that’s why it was one of our best performances start to finish.”
on getting the ball in the post to Cody Riley
“It’s the first time he’s been healthy in three weeks so it’s huge for us. We have shooters and you can establish the low post when you have shooters then you see your offense flow like ours did tonight. He had bounce in his step yesterday, really the last couple of days. He blocked a shot on a run yesterday and I was like, 'Oh, okay.' He hadn't even come close to doing anything like that in a couple weeks. Tonight was the closest he has been to 100 percent since the ankle injury. That was huge for us.”
on the play of Jules Bernard
“He played a great game. Jules is a guy when he takes his time, he can really shoot and then his strength comes into play. He gives us some athleticism and some toughness and some rebounding. We desperately need that with Chris Smith out. We need him in the lineup for athletic reasons and toughness reasons.”
junior guard Jules Bernard
on how far this team can go in March
“I've said it a lot this season, we have a lot of weapons. When we play together and play with confidence, I feel like we are a very tough team to stop, especially when our defense is going like it was today. When we are getting deflections and then we are rolling on the offensive side I feel like we are a very tough team to stop.”
on the team’s confidence this season
“Just throughout practice the coaches have been telling us to play with confidence, make the right plays, be aggressive, pass when they converge on you but when you are open shoot the ball, and if you have an opportunity to score, score. They have been really preaching confidence and I think that encouragement helps our team.”
on the team being in sync with four players scoring in double digits
“I feel like we had a couple open opportunities, especially coming off of our screens, our side pick and roll screens. They went under on a few of us and we knocked them in and I feel like those open shots sort of got us going and caught us in a flow. From there we kept getting open shots and knocking them in. I feel like those early open shots really helped us throughout the game.”