Postgame Quotes – UCLA vs. Oregon State
UCLA 81, Oregon State 65
January 15, 2022
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family Men’s Head Basketball Coach
on David Singleton
“He’s OK. I haven’t really talked to anybody yet, but he was in the locker room, he’s fine. You guys will get used to me, I err on the side of caution with my team. But yeah, I think he took a header into the bleachers. Somebody should have caught him. Wait until I see the film, somebody’s in trouble.”
on team’s performance
“Winning early in the season and winning in conference play are two different things. You guys are getting used to me being here, my third year – conference games are bloodbaths. Coaches are fighting for their life. By now, kids are sick of losing of the teams that don’t have a great record. And the fight is on. I thought we fought a lot harder as the game went on, defensively. They made some shots, though, in the first half. Points in the paint we’re plus-18, points off turnovers we’re plus-nine. So, there’s our hustle stats. We didn’t offensive rebound the ball, but we only missed 18 shots on the game. The thing I told the team, guys, is this was perfect, statistically. We got up 20 and won handily and only made two threes. Since I’ve been here, every time we try to jump-shoot our way to victory, we’re not a good team anymore. When we try to play hard, scrap, claw, fight – we’re still getting there – because they got 11 offensive rebounds. That’s something we’ve got to clean up. Now, that being said, we at five guards on the floor at times.”
on Jaylen Clark
“Played great. I told him, you’ve got to get in better shape. He hasn’t played that many game minutes. But, I thought he played great. He and Peyton Watson continue to get better. Stats mean nothing to me. I look at Peyton’s floor game, defensively; blocked shots, rebound, activity, defense, his attitude. He and Jaylen continue to improve. Huge for us. I’ve got to get Cody back on the glass. He’s only got 11 rebounds in four games since he returned.”
on Jaime Jaquez Jr.
“No, he woke up today and his ankle was swollen. They gave me some technical term for it that I have no chance – even if I wanted to tell you – the chances of me remembering whatever it is they said … It wasn’t the Long Beach State ankle, it was the other one. Woke up today and that was that.”
“By the time the game came around, the swelling was down. But again, these games are important, but his career is more important and the rest of our season’s more important. We don’t need him again until maybe Wednesday, so we might as well just give it some time. That is one of the nice things with the Pac-12, although we might have a lot of three-game weeks coming, so we better get him healthy for that.”
on playing with five guards
“Yeah, at times. It was tough to get a rebound in a high-major game against a team that big and strong. Guys look like flies next to Roman Silva out there. I was waiting for him to get a flyswatter, we were trying to jump around him. But they never quit, I thought they gave a great effort. They’re athletic, they’re not easy to play against. They competed. They made enough shots early. So, it was really what we needed, to have to take a team that’s making hard shots and find a way to get them out of it. Our energy and our effort started disrupting their flow. That was the difference for us. Our execution, we got 40 points in the paint and 21 free throws. You get 61 on layups and free throws, you’re going to win.”
on Clark’s offense
“It’s funny, because he’s improved immensely, offensively … What happened, early in the season, he got the concussion, it threw his rhythm off. It’s hard to not practice for two weeks and come back. When you’ve got a concussion, you just do absolutely nothing for two weeks. And he had a real one. Then he came back, then he had a bad cold, he was dizzy, he didn’t know if it was the concussion. So, it messed him up … they rhythm that he had grown offensively, that was showing in practice got all out of whack when that happened to him. So, that’s how he’s been playing. That’s what I was predicting in the preseason because that’s what I was seeing every day. So, it’s good to see him get out there and get in a rhythm. Jaime better hurry up. He’s in trouble.
on Clark being a “bearcat”
“Win games without making shots. Bob Huggins taught me that in 1996 and he’s won 900-and-something games with very few teams that could shoot it well. Real teams win when the ball doesn’t go in. We made two threes tonight, we won handily and scored 81 points. Real teams win when you don’t make shots. They win with toughness, togetherness, defense, hustle. All the things – and Jaylen Clark’s great at all that stuff.”
UCLA sophomore guard Jaylen Clark
on his performance tonight
“I just saw it as an opportunity. What happened to Jaime [Jaquez Jr.] was unfortunate, but it gave me the opportunity to go out there and show what I could do. I just really wanted to make the most out of it. I know people know I can defend the ball; today, I was put in spots where I could score that I normally would not have, so I just tried to make the most out of it.”
on his mental preparation to be ready to play
“I feel like on this team, you’ve always got to be ready. You guys don’t see our practices; 1-10 we can all really play. It was just an opportunity for me to step up and, like I said, just make the most out of my opportunity.”
UCLA junior guard Johnny Juzang
on what the practices were like leading up to the game after Thursday’s loss
“We definitely refocused, made sure we were preparing to win. We were working on little things and intensity. So really sharp preparation and also working on being disruptive. Sometimes you can scout teams and run through their plays and scout teams, and you can scout teams to disrupt their plays. So that was a good adjustment for us.”
Oregon State head coach Wayne Tinkle
overall message to the team
“It was a tough game. I give them (UCLA) a lot of credit. This is as active as they’ve been on defense in a long time. They really got to the rim and hit some mid-range shots. Coach [Cronin] really got them pumped up after the loss. I really give them credit. It’s been really tough for us. Our second consecutive game on the road. We were just too loose with the ball. We got careless in the second half. We really had problems; either we gave them high-percentage shots, or we fouled them. Our guys are really working their tails off. We’re fighting, and we’re not giving in.”
on Johnny Juzang’s performance
“He is a tough guard; he has size, spin moves and that pull-up. He’s a very athletic kid. A really good kid. And without Jaime [Jaquez Jr.] out there, he really stepped up. [Jaylen] Clark really stepped up as well. He made some key buckets.”
on where the team goes from here
“We get to go home, and we just need a spark. We just need that one spark. We will continue to fight and grind; we’re going to continue to coach them. “