Postgame Quotes – UCLA vs. Illinois
POSTGAME QUOTES
No. 19 Illinois 79, No. 8 UCLA 70
Continental Tire Main Event
Las Vegas, Nev. (T-Mobile Arena)
UCLA head coach Mick Cronin
The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
opening remarks
“My only statement will be that I’ll congratulate Illinois. I thought their effort to win the game was awesome. I wish I had been watching the game as a fan. Brad is a great coach.”
on Illinois making a second-half comeback to defeat UCLA
“This is really simple. They were a lot tougher than us in a lot of areas. We wilted. When the heat got turned up and the game got physical, they refused to go away. We caved. That’s my fault.”
on what you try and do to contain a scorer such as Terrence Shannon Jr.”
“Don’t let him shoot. But of course with our team right now, we are worried about offense. So we don’t hear defensive assignments. We don’t hear defensive adjustments. We don’t hear scouting report. We think we are great. The oldest trick in the book – show me the guy that is not humble, and I’ll show you the guy who is getting ready to be humbled.”
on a crowd that had many Illinois fans
“I could care less about the crowd. I respect you and your question, but that doesn’t matter to me.”
on what led to UCLA building a lead at halftime and early in the second half
“Execution. We were tough with the ball, executing at a high clip. But then the game got turned up, and they made it a street fight and it’s really clear who won that.”
on his thoughts on Jaylen Clark’s performance
“I have no positive thoughts on any UCLA player’s performance. Not one, including the coach.”
on pressure applied by Illinois’ Sencire Harris and what he noticed
“Nothing. I coach UCLA. I apologize, but you’re asking me about a guy who played nine minutes and had four points. I’m sure he’s a good kid and I’m sure he played hard.”
on concerns about UCLA’s scoring and a balance of scorers
“I’m concerned that we gave up 79 [points], 51 in the second half. That is going to send you home against real teams. I don’t care if it is November. And I guarantee you in March, you’re going home.”
on what he saw with Illinois
“I thought that they had tremendous fight. Obviously, they had a guy making every shot and that didn’t hurt. I don’t judge things off of that. I judge things off their blocked shots, their effort, their intensity level. That is what I was impressed with. But again, it’s one game. So the team with humility usually wins. They’re willing to do those things that it takes to win. I knew that we were in trouble in practice yesterday. I had guys telling me, ‘Don’t worry.’ We are going to hang a banner because we beat Norfolk State.”
on a game against Illinois feeling like a precursor to Big Ten play, and thoughts on the conference move
“It will be an adjustment, I mean, we don’t have enough time for that. But the venues in the Big Ten are awesome. College towns. Illinois and you keep going around there, Indiana, Purdue, you are talking about a lot of teams with great fan-bases. It will be a huge adjustment. The scary part of that for us will be my assessment of what has happened to teams like Syracuse since they left the Big East and UConn since they left, now they went back which is a great move. But you can’t lose your identity. It will be a challenge.”
on what changed in the second half, as Illinois reduced UCLA’s lead
“Well in coaching terms, they muddied the game up. So we could not execute. They put the pressure on. To be honest, I’m surprised with our veterans, the way they didn’t handle it. But again, I’m their coach. So if we did not handle something well, we didn’t prepare well enough. But I was very surprised.”
UCLA senior Jaime Jaquez Jr.
on what went wrong for the Bruins
“We just take responsibility for the way we played. Obviously we did not play to what we know we can and what we’re capable of. We just take responsibility, watch film, learn, get tougher and move on to the next game.”
on what made Illinois’ defensive pressure so hard for UCLA to handle
“We just did not handle it well. We weren’t tough enough to handle their pressure. They came at us and we, like coach said, we just folded. There’s nothing really more to it.”
on Illinois' Terrence Shannon Jr. and what made him hard to guard
“Obviously he made eight threes. We didn’t guard the 3-point shot the way we needed to. I think that really opened up the game. The 3-point shot is really crucial in today’s game, and we were not able to stop it.”
No. 19 Illinois 79, No. 8 UCLA 70
Continental Tire Main Event
Las Vegas, Nev. (T-Mobile Arena)
UCLA head coach Mick Cronin
The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
opening remarks
“My only statement will be that I’ll congratulate Illinois. I thought their effort to win the game was awesome. I wish I had been watching the game as a fan. Brad is a great coach.”
on Illinois making a second-half comeback to defeat UCLA
“This is really simple. They were a lot tougher than us in a lot of areas. We wilted. When the heat got turned up and the game got physical, they refused to go away. We caved. That’s my fault.”
on what you try and do to contain a scorer such as Terrence Shannon Jr.”
“Don’t let him shoot. But of course with our team right now, we are worried about offense. So we don’t hear defensive assignments. We don’t hear defensive adjustments. We don’t hear scouting report. We think we are great. The oldest trick in the book – show me the guy that is not humble, and I’ll show you the guy who is getting ready to be humbled.”
on a crowd that had many Illinois fans
“I could care less about the crowd. I respect you and your question, but that doesn’t matter to me.”
on what led to UCLA building a lead at halftime and early in the second half
“Execution. We were tough with the ball, executing at a high clip. But then the game got turned up, and they made it a street fight and it’s really clear who won that.”
on his thoughts on Jaylen Clark’s performance
“I have no positive thoughts on any UCLA player’s performance. Not one, including the coach.”
on pressure applied by Illinois’ Sencire Harris and what he noticed
“Nothing. I coach UCLA. I apologize, but you’re asking me about a guy who played nine minutes and had four points. I’m sure he’s a good kid and I’m sure he played hard.”
on concerns about UCLA’s scoring and a balance of scorers
“I’m concerned that we gave up 79 [points], 51 in the second half. That is going to send you home against real teams. I don’t care if it is November. And I guarantee you in March, you’re going home.”
on what he saw with Illinois
“I thought that they had tremendous fight. Obviously, they had a guy making every shot and that didn’t hurt. I don’t judge things off of that. I judge things off their blocked shots, their effort, their intensity level. That is what I was impressed with. But again, it’s one game. So the team with humility usually wins. They’re willing to do those things that it takes to win. I knew that we were in trouble in practice yesterday. I had guys telling me, ‘Don’t worry.’ We are going to hang a banner because we beat Norfolk State.”
on a game against Illinois feeling like a precursor to Big Ten play, and thoughts on the conference move
“It will be an adjustment, I mean, we don’t have enough time for that. But the venues in the Big Ten are awesome. College towns. Illinois and you keep going around there, Indiana, Purdue, you are talking about a lot of teams with great fan-bases. It will be a huge adjustment. The scary part of that for us will be my assessment of what has happened to teams like Syracuse since they left the Big East and UConn since they left, now they went back which is a great move. But you can’t lose your identity. It will be a challenge.”
on what changed in the second half, as Illinois reduced UCLA’s lead
“Well in coaching terms, they muddied the game up. So we could not execute. They put the pressure on. To be honest, I’m surprised with our veterans, the way they didn’t handle it. But again, I’m their coach. So if we did not handle something well, we didn’t prepare well enough. But I was very surprised.”
UCLA senior Jaime Jaquez Jr.
on what went wrong for the Bruins
“We just take responsibility for the way we played. Obviously we did not play to what we know we can and what we’re capable of. We just take responsibility, watch film, learn, get tougher and move on to the next game.”
on what made Illinois’ defensive pressure so hard for UCLA to handle
“We just did not handle it well. We weren’t tough enough to handle their pressure. They came at us and we, like coach said, we just folded. There’s nothing really more to it.”
on Illinois' Terrence Shannon Jr. and what made him hard to guard
“Obviously he made eight threes. We didn’t guard the 3-point shot the way we needed to. I think that really opened up the game. The 3-point shot is really crucial in today’s game, and we were not able to stop it.”