Postgame Quotes – UCLA at Arizona State
POSTGAME QUOTES
Arizona State 87, UCLA 84 (3OT)
Desert Financial Arena (Tempe, Ariz.)
February 5, 2022
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
on if he agrees a few guys are out of sorts
“No. I don’t know. I’m worried about our team, not a few guys. It’s a great responsibility when you play at UCLA and you’re coming off a Final Four. Teams can’t wait to play you. Fans can’t wait to see you. We weren’t ready for that this week. We dug two holes, fought back. We lost the game because of ill-advised fouls. I know you probably printed stuff about my record in close games, which is why I have the record I have as a head coach – because my teams play smart. I take a lot of pride in that, so it’s really, really mind-boggling. Cody’s foul when we’re up two, then Tyger’s foul when we’re up two. Then the next overtime, Jules did it again. All off the ball fouls – pushing a guy, running over a guy, you know the plays I’m talking about. You’ve seen us play. We don’t do that, maybe that’s what you mean by out of sorts. Obviously, we’re not shooting the ball well. We can’t control that. We didn’t miss a shot today in shootaround. I had a friend of mine in coaching who’s sitting this year out who was at our practice today. He said, ‘I’ve never seen anything like that.’ As we were going through our gameplan, our offense, literally we might have made 30 out of 32 threes. It was crazy. That happens though. That’s why I always talk to you guys about you need to win when you don’t make shots, because that happens. You need to defend. We had 21 deflections in 55 minutes. Our defense goes right back to the drawing board.”
on problems on defensive end of the floor
“You’re on the road. Look, they played great. They played tremendously. Happy for [Bobby] Hurley. Give them a lot of credit. I thought their activity, their excitement to be in this game far exceeded ours for the first 25 to 30 minutes. Their energy, their effort were off the charts. I told the guys at halftime, ‘What did you guys think? Did you think they were just going to come out and lay down?’ I know if I were a player on the West Coast, I wouldn’t be able to wait to play a team that went to the Final Four and was ranked in the top five. I think a lot of it has to do with their energy and their effort. We’re just struggling shooting the ball right now.”
on Jaime Jaquez Jr.’s inbound pass at the end of the first overtime
“We survived it. No excuse for it. We have a listening problem. He was told not to throw a lob, not to throw it long – to throw a line drive right to Myles. I wanted the guy to try and reach in on Myles and foul him. Right now, we’re really struggling to execute the game plan. Really struggling with that.”
on how to re-capture previous momentum with two more road games coming up
“I don’t much stock in it when everybody says that. That’s why I don’t follow any media. I just try to stay focused because I know that in high-major basketball, especially what I’ve learned at UCLA, everybody is ready to play against you. If we didn’t play well tonight, we weren’t going to win. We didn’t shoot the ball well. Defensively, we didn’t get the job done. We get another chance to get a win on Tuesday and, again, if they had more energy and effort than us and we’re not able to play harder than them, we’re going to rely on our shooting. It’s a slippery slope. You’ll be in trouble. Right now, we’re struggling shooting the three, the last three games. Even the Stanford win. Three games in a row.”
on Jules Bernard’s minutes late in the game
“I was rotating, trying to get guys in there. David played a lot because David listens. They’re a steal team. Johnny and Jules struggled at times, passing the ball. David will shoot when he’s open and pass when he’s not. He’s a good block out guy – we were struggling with block outs. David had a lot of good looks. What was he, 1-for-5? He’s the best shooter in the league over the last two or three years. Maybe his whole time [at UCLA].”
junior guard/forward Jaime Jaquez Jr.
on not being able to pull out the win tonight
“I think it was a lot of things. I think it was just a lot of dumb errors on our part. Fouling when we didn’t need to foul. Giving up too many shots, too many good looks for them. The ball doesn’t go in all the time – it is what it is. I think it was really just our dumb errors that cost us this game.”
on inbound pass at the end of the first overtime
“I over-sailed it. I tried to hit [Myles Johnson]. I tried to get it high enough for him to go get it, but I just overthrew it.”
on knowing that they will get an opponent’s best effort
“As we go on a little hot streak there before these past two games, we kind of forget that teams are coming for us and we weren’t the aggressor this game. We need to constantly be the aggressor. That’s what happened tonight. Until late, but by that time, we didn’t come out victorious.”
on coming back from an 11-point deficit to tie the game in regulation
“Just trying to fight back, do whatever we can to win. We really wanted to win this game, but it was just the will and the want. Trying to get as many deflections as we can, but we all sustained that for so long and I think that’s why we lost.”
on the team’s spirit after consecutive losses
“On to the next one. We have a game on Tuesday. We need to learn from our mistakes. We need to learn from these games and do whatever we can to push forward and move on to the next one. It’s a long season. We’re going to learn from this. We’re not going to hang our heads. We’re going to keep moving forward because we know what the ultimate goal is and we’re not going to let a few games sway our confidence by any means. So, just keep on to the next.”
on quick turnaround to Tuesday’s game at Stanford
“It’s the beauty of basketball. We’ve got another one.”
Arizona State 87, UCLA 84 (3OT)
Desert Financial Arena (Tempe, Ariz.)
February 5, 2022
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
on if he agrees a few guys are out of sorts
“No. I don’t know. I’m worried about our team, not a few guys. It’s a great responsibility when you play at UCLA and you’re coming off a Final Four. Teams can’t wait to play you. Fans can’t wait to see you. We weren’t ready for that this week. We dug two holes, fought back. We lost the game because of ill-advised fouls. I know you probably printed stuff about my record in close games, which is why I have the record I have as a head coach – because my teams play smart. I take a lot of pride in that, so it’s really, really mind-boggling. Cody’s foul when we’re up two, then Tyger’s foul when we’re up two. Then the next overtime, Jules did it again. All off the ball fouls – pushing a guy, running over a guy, you know the plays I’m talking about. You’ve seen us play. We don’t do that, maybe that’s what you mean by out of sorts. Obviously, we’re not shooting the ball well. We can’t control that. We didn’t miss a shot today in shootaround. I had a friend of mine in coaching who’s sitting this year out who was at our practice today. He said, ‘I’ve never seen anything like that.’ As we were going through our gameplan, our offense, literally we might have made 30 out of 32 threes. It was crazy. That happens though. That’s why I always talk to you guys about you need to win when you don’t make shots, because that happens. You need to defend. We had 21 deflections in 55 minutes. Our defense goes right back to the drawing board.”
on problems on defensive end of the floor
“You’re on the road. Look, they played great. They played tremendously. Happy for [Bobby] Hurley. Give them a lot of credit. I thought their activity, their excitement to be in this game far exceeded ours for the first 25 to 30 minutes. Their energy, their effort were off the charts. I told the guys at halftime, ‘What did you guys think? Did you think they were just going to come out and lay down?’ I know if I were a player on the West Coast, I wouldn’t be able to wait to play a team that went to the Final Four and was ranked in the top five. I think a lot of it has to do with their energy and their effort. We’re just struggling shooting the ball right now.”
on Jaime Jaquez Jr.’s inbound pass at the end of the first overtime
“We survived it. No excuse for it. We have a listening problem. He was told not to throw a lob, not to throw it long – to throw a line drive right to Myles. I wanted the guy to try and reach in on Myles and foul him. Right now, we’re really struggling to execute the game plan. Really struggling with that.”
on how to re-capture previous momentum with two more road games coming up
“I don’t much stock in it when everybody says that. That’s why I don’t follow any media. I just try to stay focused because I know that in high-major basketball, especially what I’ve learned at UCLA, everybody is ready to play against you. If we didn’t play well tonight, we weren’t going to win. We didn’t shoot the ball well. Defensively, we didn’t get the job done. We get another chance to get a win on Tuesday and, again, if they had more energy and effort than us and we’re not able to play harder than them, we’re going to rely on our shooting. It’s a slippery slope. You’ll be in trouble. Right now, we’re struggling shooting the three, the last three games. Even the Stanford win. Three games in a row.”
on Jules Bernard’s minutes late in the game
“I was rotating, trying to get guys in there. David played a lot because David listens. They’re a steal team. Johnny and Jules struggled at times, passing the ball. David will shoot when he’s open and pass when he’s not. He’s a good block out guy – we were struggling with block outs. David had a lot of good looks. What was he, 1-for-5? He’s the best shooter in the league over the last two or three years. Maybe his whole time [at UCLA].”
junior guard/forward Jaime Jaquez Jr.
on not being able to pull out the win tonight
“I think it was a lot of things. I think it was just a lot of dumb errors on our part. Fouling when we didn’t need to foul. Giving up too many shots, too many good looks for them. The ball doesn’t go in all the time – it is what it is. I think it was really just our dumb errors that cost us this game.”
on inbound pass at the end of the first overtime
“I over-sailed it. I tried to hit [Myles Johnson]. I tried to get it high enough for him to go get it, but I just overthrew it.”
on knowing that they will get an opponent’s best effort
“As we go on a little hot streak there before these past two games, we kind of forget that teams are coming for us and we weren’t the aggressor this game. We need to constantly be the aggressor. That’s what happened tonight. Until late, but by that time, we didn’t come out victorious.”
on coming back from an 11-point deficit to tie the game in regulation
“Just trying to fight back, do whatever we can to win. We really wanted to win this game, but it was just the will and the want. Trying to get as many deflections as we can, but we all sustained that for so long and I think that’s why we lost.”
on the team’s spirit after consecutive losses
“On to the next one. We have a game on Tuesday. We need to learn from our mistakes. We need to learn from these games and do whatever we can to push forward and move on to the next one. It’s a long season. We’re going to learn from this. We’re not going to hang our heads. We’re going to keep moving forward because we know what the ultimate goal is and we’re not going to let a few games sway our confidence by any means. So, just keep on to the next.”
on quick turnaround to Tuesday’s game at Stanford
“It’s the beauty of basketball. We’ve got another one.”