Postgame Quotes -- UCLA at Washington
POSTGAME QUOTES
UCLA 77, Washington 66
Alaska Airlines Arena
February 28, 2022
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
opening remarks
“Well, sometimes, the ball just doesn’t go in. You don’t want that to happen, but with the tournament coming, it’s great to coach – to try to practice coaching them through it. We need to just worry about what we can control. That’s just keep getting good shots, keep defending, rebounding. Can’t let the ball not going in affect our energy. We can’t start doing dumb things – bad fouls, breakdowns defensively because the ball’s not going in. Tyger has been unbelievable. He never misses those six shots he missed. Cody – layup. Jaime – layup. We were able to get Jaime the ball down low in the second half, and that changed the game for us. But like I told you about him getting back healthy and me trying to get him back in an offensive rhythm, it takes us to another level. And we have to have that with Johnny out, to be fair about it.”
on the defense picking things up in the second half
“They made some hard shots to go on that run. Eventually, if we let them hang around, they can play. Bey can play. [Terrell] Brown is the leading scorer in the league. Bey’s been able to score. Emmitt Matthews scored in the Big 12. Those three guys can put the ball in the basket against anybody. They were 6-1 at home in the Pac-12 coming into tonight, so great win for us. I fully expected us to have to win a very close game, so the fact that we were able to get up 20 and get the subs in, it’s a testament to our defense. It was 64-44, I think. They had 15 points [in the second half] before we started subbing.”
on what has worked defensively against Terrell Brown Jr.
“Trying to put size on him. Trying to put a bigger body on him. Because he makes guarded shots. A guy that makes guarded shots, you put a small guy on him, it’s like he’s not even there. And he made some guarded shots on Jaylen Clark tonight that Ben [Bolch] will tell you, nobody does that. It’s a testament to how he was able to step up and put the ball in the basket for them.”
junior guard/forward Jaime Jaquez Jr.
on career-high 30 points
“It felt good. Honestly, just to get the win after a long road trip, for me, feels good. Ready to get back home. Trying to just focus on the next game right now, honestly.”
on getting the ball early in the second half and if the team had the same gameplan in the first half
“I have to look at the stat sheet, but just going into it, we wanted to get the ‘Power 25’ look going when they went into their man [defense]. It was something that was a little unorthodox from the previous time we played them. I think we got great looks at that, but it just wasn’t working … We noticed they had smaller guards on me and just decided to take advantage of it.”
on what the career-high means to him
“I mean, nothing really. I got to 30 points; it’s pretty cool. But like I said, we have a long road ahead of us. I’m just trying to help the team win. It’s cool to get to 30, but it’s not really anything crazy.”
senior guard David Singleton
on what sparked the team’s performance in the second half
“I just told these guys, ‘We need to get ready for March.’ Washington is a great team, but there are obviously better teams going down March and we have to get ready for March. Our motto is to get ready for the best team on our schedule. Therefore, I just told them we have to pick it up. We have to pick up the intensity and we have to go out there and enjoy basketball.”
on hitting three-pointer that made it a 14-point game in the second half
“I feel like that was a dagger for the game. I just let the game come to me. I knew they were going to be all over me from the first game, from the first time we played them. I just didn’t want to force it, but that three, I think it was huge. It pulled us away.”
on what wasn’t working in the first half
“We weren’t defending. We were worried about offense. The shots weren’t going our way. Coach [Cronin] always tells us, ‘Worry about defense. Shots will go in later. I felt like the offense was affecting our defense, so, in the second half, we managed to pull through. We managed to flip that around.”
UCLA 77, Washington 66
Alaska Airlines Arena
February 28, 2022
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
opening remarks
“Well, sometimes, the ball just doesn’t go in. You don’t want that to happen, but with the tournament coming, it’s great to coach – to try to practice coaching them through it. We need to just worry about what we can control. That’s just keep getting good shots, keep defending, rebounding. Can’t let the ball not going in affect our energy. We can’t start doing dumb things – bad fouls, breakdowns defensively because the ball’s not going in. Tyger has been unbelievable. He never misses those six shots he missed. Cody – layup. Jaime – layup. We were able to get Jaime the ball down low in the second half, and that changed the game for us. But like I told you about him getting back healthy and me trying to get him back in an offensive rhythm, it takes us to another level. And we have to have that with Johnny out, to be fair about it.”
on the defense picking things up in the second half
“They made some hard shots to go on that run. Eventually, if we let them hang around, they can play. Bey can play. [Terrell] Brown is the leading scorer in the league. Bey’s been able to score. Emmitt Matthews scored in the Big 12. Those three guys can put the ball in the basket against anybody. They were 6-1 at home in the Pac-12 coming into tonight, so great win for us. I fully expected us to have to win a very close game, so the fact that we were able to get up 20 and get the subs in, it’s a testament to our defense. It was 64-44, I think. They had 15 points [in the second half] before we started subbing.”
on what has worked defensively against Terrell Brown Jr.
“Trying to put size on him. Trying to put a bigger body on him. Because he makes guarded shots. A guy that makes guarded shots, you put a small guy on him, it’s like he’s not even there. And he made some guarded shots on Jaylen Clark tonight that Ben [Bolch] will tell you, nobody does that. It’s a testament to how he was able to step up and put the ball in the basket for them.”
junior guard/forward Jaime Jaquez Jr.
on career-high 30 points
“It felt good. Honestly, just to get the win after a long road trip, for me, feels good. Ready to get back home. Trying to just focus on the next game right now, honestly.”
on getting the ball early in the second half and if the team had the same gameplan in the first half
“I have to look at the stat sheet, but just going into it, we wanted to get the ‘Power 25’ look going when they went into their man [defense]. It was something that was a little unorthodox from the previous time we played them. I think we got great looks at that, but it just wasn’t working … We noticed they had smaller guards on me and just decided to take advantage of it.”
on what the career-high means to him
“I mean, nothing really. I got to 30 points; it’s pretty cool. But like I said, we have a long road ahead of us. I’m just trying to help the team win. It’s cool to get to 30, but it’s not really anything crazy.”
senior guard David Singleton
on what sparked the team’s performance in the second half
“I just told these guys, ‘We need to get ready for March.’ Washington is a great team, but there are obviously better teams going down March and we have to get ready for March. Our motto is to get ready for the best team on our schedule. Therefore, I just told them we have to pick it up. We have to pick up the intensity and we have to go out there and enjoy basketball.”
on hitting three-pointer that made it a 14-point game in the second half
“I feel like that was a dagger for the game. I just let the game come to me. I knew they were going to be all over me from the first game, from the first time we played them. I just didn’t want to force it, but that three, I think it was huge. It pulled us away.”
on what wasn’t working in the first half
“We weren’t defending. We were worried about offense. The shots weren’t going our way. Coach [Cronin] always tells us, ‘Worry about defense. Shots will go in later. I felt like the offense was affecting our defense, so, in the second half, we managed to pull through. We managed to flip that around.”