Postgame Quotes - UCLA at Arizona (Jan. 21, 2023)
POSTGAME QUOTES
Arizona 58, UCLA 52
January 21, 2023
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
on defense
“I still think our defense was really bad. I don’t think we played the way we play at UCLA. At UCLA, we try and play with heart and intestinal fortitude, and I don’t think we played that way. I think we were offensive-sensitive all day. I’m not impressed with our defense at all today. I couldn’t care less what the final score was, I didn’t think we played hard until the game was over.”
on individual defensive efforts
“I’m not into excuses. Our energy level wasn’t what it needed to be, so blame me.”
on shooting
“Give them credit. I believe you have to give the other team credit. Give their defense credit. We’ll play again soon.”
on David Singleton
“I think it’s easy to come out to a press conference and say ‘hey we played hard, we just couldn’t make a shot.’ I don’t do that, I come out and tell you the truth. When you struggle offensively, something with the other team’s defense caused it. Even if it’s open shots, they’ve got you sped up just enough, rattled just enough. I think you have to give the other team credit.”
on the physical play
“It is what it is. I can’t wait to hear Jay Bilas on the film. People tune in to see Adem Bona play, and the first play of the game, you guys saw the same block I saw. It is what it is.”
on the late-game press
“It shows you what you’re capable of when you play with your heart and intestinal fortitude. If you only play with your mind, your mind is on your missed shots instead of your effort. You can control your effort every day when you wake up, you have to make things happen. We can’t get on the break. Look, it’s hard to score. It’s a grind. Ask them, it’s hard to score on us. You have to get in transition. How are you going to get in transition [when] we had two guys in the first half that had a deflection. How are you going to get in transition unless you get some steals? We ended up with nine steals, but how many of those were in the last three minutes? Of course we missed some shots that we could have made, but I’m sure they did too. I’m talking about things you can control. I just believe you have to give the other team some credit when the ball doesn’t go in.”
UCLA senior guard/forward Jaime Jaquez Jr.
on the effort
“I think we just let the game get away from us, like Coach said. We didn’t come out in the first half at all like we should have. We only had six deflections. That’s something we’re not very accustomed to. We tried to pick it up in the second half, but by that time it was too late. Especially in the last two minutes of the game, we tried to pick it up. That’s on us, we weren’t [as] prepared as we should have been. I take responsibility for that.”
on if offensive struggles affected defensive performance
“It does, but we can’t let that stop us. That’s no excuse, you still have to play defense as hard as you can. We just did it too late, I think. We tried to let it go too late, and we lost.”
on the offense
“We haven’t been playing very well, offensively. The past two games, our offense hasn’t been where we know it should be. We go through that as a team, it’s something we have to work on, I was missing shots I normally hit so I need to step up. This time of the year, we just have to hit shots. It goes back to our defense, we can’t let that discourage us on the defensive end.”
on the late rally
“When you’re in that moment, you feel really good. You’re coming back, you have that adrenaline pumping. I thought we had good looks. I thought my three in the corner was pretty open, I just missed it. That would have given us a lot of momentum going into the timeout.”
on Arizona’s defense
“I thought we were just very stagnant on offense. We didn’t get enough movement. Part of that was their pressure defensively, trying to deny hand-offs. We just have to be tougher and not let that affect us, so that’s on us.”
UCLA redshirt senior guard Tyger Campbell
on what to do when shots aren’t going in
“We just have to turn it up and try to get stops on the defensive end. Especially playing a team like Arizona that gets out fast, they’re amazing on offense, if our offense isn’t going, the only thing we can try and do is stop them on defense.”
on the late rally
“We just turned up the heat. We’re going to look back at the film and try to do more of that. We just have to keep trusting Coach and play the game he wants us to play.”
on lack of deflections
“Arizona moves the ball very quick. I would say it was more on us just not getting into lanes or being aggressive defensively, but Arizona is a great team so they did a great job.”
on Arizona’s defense
“We got a lot of good looks, the ball just wasn’t going in the basket. They were pretty aggressive sometimes on the ball screens, and changing up a couple of things, they played solid defense today. Hopefully we can get them next time.”
on UCLA’s 14-game winning streak coming to an end
“It stinks. We just have to go back, watch some film. The great thing about basketball is we have a game next week. We have to figure out what we did wrong, try to fix it before we go out to USC, and just play the best we can as a team.”
Arizona 58, UCLA 52
January 21, 2023
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
on defense
“I still think our defense was really bad. I don’t think we played the way we play at UCLA. At UCLA, we try and play with heart and intestinal fortitude, and I don’t think we played that way. I think we were offensive-sensitive all day. I’m not impressed with our defense at all today. I couldn’t care less what the final score was, I didn’t think we played hard until the game was over.”
on individual defensive efforts
“I’m not into excuses. Our energy level wasn’t what it needed to be, so blame me.”
on shooting
“Give them credit. I believe you have to give the other team credit. Give their defense credit. We’ll play again soon.”
on David Singleton
“I think it’s easy to come out to a press conference and say ‘hey we played hard, we just couldn’t make a shot.’ I don’t do that, I come out and tell you the truth. When you struggle offensively, something with the other team’s defense caused it. Even if it’s open shots, they’ve got you sped up just enough, rattled just enough. I think you have to give the other team credit.”
on the physical play
“It is what it is. I can’t wait to hear Jay Bilas on the film. People tune in to see Adem Bona play, and the first play of the game, you guys saw the same block I saw. It is what it is.”
on the late-game press
“It shows you what you’re capable of when you play with your heart and intestinal fortitude. If you only play with your mind, your mind is on your missed shots instead of your effort. You can control your effort every day when you wake up, you have to make things happen. We can’t get on the break. Look, it’s hard to score. It’s a grind. Ask them, it’s hard to score on us. You have to get in transition. How are you going to get in transition [when] we had two guys in the first half that had a deflection. How are you going to get in transition unless you get some steals? We ended up with nine steals, but how many of those were in the last three minutes? Of course we missed some shots that we could have made, but I’m sure they did too. I’m talking about things you can control. I just believe you have to give the other team some credit when the ball doesn’t go in.”
UCLA senior guard/forward Jaime Jaquez Jr.
on the effort
“I think we just let the game get away from us, like Coach said. We didn’t come out in the first half at all like we should have. We only had six deflections. That’s something we’re not very accustomed to. We tried to pick it up in the second half, but by that time it was too late. Especially in the last two minutes of the game, we tried to pick it up. That’s on us, we weren’t [as] prepared as we should have been. I take responsibility for that.”
on if offensive struggles affected defensive performance
“It does, but we can’t let that stop us. That’s no excuse, you still have to play defense as hard as you can. We just did it too late, I think. We tried to let it go too late, and we lost.”
on the offense
“We haven’t been playing very well, offensively. The past two games, our offense hasn’t been where we know it should be. We go through that as a team, it’s something we have to work on, I was missing shots I normally hit so I need to step up. This time of the year, we just have to hit shots. It goes back to our defense, we can’t let that discourage us on the defensive end.”
on the late rally
“When you’re in that moment, you feel really good. You’re coming back, you have that adrenaline pumping. I thought we had good looks. I thought my three in the corner was pretty open, I just missed it. That would have given us a lot of momentum going into the timeout.”
on Arizona’s defense
“I thought we were just very stagnant on offense. We didn’t get enough movement. Part of that was their pressure defensively, trying to deny hand-offs. We just have to be tougher and not let that affect us, so that’s on us.”
UCLA redshirt senior guard Tyger Campbell
on what to do when shots aren’t going in
“We just have to turn it up and try to get stops on the defensive end. Especially playing a team like Arizona that gets out fast, they’re amazing on offense, if our offense isn’t going, the only thing we can try and do is stop them on defense.”
on the late rally
“We just turned up the heat. We’re going to look back at the film and try to do more of that. We just have to keep trusting Coach and play the game he wants us to play.”
on lack of deflections
“Arizona moves the ball very quick. I would say it was more on us just not getting into lanes or being aggressive defensively, but Arizona is a great team so they did a great job.”
on Arizona’s defense
“We got a lot of good looks, the ball just wasn’t going in the basket. They were pretty aggressive sometimes on the ball screens, and changing up a couple of things, they played solid defense today. Hopefully we can get them next time.”
on UCLA’s 14-game winning streak coming to an end
“It stinks. We just have to go back, watch some film. The great thing about basketball is we have a game next week. We have to figure out what we did wrong, try to fix it before we go out to USC, and just play the best we can as a team.”