Postgame Quotes – Maryland 69, UCLA 60
POSTGAME QUOTES
Maryland 69, UCLA 60
Friday, Dec. 22, 2023
Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men's Head Basketball Coach
on Maryland’s three-point shooting
“They’re shooting 26 percent. They’re 350th in the country. Give them credit. They came in and made shots. They had them.”
on taking positives from the comebacks in the last two games
“I don’t see positive in losses, but I appreciate it. I will give you my opinion. I was concerned about this, after we played four NCAA Tournament teams and lost four bloodbaths, really good games. And they’ve lost their confidence. This is just my opinion, though. I’m not saying I’m right. It’s my opinion. We’ve lost our confidence. At the beginning of games we’ve got guys not coming close on free throws and open shots. So it’s just hard to win, man. It snowballs. It’s just my opinion. They’re good kids, they’re young. Clearly we don’t have a go-to guy. Yes, we need to get more out of Adem [Bona], but we have a confidence problem. It’s very clear to me. And what happens is they get rattled, and then they don’t play the defensive assignments correctly. So it snowballs, right? When you’re young, I think they’re trying to live up to the letters on the jersey, and the ball is not going in, and they start to feel the snowball effect of it. Just, this is my opinion.”
on what he saw our of Jahmir Young
“What’d I see out of him? He had 37, and last year he probably had six against us. So we accomplished the game plan last year. I told the guys that he’s got to have to get 25 to get the win, and he got it at halftime. We did an absolute horrendous job on him, but congratulations to him. He played great. But we did an awful job. Could not have done a worse job. See good teams that win games, they know why they win. They take away the other team’s strengths. Like there is a whole list of winners knowing why they win. We really struggled with that. We’re just not tough enough to do it, or smart enough.”
on how to get the team’s confidence back
“Tough. Tough to do. We’ve got to find a way to get a win. Got to man up. I thought Kenny [Nwuba] manned up for a little while. He came in and did some positive things and competed for us. He’s the older guy. It just seems like everybody’s looking for the next guy to do it, would be my opinion.”
on what he saw out of Berke Buyuktuncel
Fouls. Fouls too much.
on what he saw with second-chance points
“Yeah well, I think it’s skewed because our field goal percentage is so bad. You’ve got to get some. I’ve had teams like this that have struggled early, more like 17 years ago when I was at Murray State, when I was rebuilding Cincinnati. You tend to rebound it because you miss so many shots, so it’s not a good thing. But when I looked down the line, I would say Berke [Buyuktuncel], that’s an area where he will help us, back to the previous question. I think he helped us in that area tonight. He goes. He’s got good hands. Rebounding is about positioning and angles and feel, and he does a good job of that.”
on how to turn it around before Pac-12 play starts
“Yeah, look, nobody feels sorry for you. You’ve got to get better. We have a really hard problem. We really struggle guarding the basketball. Our second thing is we get broken down, we foul, and that’s killing our defense. But just our energy level, we have got to figure it out one way or another. I don’t think we’re smart enough or old enough to play trickery zones. Complicated this group can’t handle. So it’s a two-way street. We’ve got to get better in practice, and strategically we’ve got to figure some things out.”
UCLA sophomore guard Dylan Andrews
on the team's confidence
"We just want to come out and get the win at the end of the day. We just have to play smarter, harder, to just get the job done."
on the team’s plan to stop Jahmir Young
"We knew he was left-handed, credit to him, he's a great player. I feel like we did not stress enough, even last year, we came out and we gave up 40 (points). We didn't follow the game plan with him. We knew he was left-handed, we knew he wanted to get to the basket, and we wanted to bite off the head of the snake, but we didn't cut his water off."
on being a leader for the team, to try and help the guys out of the losing streak
"We just have to be better. We tell our guys every day, we don't lose at home. We have to come out, be better. Our teammates look at Baz [Mack] and I to lead the team. Even when you look at the stat sheet, they scored 15 points off our turnovers, that can't happen. We have to take care of the ball."
on how the defense can jump-start the offense
"We watch a lot of film, especially on last year's team. Showing us how it wasn't one guy, and if he gets beat, he has faith and trust in his other guys that they are going to be there. That's what we are working on with our team. We feel like sometimes our guys are guarding by themselves, or they feel like there is no help behind them. That's what we are working on, knowing that our teammates have our back when you're guarding your guy, that if you get blown by that we are going to scramble and help."
on how the defense shutdown Maryland's offense for a long stretch of the second half
"That just came from momentum and confidence. We knew for a fact that we needed to get stops on the defensive end, and the offense was going to come. Worry about guarding your guard. Defense, rotating and scrambling, do what we can to get the ball in our No. 1's hands. We went on that run, it was a great run for us, great because we got the momentum, we just didn't keep it there when we should have. "
UCLA freshman guard Sebastian Mack
on the similarities between this game and the CSUN game
"I would say that we have to come out there and hit first, be the tougher team. We tend to let guys hit us first. It's hard in this game of college basketball, and I'm learning that at an early age as a freshman, but we just have to hit first."
on how the break will help them heading into Pac-12 play
"I feel like at the rate that we are going, it is needed. We also have to keep getting our work in, talk to each other as a team, even though we are from different areas of the world. I feel like we are still going to talk to each other and try to fix this thing, make a quick impact on turning this around."
on what non-conference play teaches the team heading into conference play:
"It teaches us that we need to come out swinging first. We can't take a backseat to things. We get hit first, and we have to show some toughness about not letting that happen anymore. "
Maryland head coach Kevin Willard
on Jahmir Young’s performance
“Jahmir has never really put up numbers like that, but he performs like that all the time. I love what he did today, especially against a quality opponent like UCLA. Jordan [Geronimo] did a great job of setting screens and really getting him [Jahmir] open.”
on how the team kept their composure when UCLA cut the lead to two
“I think that’s what I’m really excited about. We struggled and then we came back. That’s what really makes me happy.”
on where they go from here
“We’ve got three days off and then we have Coppin State on the 28th and Purdue on the 2nd.”
on his overall analysis of the team
“We knew that they [UCLA] came off a tough loss, so we really wanted to have the ball in Jahmir’s hands at the beginning of the game. He did a great job and getting our guys going. We have had a problem in the past starting games strongly.”
Maryland 69, UCLA 60
Friday, Dec. 22, 2023
Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men's Head Basketball Coach
on Maryland’s three-point shooting
“They’re shooting 26 percent. They’re 350th in the country. Give them credit. They came in and made shots. They had them.”
on taking positives from the comebacks in the last two games
“I don’t see positive in losses, but I appreciate it. I will give you my opinion. I was concerned about this, after we played four NCAA Tournament teams and lost four bloodbaths, really good games. And they’ve lost their confidence. This is just my opinion, though. I’m not saying I’m right. It’s my opinion. We’ve lost our confidence. At the beginning of games we’ve got guys not coming close on free throws and open shots. So it’s just hard to win, man. It snowballs. It’s just my opinion. They’re good kids, they’re young. Clearly we don’t have a go-to guy. Yes, we need to get more out of Adem [Bona], but we have a confidence problem. It’s very clear to me. And what happens is they get rattled, and then they don’t play the defensive assignments correctly. So it snowballs, right? When you’re young, I think they’re trying to live up to the letters on the jersey, and the ball is not going in, and they start to feel the snowball effect of it. Just, this is my opinion.”
on what he saw our of Jahmir Young
“What’d I see out of him? He had 37, and last year he probably had six against us. So we accomplished the game plan last year. I told the guys that he’s got to have to get 25 to get the win, and he got it at halftime. We did an absolute horrendous job on him, but congratulations to him. He played great. But we did an awful job. Could not have done a worse job. See good teams that win games, they know why they win. They take away the other team’s strengths. Like there is a whole list of winners knowing why they win. We really struggled with that. We’re just not tough enough to do it, or smart enough.”
on how to get the team’s confidence back
“Tough. Tough to do. We’ve got to find a way to get a win. Got to man up. I thought Kenny [Nwuba] manned up for a little while. He came in and did some positive things and competed for us. He’s the older guy. It just seems like everybody’s looking for the next guy to do it, would be my opinion.”
on what he saw out of Berke Buyuktuncel
Fouls. Fouls too much.
on what he saw with second-chance points
“Yeah well, I think it’s skewed because our field goal percentage is so bad. You’ve got to get some. I’ve had teams like this that have struggled early, more like 17 years ago when I was at Murray State, when I was rebuilding Cincinnati. You tend to rebound it because you miss so many shots, so it’s not a good thing. But when I looked down the line, I would say Berke [Buyuktuncel], that’s an area where he will help us, back to the previous question. I think he helped us in that area tonight. He goes. He’s got good hands. Rebounding is about positioning and angles and feel, and he does a good job of that.”
on how to turn it around before Pac-12 play starts
“Yeah, look, nobody feels sorry for you. You’ve got to get better. We have a really hard problem. We really struggle guarding the basketball. Our second thing is we get broken down, we foul, and that’s killing our defense. But just our energy level, we have got to figure it out one way or another. I don’t think we’re smart enough or old enough to play trickery zones. Complicated this group can’t handle. So it’s a two-way street. We’ve got to get better in practice, and strategically we’ve got to figure some things out.”
UCLA sophomore guard Dylan Andrews
on the team's confidence
"We just want to come out and get the win at the end of the day. We just have to play smarter, harder, to just get the job done."
on the team’s plan to stop Jahmir Young
"We knew he was left-handed, credit to him, he's a great player. I feel like we did not stress enough, even last year, we came out and we gave up 40 (points). We didn't follow the game plan with him. We knew he was left-handed, we knew he wanted to get to the basket, and we wanted to bite off the head of the snake, but we didn't cut his water off."
on being a leader for the team, to try and help the guys out of the losing streak
"We just have to be better. We tell our guys every day, we don't lose at home. We have to come out, be better. Our teammates look at Baz [Mack] and I to lead the team. Even when you look at the stat sheet, they scored 15 points off our turnovers, that can't happen. We have to take care of the ball."
on how the defense can jump-start the offense
"We watch a lot of film, especially on last year's team. Showing us how it wasn't one guy, and if he gets beat, he has faith and trust in his other guys that they are going to be there. That's what we are working on with our team. We feel like sometimes our guys are guarding by themselves, or they feel like there is no help behind them. That's what we are working on, knowing that our teammates have our back when you're guarding your guy, that if you get blown by that we are going to scramble and help."
on how the defense shutdown Maryland's offense for a long stretch of the second half
"That just came from momentum and confidence. We knew for a fact that we needed to get stops on the defensive end, and the offense was going to come. Worry about guarding your guard. Defense, rotating and scrambling, do what we can to get the ball in our No. 1's hands. We went on that run, it was a great run for us, great because we got the momentum, we just didn't keep it there when we should have. "
UCLA freshman guard Sebastian Mack
on the similarities between this game and the CSUN game
"I would say that we have to come out there and hit first, be the tougher team. We tend to let guys hit us first. It's hard in this game of college basketball, and I'm learning that at an early age as a freshman, but we just have to hit first."
on how the break will help them heading into Pac-12 play
"I feel like at the rate that we are going, it is needed. We also have to keep getting our work in, talk to each other as a team, even though we are from different areas of the world. I feel like we are still going to talk to each other and try to fix this thing, make a quick impact on turning this around."
on what non-conference play teaches the team heading into conference play:
"It teaches us that we need to come out swinging first. We can't take a backseat to things. We get hit first, and we have to show some toughness about not letting that happen anymore. "
Maryland head coach Kevin Willard
on Jahmir Young’s performance
“Jahmir has never really put up numbers like that, but he performs like that all the time. I love what he did today, especially against a quality opponent like UCLA. Jordan [Geronimo] did a great job of setting screens and really getting him [Jahmir] open.”
on how the team kept their composure when UCLA cut the lead to two
“I think that’s what I’m really excited about. We struggled and then we came back. That’s what really makes me happy.”
on where they go from here
“We’ve got three days off and then we have Coppin State on the 28th and Purdue on the 2nd.”
on his overall analysis of the team
“We knew that they [UCLA] came off a tough loss, so we really wanted to have the ball in Jahmir’s hands at the beginning of the game. He did a great job and getting our guys going. We have had a problem in the past starting games strongly.”