POSTGAME QUOTES
UCLA 73, Stanford 64
February 16, 2023
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
opening remarks
“Give Stanford credit. I told our guys, ‘what did you think was going to happen?’” We handled them at their place. They are 6-2 in their last eight games. They’ve got some good players on that team and for three days they are getting ready for us. They are coming here to play one of the best teams in the country on the road. Our attitude was way too casual. We were overconfident. We weren’t ready for the fight. But give the guys credit, especially Dylan (Andrews) and Will (McClendon). I thought they gave us great team effort. (Stanford) had eight offensive rebounds in the first half. The difference in the game is they only have two in the second half. We had 13 and a lot of those in the second half. Obviously Jaime (Jaquez) shows you why he’s an All-American.”
on Tyger Campbell’s adjustment in the second half
“Tyger is a good player. He’s a good player. I’ll tell you, it’s easy for me and for people to criticize, but when you have young kids and they are under massive pressure and they are worried about their future, sometimes I fail at keeping their mind on one day at a time. It’s easy to say well they should know that. Well you probably have a job and a savings account. They are kids. They are kids with the weight of the world on their shoulders. Sometimes when one man struggles it’s another man’s opportunity to shine. Dylan has been deserving of some playing time. I thought he did a great job defensively late in the first half.”
on what he told the team at halftime
“You get what you deserve. They know. You have nine deflections you’re going to struggle. Did you think Stanford wasn’t going to come ready to play? Maxime Raynaud is a good player. Brandon Angel stepped it up. Harrison (Ingram) is a McDonald’s All-American. (Spencer) Jones is a great mover and a big time scorer. It’s not like they don’t have talent. They have won six of their last eight. The problem is, we failed as a coaching staff tonight. We didn’t have them ready. We were not humble tonight. But give them credit. It’s the sign of a good team we were able to turn it around.”
on going with a smaller lineup tonight
“That was out of necessity. Kenny (Nwuba) got hurt. Groin injury. Mac (Etienne) was struggling with their motion. You see why I love Will McClendon. In the first half we couldn’t get a rebound and he just rips the ball away. He wasn’t tall enough to get it. Their big guy got it and he just rips the ball away from him. So one thing about Will, if you need toughness he’s going to give it to you. So if you’re going to play small, your smaller guys like Will and Jaylen Clark, they are tough enough to play bigger.”
UCLA senior guard/forward Jaime Jaquez Jr.
on willing the team back from second-half deficit
“I talked about this in a previous interview. This is my last year, and I’ve realized that I’ve only got so many games left, so I’m gonna go down swinging. No matter what, I know my guys trusted me, I know my coach trusted me. When they put the ball in my hands, I’m just ready to make a play whether it be shoot, pass, or just create. I’m just ready to do whatever the team needs to win.”
on coming in over-confident
“Yeah, I think we did come in a little over-confident, and sometimes that happens. I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing for the morale of our team, and I think it was also good to get checked by Stanford in the first half and realize we’ve got to stay humble and we’ve got to stay composed because this is the time of year where anything can happen. Teams are going down, dropping like flies. I think I said something in the huddle. I said we’ve got a great opportunity here; let’s not mess this up. And we came out in the second half and did what we needed to do and came out with a win.”
UCLA senior guard David Singleton
on what sparked the turnaround
“I kind of reminded the guys that we’re getting closer and closer to March, and upsets happen all the time. We have to be ready for teams like that. We have to be ready for all kinds of teams when it comes down to March. So I explained to the guys, we’ve got to play defense. Taking strides forward and getting ready for March. We can’t take steps back. We can’t afford steps back right now or the season’s going to end early, and that’s the reality of it.”
on UCLA’s depth
“It was amazing to see Will [McClendon} and Dylan [Andrews], guys coming off the bench making big plays for us. Those are strives we need to make on offense. We need the whole team. Obviously we need Jaime and J-Rock to do what they need to do, but for those guys to step up big in games like this really shows the depth of our team and how great we can be.”
UCLA junior guard Jaylen Clark
on Dylan Andrews’ play that sparked UCLA in the second half
“He’s a dawg. He reminds me a little of me. He’s way faster … That steal I got was really him. He cut the dude off and just let me fire off him. I have a lot of respect and love for Dylan. I played with Dylan my last year of AAU. He came up two years and was rocking with us and was doing that back then. Dylan’s my guy. We’re cut from the same cloth. I think he’s going to be a hell of a player once some heads empty out here and it’s his show.”
on the UCLA fans
“I want to say I appreciate the fans. We put 10,000 people in the stands against Stanford on the last four home games. This is his [Jaquez Jr.] last couple of games, Dave’s [Singleton] last couple of games. I don’t know how much longer I’m going to be here. I really appreciate everybody coming out and watching us play, and I promise we feed off that. Knock on wood, I feel every home game has been fun and we haven’t lost here. I appreciate everybody that takes their time out of their day. We’ve got a lot going on – it’s Los Angeles. I don’t know where our attendance record rates in the Pac-12, but I feel like every game at home, from Bellarmine to USC to Stanford to Colorado, it feels like there’s mad people here every game, and we appreciate that.”
Stanford head coach Jerod Haase
overall statement
“This is a great road environment and our guys competed. I thought for much of the game we played with discipline and executed the game plan pretty well. UCLA made a heck of a run at the start of the second half. We’ll look and find out if it was our deficiencies or just good plays by them. I think a lot of the errors tonight are correctable. And needless to say, we’ll have to learn to play without fouling or better than we did tonight. And then also, we need to be able to play and not turn the basketball over and play strong offensively, so that nothing bothers us.”