Postgame Quotes – UCLA 100, Cal State L.A. 64
POSTGAME QUOTES
UCLA 100, Cal State L.A. 64 (exhibition)
Los Angeles, Calif. (Pauley Pavilion)
October 30, 2024
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
opening statement
“I appreciate Coach Saia. I met him whiIe he was an assistant here, I was an assistant coach for Coach Huggins in the late 90s. So we met a long time ago, summers out here when I was doing different things. We have been trying to get this done since I got the job here, we go way back. I thought his kids did a great job of not panicking, and taking care of the ball. Making shots. Their movement was great practice for us. They remind me of Bellarmine, which I can’t give a bigger compliment than that. The way they cut and move, cut and move. Sometimes you play a team, they come down and they throw no passes, and take an off the dribble three. It was really good work for us to have to guard their cutting and moving and driving, and all that stuff. With that though, Aday has practiced about five times, which is why they played no big guys for most of the game, so that was a challenge for us. 60 points in the paint, was something we talked about after our scrimmage. I kind of just let us play in our scrimmage, tonight we were much more organized with what we were trying to accomplish throwing the ball inside. As you can see Tyler Bilodeau can score, he can score at Oregon State and he can score here. We shot over 50% from three tonight, and I thought most of our shots were great shots.”
On the defense and Cal State L.A.’s shooting
“They make a lot of shots. A team like that, they are going to get their shots blocked whenever they went in there. We had four blocks, most of them early. They were just trying to beat us and spray it out and shoot it. That’s why it was great practice for us, to have to deal with their cutting and movement and all that. Give them credit, especially number 15, he made eight on his own. I have to ask our guys, did you notice he’s made five? He’s made six? We have to be smarter. There is a lot of stuff that’s good from this game that we can teach from. I don’t care about the score as much as we have to know when a guy is making shots like that, you can’t leave him alone. It cost us the Illinois game two years ago, Terrance Shannon is not a great shooter, but on that night he was. We have to make adjustments midgame when the guy is shooting the ball a little bit.”
on the starting lineup
“We will probably have multiple starting lineups. We knew that they were going to play small, so we went small.”
on some guys potentially redshirting
“Yes, we will have those discussions before Monday. But, I always leave it up to the player. In the era of getting paid, if I was a young guy and battling for minutes, I’d redshirt. I can get paid for five years instead of four, before I have get a job.”
on Kobe Johnson’s performance
“You guys don’t watch practice, Kobe is by far and away our assist leader. From July 8th, our first practice, up until today. I want to say he has 40 or 50 more assists than the next guy, over a four month period of workouts. That’s not a surprise at all.”
on the substitutions throughout the game
“It’s going to be a chore. To keep everybody focused and understand, and the maturity of the situation it’s going to require. First of all you have to earn minutes, players determine playing time. Every coach that says I don’t play favorites is a liar, and there are a lot of them that lie in recruiting. I’m going to give you the ball, you’re going to be the man. I always tell recruits make sure he tells you that in the locker room in front of his team, so they all know when you get there. I just don’t do that. So everybody signed up here, we don’t lie to recruits. Everybody knows we are trying to get a bunch of good players so we can get back to where we need to be at UCLA. If you’re down with that, stay. If you’re not leave. If you’re down with that come on in. There was no secret, we had guys when we took transfers, that came in and said I’m probably not going to play coach, and I said you’re right … Everybody here is down with it, but It’s still going to be a chore. Everybody comes in and I say that, even though I’m honest, I’m going to be better than everybody. Players, that’s just their mindset. It’s going to be work for me. I started the postgame with it, and I ended it with it. Body language. It might not be your night.”
on having Bilodeau’s skillset to play with rather than against
"It’s a lot better to have him on my side. It’s hard to win when you can’t score. We study all of our games, like last night I watched our Cal game at Cal last year, trying to learn something about what we did. We couldn’t score. Layup missed, layup missed, free throw missed, free throw missed. We found a way to win, but that’s no fun. You’ve got to get some guys who can put it in the whole man. Coaching’s overrated. You can’t win without defense, toughness, and winners on your team, but man, you can’t coach that ball in that basket. So, we got Ty who can put it in the basket. Our guys know he can as well.”
on Dylan Andrews’ progression and potential
"I think he needs to live in the gym if he wants to make it. Because in the last three NBA drafts, there’s been six guys drafted in the first round under 6’5”. And four of those six were 6’4”. That’s what I tell these small guys. You better be basically what it said on Samuel L. Jackson’s wallet. If you ain’t 6’5” or bigger, it just is what it is. But I explain to those guys, I show them a guy who got drafted last year, who they all know. 46/41 (shooting splits). That’s why he got drafted.”
UCLA forward Tyler Bilodeau
on his comfort level playing tonight
"I would definitely say I was pretty comfortable. I got great passes from my teammates that gave me the opportunity to make some moves down there, and that’s what I like to do. Overall, I felt pretty good about it.”
on working with Coach Cronin over the summer
“It was really good. Really good summer; a lot of new guys, so we’re learning a lot. I think that’s one of the biggest things. Coach Cronin’s done a great job of teaching us the ins and outs of the game. And to come tonight and play another team, it was great. We spent a lot of time playing against each other, so it was good to play someone else.
on the depth of the team
“I think it’s really good. In practice, we go at it. Like you said, really deep team with really competitive practices, just making everyone better. You know, you’ve got to fight for your minutes every day, but also, we have a great bond, so it’s a good mix there. I think it’s really good.”
UCLA guard Skyy Clark
on tonight’s starting five
"I think it was a very diverse group. We’ve got a lot of guys who can do a lot of things. We can play fast, we can play slow. Before the game, Coach Cronin said it depends on the matchups, and I think we matched up pretty well against the team we played.”
on his efficient shooting and his role on a new team
“I’ve got a lot of guys around me. Kobe Johnson had 11 assists, which is huge for us. He’s been really big for us all summer and all preseason. It definitely takes a load off of me, just having a lot of guys around me that can do more.”
on tonight’s spacing, passing, and tempo
“I think it starts off the court. We’ve got a bunch of unselfish guys, a lot of good dudes, great character. It definitely starts off the court, we’ve got a great, unbreakable bond throughout this summer and through preseason. We’ve been through hell and back with practice and just grinding. I think it all starts from day one in the summer, and it came alive tonight.
on Eric Dailey Jr. and Kobe Johnson combining to force ten turnovers
“They’re some dogs. Kobe, he’s one in a million. Eric, he’s actually my cousin. I’ve known him since we were literally little kids. It’s been great to play together. This is our first time playing together too. It’s amazing to have that. Them two, they’re energy guys, they’re everywhere on the floor, they love to play defense, they love to rebound.”
on the depth of the team
“We’ve got a great bond, we’ve got a lot of unselfish guys with great characters. Whoever’s on the court, the bench is cheering that on. When it’s your time to shine in a game, you’ve got to go out there and capitalize.”
UCLA 100, Cal State L.A. 64 (exhibition)
Los Angeles, Calif. (Pauley Pavilion)
October 30, 2024
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
opening statement
“I appreciate Coach Saia. I met him whiIe he was an assistant here, I was an assistant coach for Coach Huggins in the late 90s. So we met a long time ago, summers out here when I was doing different things. We have been trying to get this done since I got the job here, we go way back. I thought his kids did a great job of not panicking, and taking care of the ball. Making shots. Their movement was great practice for us. They remind me of Bellarmine, which I can’t give a bigger compliment than that. The way they cut and move, cut and move. Sometimes you play a team, they come down and they throw no passes, and take an off the dribble three. It was really good work for us to have to guard their cutting and moving and driving, and all that stuff. With that though, Aday has practiced about five times, which is why they played no big guys for most of the game, so that was a challenge for us. 60 points in the paint, was something we talked about after our scrimmage. I kind of just let us play in our scrimmage, tonight we were much more organized with what we were trying to accomplish throwing the ball inside. As you can see Tyler Bilodeau can score, he can score at Oregon State and he can score here. We shot over 50% from three tonight, and I thought most of our shots were great shots.”
On the defense and Cal State L.A.’s shooting
“They make a lot of shots. A team like that, they are going to get their shots blocked whenever they went in there. We had four blocks, most of them early. They were just trying to beat us and spray it out and shoot it. That’s why it was great practice for us, to have to deal with their cutting and movement and all that. Give them credit, especially number 15, he made eight on his own. I have to ask our guys, did you notice he’s made five? He’s made six? We have to be smarter. There is a lot of stuff that’s good from this game that we can teach from. I don’t care about the score as much as we have to know when a guy is making shots like that, you can’t leave him alone. It cost us the Illinois game two years ago, Terrance Shannon is not a great shooter, but on that night he was. We have to make adjustments midgame when the guy is shooting the ball a little bit.”
on the starting lineup
“We will probably have multiple starting lineups. We knew that they were going to play small, so we went small.”
on some guys potentially redshirting
“Yes, we will have those discussions before Monday. But, I always leave it up to the player. In the era of getting paid, if I was a young guy and battling for minutes, I’d redshirt. I can get paid for five years instead of four, before I have get a job.”
on Kobe Johnson’s performance
“You guys don’t watch practice, Kobe is by far and away our assist leader. From July 8th, our first practice, up until today. I want to say he has 40 or 50 more assists than the next guy, over a four month period of workouts. That’s not a surprise at all.”
on the substitutions throughout the game
“It’s going to be a chore. To keep everybody focused and understand, and the maturity of the situation it’s going to require. First of all you have to earn minutes, players determine playing time. Every coach that says I don’t play favorites is a liar, and there are a lot of them that lie in recruiting. I’m going to give you the ball, you’re going to be the man. I always tell recruits make sure he tells you that in the locker room in front of his team, so they all know when you get there. I just don’t do that. So everybody signed up here, we don’t lie to recruits. Everybody knows we are trying to get a bunch of good players so we can get back to where we need to be at UCLA. If you’re down with that, stay. If you’re not leave. If you’re down with that come on in. There was no secret, we had guys when we took transfers, that came in and said I’m probably not going to play coach, and I said you’re right … Everybody here is down with it, but It’s still going to be a chore. Everybody comes in and I say that, even though I’m honest, I’m going to be better than everybody. Players, that’s just their mindset. It’s going to be work for me. I started the postgame with it, and I ended it with it. Body language. It might not be your night.”
on having Bilodeau’s skillset to play with rather than against
"It’s a lot better to have him on my side. It’s hard to win when you can’t score. We study all of our games, like last night I watched our Cal game at Cal last year, trying to learn something about what we did. We couldn’t score. Layup missed, layup missed, free throw missed, free throw missed. We found a way to win, but that’s no fun. You’ve got to get some guys who can put it in the whole man. Coaching’s overrated. You can’t win without defense, toughness, and winners on your team, but man, you can’t coach that ball in that basket. So, we got Ty who can put it in the basket. Our guys know he can as well.”
on Dylan Andrews’ progression and potential
"I think he needs to live in the gym if he wants to make it. Because in the last three NBA drafts, there’s been six guys drafted in the first round under 6’5”. And four of those six were 6’4”. That’s what I tell these small guys. You better be basically what it said on Samuel L. Jackson’s wallet. If you ain’t 6’5” or bigger, it just is what it is. But I explain to those guys, I show them a guy who got drafted last year, who they all know. 46/41 (shooting splits). That’s why he got drafted.”
UCLA forward Tyler Bilodeau
on his comfort level playing tonight
"I would definitely say I was pretty comfortable. I got great passes from my teammates that gave me the opportunity to make some moves down there, and that’s what I like to do. Overall, I felt pretty good about it.”
on working with Coach Cronin over the summer
“It was really good. Really good summer; a lot of new guys, so we’re learning a lot. I think that’s one of the biggest things. Coach Cronin’s done a great job of teaching us the ins and outs of the game. And to come tonight and play another team, it was great. We spent a lot of time playing against each other, so it was good to play someone else.
on the depth of the team
“I think it’s really good. In practice, we go at it. Like you said, really deep team with really competitive practices, just making everyone better. You know, you’ve got to fight for your minutes every day, but also, we have a great bond, so it’s a good mix there. I think it’s really good.”
UCLA guard Skyy Clark
on tonight’s starting five
"I think it was a very diverse group. We’ve got a lot of guys who can do a lot of things. We can play fast, we can play slow. Before the game, Coach Cronin said it depends on the matchups, and I think we matched up pretty well against the team we played.”
on his efficient shooting and his role on a new team
“I’ve got a lot of guys around me. Kobe Johnson had 11 assists, which is huge for us. He’s been really big for us all summer and all preseason. It definitely takes a load off of me, just having a lot of guys around me that can do more.”
on tonight’s spacing, passing, and tempo
“I think it starts off the court. We’ve got a bunch of unselfish guys, a lot of good dudes, great character. It definitely starts off the court, we’ve got a great, unbreakable bond throughout this summer and through preseason. We’ve been through hell and back with practice and just grinding. I think it all starts from day one in the summer, and it came alive tonight.
on Eric Dailey Jr. and Kobe Johnson combining to force ten turnovers
“They’re some dogs. Kobe, he’s one in a million. Eric, he’s actually my cousin. I’ve known him since we were literally little kids. It’s been great to play together. This is our first time playing together too. It’s amazing to have that. Them two, they’re energy guys, they’re everywhere on the floor, they love to play defense, they love to rebound.”
on the depth of the team
“We’ve got a great bond, we’ve got a lot of unselfish guys with great characters. Whoever’s on the court, the bench is cheering that on. When it’s your time to shine in a game, you’ve got to go out there and capitalize.”