Postgame Quotes - Nebraska 66, UCLA 58
POSTGAME QUOTES
Nebraska 66, UCLA 58
Lincoln, Neb. (Pinnacle Bank Arena)
January 4, 2025
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
on UCLA being down two players (Eric Dailey Jr. and William Kyle III)
“We were missing Eric but I don’t like that stuff. It’s still 5-on-5. It’s not hockey, it’s not a power play. We’ve got guys on scholarship that can’t go 4-for-28. That’s pretty much the game.”
on the performance by UCLA’s guards
“Dylan Andrews has got to play way better. Dominick Harris and Trent Perry got opportunities today – they played a combined 17 minutes, neither one of them scored. I told them that they would get opportunities with Eric out, but in 17 minutes, they couldn’t get a basket. It didn’t help that Skyy took a couple shots in his shoulder and couldn’t be effective in the second half.”
on UCLA committing 15 turnovers at Nebraska
“Bad. If you shoot the ball as poorly as we did, the only chance you have is to take care of the ball. You can’t give up 17 points off of your turnovers. You’ve got no chance. You can’t overcome it.”
on sophomore center Aday Mara’s performance
“He’s getting better and better. When we only have two big guys, with Eric and Will [Kyle III] out, it’s hard to play him and Tyler together, although I would like too more. But it’s hard. When you play them both together, they get tired at the same time. Aday continues to get better. I would love to play him a lot more.”
on Eric Dailey Jr. and his status
“He’s day to day. Hopefully he’ll be ready Tuesday.”
on Nebraska’s environment
“I don’t really believe in that. I believe in coaching and execution and players Their players were great on the defensive end, they were the better defensive team today, and that’s why they won. I don’t think environment has anything to do with it. It’s got more to do with Jevon Gary and Brice Williams.”
on the team’s offensive struggles
“We shot 42% from 3 as a team in December, today we shot 14%. There are some things defensively that I’m upset with. Offensively, the turnovers were the problem. When you shoot it that poor, the only chance you have is to not turn it over.”
on Nebraska’s Jevon Gary and Brice Williams
“Really good players. I didn’t know until my staff told me that Jevon was at Alabama when we beat them to go to the Final Four [in 2021]. That was a long time ago. I don’t know much about Brice’s past, I just know that he’s top five in the Big Ten in scoring. I look at effective field goal percentage. He’s shooting 54 percent and 40 percent – not many guys are doing that. Not many guys in the Big Ten are shooting over 50 percent from two and over 40 percent from three, that play big minutes. I would guess that he’s the only one.”
on Nebraska’s defense
“They do a good job, but I’ve got to be honest, we missed a bunch of open shots. They try to take the paint away, and when they know you can’t make a shot, they pack it even tighter. The floor gets real small and easier to defend when you can’t make a shot. But they did a good job.”
UCLA guard Lazar Stefanovic
on the team’s offensive performance
“It’s hard to win a game on the road in the Big Ten if you don’t shoot the ball great at all. Especially in the first half, we got good looks and couldn’t knock them in. In the second half, we let go a little bit defensively. When that happens, when you don’t use your opportunities, the other team, especially at home, will. We had our chances, our opportunities, and we didn’t make the best out of it.”
on today’s turnovers
“I would say that more of them happened in the second half, I’m not sure if that’s correct, but that’s how it felt playing the game. We started rushing a little bit there and we didn’t stay calm as a group, and we made mistakes out of it, which shouldn’t happen. We can’t have more turnovers, especially with how much we press defensively. We shouldn’t have more turnovers than the opponent.”
UCLA forward Tyler Bilodeau
on the team’s trouble from the three-point line
“We missed shots, and that’s going to happen some times, but we’ve got to learn how to win without making shots. We had a lot of turnovers, which hurt us. We need to keep things more simple.”
on the team’s turnovers
“I think we were trying to do too much, we need to keep things simpler. Simple passes. They’re a good defensive team, and they were rotating a lot from the baseline, so we tried to keep everything in the middle. We probably should have executed that better.”
Nebraska 66, UCLA 58
Lincoln, Neb. (Pinnacle Bank Arena)
January 4, 2025
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
on UCLA being down two players (Eric Dailey Jr. and William Kyle III)
“We were missing Eric but I don’t like that stuff. It’s still 5-on-5. It’s not hockey, it’s not a power play. We’ve got guys on scholarship that can’t go 4-for-28. That’s pretty much the game.”
on the performance by UCLA’s guards
“Dylan Andrews has got to play way better. Dominick Harris and Trent Perry got opportunities today – they played a combined 17 minutes, neither one of them scored. I told them that they would get opportunities with Eric out, but in 17 minutes, they couldn’t get a basket. It didn’t help that Skyy took a couple shots in his shoulder and couldn’t be effective in the second half.”
on UCLA committing 15 turnovers at Nebraska
“Bad. If you shoot the ball as poorly as we did, the only chance you have is to take care of the ball. You can’t give up 17 points off of your turnovers. You’ve got no chance. You can’t overcome it.”
on sophomore center Aday Mara’s performance
“He’s getting better and better. When we only have two big guys, with Eric and Will [Kyle III] out, it’s hard to play him and Tyler together, although I would like too more. But it’s hard. When you play them both together, they get tired at the same time. Aday continues to get better. I would love to play him a lot more.”
on Eric Dailey Jr. and his status
“He’s day to day. Hopefully he’ll be ready Tuesday.”
on Nebraska’s environment
“I don’t really believe in that. I believe in coaching and execution and players Their players were great on the defensive end, they were the better defensive team today, and that’s why they won. I don’t think environment has anything to do with it. It’s got more to do with Jevon Gary and Brice Williams.”
on the team’s offensive struggles
“We shot 42% from 3 as a team in December, today we shot 14%. There are some things defensively that I’m upset with. Offensively, the turnovers were the problem. When you shoot it that poor, the only chance you have is to not turn it over.”
on Nebraska’s Jevon Gary and Brice Williams
“Really good players. I didn’t know until my staff told me that Jevon was at Alabama when we beat them to go to the Final Four [in 2021]. That was a long time ago. I don’t know much about Brice’s past, I just know that he’s top five in the Big Ten in scoring. I look at effective field goal percentage. He’s shooting 54 percent and 40 percent – not many guys are doing that. Not many guys in the Big Ten are shooting over 50 percent from two and over 40 percent from three, that play big minutes. I would guess that he’s the only one.”
on Nebraska’s defense
“They do a good job, but I’ve got to be honest, we missed a bunch of open shots. They try to take the paint away, and when they know you can’t make a shot, they pack it even tighter. The floor gets real small and easier to defend when you can’t make a shot. But they did a good job.”
UCLA guard Lazar Stefanovic
on the team’s offensive performance
“It’s hard to win a game on the road in the Big Ten if you don’t shoot the ball great at all. Especially in the first half, we got good looks and couldn’t knock them in. In the second half, we let go a little bit defensively. When that happens, when you don’t use your opportunities, the other team, especially at home, will. We had our chances, our opportunities, and we didn’t make the best out of it.”
on today’s turnovers
“I would say that more of them happened in the second half, I’m not sure if that’s correct, but that’s how it felt playing the game. We started rushing a little bit there and we didn’t stay calm as a group, and we made mistakes out of it, which shouldn’t happen. We can’t have more turnovers, especially with how much we press defensively. We shouldn’t have more turnovers than the opponent.”
UCLA forward Tyler Bilodeau
on the team’s trouble from the three-point line
“We missed shots, and that’s going to happen some times, but we’ve got to learn how to win without making shots. We had a lot of turnovers, which hurt us. We need to keep things more simple.”
on the team’s turnovers
“I think we were trying to do too much, we need to keep things simpler. Simple passes. They’re a good defensive team, and they were rotating a lot from the baseline, so we tried to keep everything in the middle. We probably should have executed that better.”