Postgame Quotes - UCLA 82, Washington 80
POSTGAME QUOTES
UCLA 82, Washington 80
Seattle, Wash. (Alaska Airlines Arena)
December 3, 2025
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
on responding to adversity
“Conference basketball, you’re not blowing anybody out. We’re in the Big Ten. They have real players, and they have a first-round draft pick. Guy’s a first-round draft pick. He’s got 29 and 10 and 32 minutes, three assists, one steal. Great win for us. Obviously, we would have liked to put them away. Fatigue was a factor with no Trent [Perry]. Eric [Dailey Jr.] had foul trouble, which really took him out of the flow. Got his third immediately and his fourth immediately. He’s got to grow out of that, because we really need him. Basically, you are playing without Trent and Eric tonight so to many minutes for some guys. Tyler was cramping because he only had a practice and a half to get ready for tonight. He didn’t go until Monday, and then I backed him down yesterday, just to make sure I didn’t overdo it because he had that injury. Huge win with the circumstances of being short-handed. Tyler was coming back and hadn’t had much conditioning at all.
on the Bruins’ guard play at Washington
“Great guard play – had 17 deflections. Those two guys [Donovan and Skyy] are 13-for-22 from the field and 6-for-7 from three, 10-for-12 from the foul line. They combined for three or four steals and 11 assists. Great guard play. But we were able to get Tyler the ball when they started switching. This was a struggle for us at the end of the Arizona game, and cost us the game. It cost us the Cal game. Being able to get Tyler the ball when we need baskets. They were switching smaller people on to him, and Donovan and Skyy tonight played like real quarterbacks. Not only did they score, they got him the ball when we needed to get him the ball when we had the advantage. One, Stein [Hannes Steinbach] was in foul trouble, so put him in more foul trouble. Two, they were switching guards onto him, and that’s when Tyler was able to go on his run and make baskets.”
on the Bruins switching to zone defense in the first half
“First five possessions, they had five layups. We have been working on it, and we still have a lot to do. The biggest problem for us is rim protection from the five spot. I have to teach these guys how to block a shot or take a foul – that or I just go and play Brandon Williams, he will go try and block a shot. Play him a the five. That’s a problem. We played zone most of the night and give up 40 points in the paint, and we win easy. Late, we made two bad plays. Jamar backed up and gave their best shooter a three. We were sitting in the timeout. Skyy and Donovan are saying, ‘Hey, they are going to drive it, we’re up four, don’t foul.’ The guy that said don’t foul, fouled. Now he said he tried to get out of the way, but you can’t leave it up to the officials in that situation. In the NBA, that’s nothing. In college, they call it every time because in college, they call what looks like a foul.”
on the offense late in the game
“Too much standing around. The last two [plays], we were trying to burn the clock. We ran a play to Tyler and he didn’t – he throws it to Jamar Brown, who is a shooter, not a playmaker. If you’re not going to shoot it, you have to throw it to Skyy or Donovan. That was disappointing execution.”
on Donovan Dent’s play
“He’s digging himself out with effort in practice. Coming home, with so much expected of him, and then getting an oblique injury, at the same time gets a foot injury, gets off to a bad start and feels the weight of the world on his shoulders. It’s my job to help him through it. A long time ago I came home, took a job at Cincinnati and got beat in the Big East – and our tallest guy was 6-6. You just have to fight through it. They are going to talk about you – just remember it, just get to work, just remember it, make it motivate you. I’m pretty good at not giving up, teaching a guy how to fight through something. I’ve got my weaknesses but that isn’t one of them, so I’m proud of him. He’s got it in him, but maybe I have to help him.”
on the team’s effort
“They were great. I don’t think they understood how good Washington was to start the game. We didn’t know [Hannes] Steinbach was going to play. I think their speed, that’s why we used the zone, because their speed off the dribble is excellent. Once we were able to negate that. They were coming into the game making 20 free throws a game. Not because they have a post guy, because they are driving the ball. They can go get fouled with the best of them. They are making 20 free throws a game means they are taking about 28. Those are big tips, no layups, no free throws. We got away from that late. They are going to make a few shots, but we gave up too many layups late.”
UCLA senior guard Donovan Dent
on the keys to the victory against Washington
“We had to lock in on the defensive side. That was the key in the game for us – deflections. In the first four-minute media [timeout] we had zero, and after the second one, I think we had nine. It was just momentum from there.”
on how much UCLA had been working on the 2-3 zone defense
“We worked on it a little bit this whole week. And we were more worried about the press, just to slow teams down and give them some trouble late in the shot clock. The main one was the press.”
on his level of comfort and confidence
“I mean, really it was my mindset, it wasn’t anything mechanical or anything like that. Over these eight days, during the break, my family and my close circle helped me.”
on UCLA’s double-digit lead falling down to one point and what happened there
“We kind of allowed it. We were taking some late clock shots, just trying to run the clock down. But it was more on the defensive side. We finished the last seven and a half minutes with zero deflections. And in those first four minutes, and the final seven minutes, our defense went to crap. It wasn’t so much on the offensive side. We just let them get in a rhythm and let them hit some big threes, a lot of big threes. It was on the defensive side.”
on how much of a gut-check win this was for UCLA
“This was a must win for us. We were preaching all week that we’d had some letdowns in the non-conference, but this was a must-win for us. We knew that. We came in with that mindset.”
on the performance of Skyy Clark and Tyler Bilodeau
“I mean, that is what we’re going to thrive off of. We know our roles. Skyy is one of the best scorers in the country when he is really going. Tyler gives us consistent games. It’s really great to have him back in the rotation today. That’s our system and that is what will help us win games. We can continue to work from there.”
UCLA senior guard Skyy Clark
on what it feels like when his shot is falling routinely
“It’s a lot of fun. It’s a lot more fun when the ball is going in. So my teammates were finding me and it was just one of those nights.”
on UCLA’s sense of urgency on the road and being down by 11 points early
“Yeah, I am super proud of how we handled it. We could have folded right there, but we crawled back and got the win. It was definitely a must win. We feel like we dropped one to Cal and we could’ve had Arizona as well. It definitely was a must win.”
on how UCLA’s zone defense helped the team
“It definitely helped us a lot, but I still feel like we gave up too many points in the paint. That’s something we’ve got to keep harping on until we get it right.”
on what contributed to UCLA’s 16-point lead wilting way in the final minutes
“Yeah, that is something we’ve got to get better at as a group. I feel like the more that we play, the more we’ll get better at executing down the stretch.”
on what he saw out of Donovan Dent tonight
“I just saw Donovan Dent today, and he was just looking confident. He wasn’t second guessing or nothing.”
on the strong stretch by Tyler Bilodeau in the second half
“That was bigtime. We needed that for sure. That got us going in the second half.”
UCLA 82, Washington 80
Seattle, Wash. (Alaska Airlines Arena)
December 3, 2025
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
on responding to adversity
“Conference basketball, you’re not blowing anybody out. We’re in the Big Ten. They have real players, and they have a first-round draft pick. Guy’s a first-round draft pick. He’s got 29 and 10 and 32 minutes, three assists, one steal. Great win for us. Obviously, we would have liked to put them away. Fatigue was a factor with no Trent [Perry]. Eric [Dailey Jr.] had foul trouble, which really took him out of the flow. Got his third immediately and his fourth immediately. He’s got to grow out of that, because we really need him. Basically, you are playing without Trent and Eric tonight so to many minutes for some guys. Tyler was cramping because he only had a practice and a half to get ready for tonight. He didn’t go until Monday, and then I backed him down yesterday, just to make sure I didn’t overdo it because he had that injury. Huge win with the circumstances of being short-handed. Tyler was coming back and hadn’t had much conditioning at all.
on the Bruins’ guard play at Washington
“Great guard play – had 17 deflections. Those two guys [Donovan and Skyy] are 13-for-22 from the field and 6-for-7 from three, 10-for-12 from the foul line. They combined for three or four steals and 11 assists. Great guard play. But we were able to get Tyler the ball when they started switching. This was a struggle for us at the end of the Arizona game, and cost us the game. It cost us the Cal game. Being able to get Tyler the ball when we need baskets. They were switching smaller people on to him, and Donovan and Skyy tonight played like real quarterbacks. Not only did they score, they got him the ball when we needed to get him the ball when we had the advantage. One, Stein [Hannes Steinbach] was in foul trouble, so put him in more foul trouble. Two, they were switching guards onto him, and that’s when Tyler was able to go on his run and make baskets.”
on the Bruins switching to zone defense in the first half
“First five possessions, they had five layups. We have been working on it, and we still have a lot to do. The biggest problem for us is rim protection from the five spot. I have to teach these guys how to block a shot or take a foul – that or I just go and play Brandon Williams, he will go try and block a shot. Play him a the five. That’s a problem. We played zone most of the night and give up 40 points in the paint, and we win easy. Late, we made two bad plays. Jamar backed up and gave their best shooter a three. We were sitting in the timeout. Skyy and Donovan are saying, ‘Hey, they are going to drive it, we’re up four, don’t foul.’ The guy that said don’t foul, fouled. Now he said he tried to get out of the way, but you can’t leave it up to the officials in that situation. In the NBA, that’s nothing. In college, they call it every time because in college, they call what looks like a foul.”
on the offense late in the game
“Too much standing around. The last two [plays], we were trying to burn the clock. We ran a play to Tyler and he didn’t – he throws it to Jamar Brown, who is a shooter, not a playmaker. If you’re not going to shoot it, you have to throw it to Skyy or Donovan. That was disappointing execution.”
on Donovan Dent’s play
“He’s digging himself out with effort in practice. Coming home, with so much expected of him, and then getting an oblique injury, at the same time gets a foot injury, gets off to a bad start and feels the weight of the world on his shoulders. It’s my job to help him through it. A long time ago I came home, took a job at Cincinnati and got beat in the Big East – and our tallest guy was 6-6. You just have to fight through it. They are going to talk about you – just remember it, just get to work, just remember it, make it motivate you. I’m pretty good at not giving up, teaching a guy how to fight through something. I’ve got my weaknesses but that isn’t one of them, so I’m proud of him. He’s got it in him, but maybe I have to help him.”
on the team’s effort
“They were great. I don’t think they understood how good Washington was to start the game. We didn’t know [Hannes] Steinbach was going to play. I think their speed, that’s why we used the zone, because their speed off the dribble is excellent. Once we were able to negate that. They were coming into the game making 20 free throws a game. Not because they have a post guy, because they are driving the ball. They can go get fouled with the best of them. They are making 20 free throws a game means they are taking about 28. Those are big tips, no layups, no free throws. We got away from that late. They are going to make a few shots, but we gave up too many layups late.”
UCLA senior guard Donovan Dent
on the keys to the victory against Washington
“We had to lock in on the defensive side. That was the key in the game for us – deflections. In the first four-minute media [timeout] we had zero, and after the second one, I think we had nine. It was just momentum from there.”
on how much UCLA had been working on the 2-3 zone defense
“We worked on it a little bit this whole week. And we were more worried about the press, just to slow teams down and give them some trouble late in the shot clock. The main one was the press.”
on his level of comfort and confidence
“I mean, really it was my mindset, it wasn’t anything mechanical or anything like that. Over these eight days, during the break, my family and my close circle helped me.”
on UCLA’s double-digit lead falling down to one point and what happened there
“We kind of allowed it. We were taking some late clock shots, just trying to run the clock down. But it was more on the defensive side. We finished the last seven and a half minutes with zero deflections. And in those first four minutes, and the final seven minutes, our defense went to crap. It wasn’t so much on the offensive side. We just let them get in a rhythm and let them hit some big threes, a lot of big threes. It was on the defensive side.”
on how much of a gut-check win this was for UCLA
“This was a must win for us. We were preaching all week that we’d had some letdowns in the non-conference, but this was a must-win for us. We knew that. We came in with that mindset.”
on the performance of Skyy Clark and Tyler Bilodeau
“I mean, that is what we’re going to thrive off of. We know our roles. Skyy is one of the best scorers in the country when he is really going. Tyler gives us consistent games. It’s really great to have him back in the rotation today. That’s our system and that is what will help us win games. We can continue to work from there.”
UCLA senior guard Skyy Clark
on what it feels like when his shot is falling routinely
“It’s a lot of fun. It’s a lot more fun when the ball is going in. So my teammates were finding me and it was just one of those nights.”
on UCLA’s sense of urgency on the road and being down by 11 points early
“Yeah, I am super proud of how we handled it. We could have folded right there, but we crawled back and got the win. It was definitely a must win. We feel like we dropped one to Cal and we could’ve had Arizona as well. It definitely was a must win.”
on how UCLA’s zone defense helped the team
“It definitely helped us a lot, but I still feel like we gave up too many points in the paint. That’s something we’ve got to keep harping on until we get it right.”
on what contributed to UCLA’s 16-point lead wilting way in the final minutes
“Yeah, that is something we’ve got to get better at as a group. I feel like the more that we play, the more we’ll get better at executing down the stretch.”
on what he saw out of Donovan Dent tonight
“I just saw Donovan Dent today, and he was just looking confident. He wasn’t second guessing or nothing.”
on the strong stretch by Tyler Bilodeau in the second half
“That was bigtime. We needed that for sure. That got us going in the second half.”