Postgame Quotes - Illinois 83, UCLA 78
POSTGAME QUOTES
Illinois 83, UCLA 78
Champaign, Ill. (State Farm Center)
February 11, 2025
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
on the team cutting the lead in the last five minutes
“First of all, they’re really good. They were ready to play. They were healthy, and when they’re healthy, a lot of people think they’re the best team in the Big Ten at home. They haven’t had a Big Ten loss in here with their whole team. They’ve had a lot of games with Ivisic out, and their point guard Jakucionis – they’ve played without both of those guys. Obviously, they’re not the same without Jakucionis out there, without Ivisic making threes.”
on the team’s defense at Illinois
“We got exposed defensively tonight. We had different guys that weren’t able to guard the ball and stay in front of it. That was my biggest concern. Obviously, we didn’t have a lot of prep time. We played Saturday, and it’s Tuesday, and we had to travel across the country. It’s not an excuse, but I know that this was a tough matchup for some of our personnel.”
on the team’s offense
“There was no regression at all. [Illinois] hit a desperation three at the end of the clock, or we may have had the game. We were only down two or three when the guy hit the fall-away three. It was a ridiculous desperation shot, or we would’ve had our chance to win on the road at Illinois. They’re as potent offensively as any team we’ll play all year. Tyler’s still at 80 percent. Aday is nowhere near ready, because of the sickness. I thought it was a valiant effort by our guys, but defensively, we failed the test.”
on the team’s turnovers and rebounding
“We won the turnover battle, but they had too many offensive rebounds.”
on the team’s early offensive struggles
“I would say we got off to a bad start. Our ball movement and passing were bad. The environment had us out of character, early in the game. That’s on me to get that job done. It took us a while to settle in and get some guys to probe and pass. We had too many guys probing to take bad shots in the first half. I didn’t get the job done with that. But as we got more comfortable, got the right guys to probe and pass, we started scoring, and we got back in it. But the story of the game is that defensively, we got exposed. Our inability to guard the perimeter and their ability to shoot the ball. We finally settled down and got our offense going, and we found a team that can work on both ends. There were times when we were probing and passing early in the half, but we couldn’t stop them.”
on the takeaways from this game
“There was no regression. The kids stayed together, their attitude is great, they’re focused on Friday already. There was a chance for us to execute late in the game, and we did everything until Dylan let Boswell split the trap with 28 seconds left. We have to either foul or get that trap. We have to be more aggressive there. At 2:28, there was a timeout, and we were down eight points. I told the guys that they had to score and maximize every possession to get a layup or an open shot. On the other end, you cannot foul late in the clock, you’ve got to make them take a shot and get the rebound. You can’t give up a layup. It was two straight minutes of great execution. There were a lot of positives; you don’t always play bad when you lose. There was a lot of good tonight, but we did get exposed defensively.”
on preparing for the environment in Illinois
“Our guys are used to playing in Arizona. That was not a neutral site in Phoenix, their fans were raucous. Our games at Rutgers and Maryland were sold out. Illinois has a great home court advantage, for sure, and that fuels their defensive energy. I’ve got to make sure that we come out and make better decisions on offense to start the game on the road. But again, this was a tough matchup. But they do that to everybody because Ivisic spreads you out. Their 7-foot-2 guy is a great shooter, he doesn’t post up.”
UCLA forward Tyler Bilodeau
on the team’s offensive struggles early in the game
“They were playing good defense, but I think that we were just sped up, everybody was sped up a little bit. That’s why we started off slow.”
on finding his rhythm and making shots
“My teammates knew that I would be up on the pick-and-roll and they did a great job getting me the ball. I missed my first couple shots, but I just said I have to keep shooting.”
on breaking the team’s winning streak
“Losing is never fun – we never want to lose. We just have to learn from this and get better in practice tomorrow.”
on where the team is at right now
“I think we all want to win. We’ve got to focus on Indiana right now, but learn from this loss. We’ve got to get better defensively, especially myself. I can’t be that bad defensively.”
on why the team struggled defensively
“There were just a lot of screens, causing a lot of havoc and switches. There were communication things, that was part of it.”
UCLA guard Skyy Clark
on the team’s comeback from a 16-point deficit, late in the game
“Obviously, we don’t want to lose, so we’re going to do everything we can to scratch back into the game and give ourselves a chance to win. We just can’t let ourselves get down that much. I think that we played how we usually played on defense and rebounded.”
on the environment of the game
“I’ve played here, so I know how the fans get. I told [the team] that it was going to get loud, they were going to be heckling, they were going to be saying some crazy things, but we had to stick together. I was tuning the crowd out. I already knew what to expect going into the game, so I just tuned out, focused on trying to get the win.”
on Illinois head coach Brad Underwood’s message to him
“It’s all love with the coaching staff, and it’s all love with the players. They know that, I know that. I talked to them before the game, and we talked after.”
on the team’s defensive performance
“The biggest thing was not switching. I think we gave up a lot of easy buckets by not switching, especially on guard-to-guard stuff, switching one through four. The crowd was in it, it was loud, it was hard to hear, and there’s some stuff we’ve got to work on.”
on breaking the team’s winning streak
“It’s hard, we’re not invincible. This is the Big Ten, Illinois is one of the toughest places to play in the whole country. We needed to really come in and bring our stuff to get a win here.”
on playing at Indiana this Friday
“That’s another tough place to play. We know what to expect, and we’re going to get in the gym these next two days, and focus on what we need to do to get the win.”
Illinois 83, UCLA 78
Champaign, Ill. (State Farm Center)
February 11, 2025
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Men’s Head Basketball Coach
on the team cutting the lead in the last five minutes
“First of all, they’re really good. They were ready to play. They were healthy, and when they’re healthy, a lot of people think they’re the best team in the Big Ten at home. They haven’t had a Big Ten loss in here with their whole team. They’ve had a lot of games with Ivisic out, and their point guard Jakucionis – they’ve played without both of those guys. Obviously, they’re not the same without Jakucionis out there, without Ivisic making threes.”
on the team’s defense at Illinois
“We got exposed defensively tonight. We had different guys that weren’t able to guard the ball and stay in front of it. That was my biggest concern. Obviously, we didn’t have a lot of prep time. We played Saturday, and it’s Tuesday, and we had to travel across the country. It’s not an excuse, but I know that this was a tough matchup for some of our personnel.”
on the team’s offense
“There was no regression at all. [Illinois] hit a desperation three at the end of the clock, or we may have had the game. We were only down two or three when the guy hit the fall-away three. It was a ridiculous desperation shot, or we would’ve had our chance to win on the road at Illinois. They’re as potent offensively as any team we’ll play all year. Tyler’s still at 80 percent. Aday is nowhere near ready, because of the sickness. I thought it was a valiant effort by our guys, but defensively, we failed the test.”
on the team’s turnovers and rebounding
“We won the turnover battle, but they had too many offensive rebounds.”
on the team’s early offensive struggles
“I would say we got off to a bad start. Our ball movement and passing were bad. The environment had us out of character, early in the game. That’s on me to get that job done. It took us a while to settle in and get some guys to probe and pass. We had too many guys probing to take bad shots in the first half. I didn’t get the job done with that. But as we got more comfortable, got the right guys to probe and pass, we started scoring, and we got back in it. But the story of the game is that defensively, we got exposed. Our inability to guard the perimeter and their ability to shoot the ball. We finally settled down and got our offense going, and we found a team that can work on both ends. There were times when we were probing and passing early in the half, but we couldn’t stop them.”
on the takeaways from this game
“There was no regression. The kids stayed together, their attitude is great, they’re focused on Friday already. There was a chance for us to execute late in the game, and we did everything until Dylan let Boswell split the trap with 28 seconds left. We have to either foul or get that trap. We have to be more aggressive there. At 2:28, there was a timeout, and we were down eight points. I told the guys that they had to score and maximize every possession to get a layup or an open shot. On the other end, you cannot foul late in the clock, you’ve got to make them take a shot and get the rebound. You can’t give up a layup. It was two straight minutes of great execution. There were a lot of positives; you don’t always play bad when you lose. There was a lot of good tonight, but we did get exposed defensively.”
on preparing for the environment in Illinois
“Our guys are used to playing in Arizona. That was not a neutral site in Phoenix, their fans were raucous. Our games at Rutgers and Maryland were sold out. Illinois has a great home court advantage, for sure, and that fuels their defensive energy. I’ve got to make sure that we come out and make better decisions on offense to start the game on the road. But again, this was a tough matchup. But they do that to everybody because Ivisic spreads you out. Their 7-foot-2 guy is a great shooter, he doesn’t post up.”
UCLA forward Tyler Bilodeau
on the team’s offensive struggles early in the game
“They were playing good defense, but I think that we were just sped up, everybody was sped up a little bit. That’s why we started off slow.”
on finding his rhythm and making shots
“My teammates knew that I would be up on the pick-and-roll and they did a great job getting me the ball. I missed my first couple shots, but I just said I have to keep shooting.”
on breaking the team’s winning streak
“Losing is never fun – we never want to lose. We just have to learn from this and get better in practice tomorrow.”
on where the team is at right now
“I think we all want to win. We’ve got to focus on Indiana right now, but learn from this loss. We’ve got to get better defensively, especially myself. I can’t be that bad defensively.”
on why the team struggled defensively
“There were just a lot of screens, causing a lot of havoc and switches. There were communication things, that was part of it.”
UCLA guard Skyy Clark
on the team’s comeback from a 16-point deficit, late in the game
“Obviously, we don’t want to lose, so we’re going to do everything we can to scratch back into the game and give ourselves a chance to win. We just can’t let ourselves get down that much. I think that we played how we usually played on defense and rebounded.”
on the environment of the game
“I’ve played here, so I know how the fans get. I told [the team] that it was going to get loud, they were going to be heckling, they were going to be saying some crazy things, but we had to stick together. I was tuning the crowd out. I already knew what to expect going into the game, so I just tuned out, focused on trying to get the win.”
on Illinois head coach Brad Underwood’s message to him
“It’s all love with the coaching staff, and it’s all love with the players. They know that, I know that. I talked to them before the game, and we talked after.”
on the team’s defensive performance
“The biggest thing was not switching. I think we gave up a lot of easy buckets by not switching, especially on guard-to-guard stuff, switching one through four. The crowd was in it, it was loud, it was hard to hear, and there’s some stuff we’ve got to work on.”
on breaking the team’s winning streak
“It’s hard, we’re not invincible. This is the Big Ten, Illinois is one of the toughest places to play in the whole country. We needed to really come in and bring our stuff to get a win here.”
on playing at Indiana this Friday
“That’s another tough place to play. We know what to expect, and we’re going to get in the gym these next two days, and focus on what we need to do to get the win.”