University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics
Postgame Quotes - UCLA 78, Penn State 54
POSTGAME QUOTESย
UCLA 78, Penn State 54ย
Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom (Los Angeles, Calif.)ย
February 8, 2025ย
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Menโs Head Basketball Coach
opening statement
โFor the record, there was a mistake on the stat sheet, an innocent mistake. Trent Perry did not have a turnover, and we only had three turnovers. The ball went out of bounds across with like a couple of minutes left and they gave us the ball. We only had three. Our goal for the game was three [turnovers] or less โ that was a joke.โ
on only recording three turnovers and 24 points off of opponent turnovers
โWe had one that Tyler tried to shoot late in the shot clock, he tried to get closer because he didnโt have any legs to shoot. But you go 24 to nothing on points off turnovers. The coaching staff got the job done. I was not at practice yesterday, nor was Skyy, Tyler, Will or Aday.โ
ย
on the teamโs illness this week
โIf it looked like Aday or Tyler were having trouble getting up and down, they were. Skyy Clark is a stud because I know I havenโt eaten since Wednesday night. I had a popsicle this morning with an IV. I donโt know how the hell he did it. Heโs 6-for-7 in only 24 minutes. Some guys are just built better than others. Heโs obviously a much better athlete than his coach. Now I know Iโm old, but I donโt know how he did it.โ
on winning this game after beating Michigan State and struggling with illness
โWell look, obviously Penn Stateโs dealing with some injuries โ their starting center is out and number five was out for them, as well. But you know, I was concerned with an emotional letdown after a big win, where Michigan State came in here ranked seventh in the country. It was an emotional win, and closer than it should have been because of our offense, but an emotional win. Pauley was charged. So, concerned with the letdown, but maybe what happened is this illness focused some other guys. Me going down yesterday and sending guys home on Thursday โ as we were getting ready for practice, and it was like who drops next, where we had to invoke Covid rules. Shooting at your own basket, sanitizing the practice facility, everybodyโs food, and then out the door. I think Michigan State had two guys out today.โ
ย
on Kobe Johnsonโs performance
โTremendous. Thirteen rebounds. I was happy to see him get it going on offense. Six assists, this is who he is. We had a tough stretch of games in early January. December beat us up, Eric broke his nose, and Will had surgery. Everybody has a tough patch in their schedule. So far, weโve had a pretty good year. Kobeโs a big part of that because he gave us a senior leader that is a winner. Heโs a winning player. He wins with the pass, he wins with the rebound, he obviously wins with the defense, and then he can score as well. He does all four things. You look down and the guy has 13 rebounds, four steals, six assists, 15 points, and a blocked shot. Heโs been doing this all year for us. He just does a lot of things that donโt show up on the stat sheet, and there are a lot of NBA guys that are friends of mine that know it. Heโs going to get his chance at the next level because people like to win. He was awesome today.โ
ย
on Trent Perryโs performance
โIt was nice to see him get a good luck, knock it down, and get his confidence going. Trentโs minutes have been spotty; itโs been hard for him. And heโs been in bed a lot the last couple of days. Watching the Michigan State game, I think it was his best defensive game by far. Heโs such an intelligent player that I think as he gets older, I still think the sky is the limit for him as a player. Because he can shoot it. Heโs still got some habits that I need to work on. He holds the ball for too long when heโs getting pressured. Heโs got a world of potential, and it was nice to get him to knock one down. One of the areas where our team can improve is Trent Perry playing well and consistently. That makes us way better, and I still think that can happen.โ
ย
on Lazar Stefanovic
โHe didnโt make shots today, but Lazar is a winner. He had a great pass in the first half as we were pulling away on a high-low feed to William Kyle for a dunk. Most dunks are preceded by a great pass. Adayโs on the break was from Kobe, Willโs in the first half was Lazar.โ
ย
on the upcoming road trip while dealing with illness
โItโs tough to say. I heard the womenโs team had somebody out and I heard football had like 30 guys deal with it in the last couple of weeks.โ
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on keeping turnovers low in their next two games
โItโs going to be huge. Weโll get to play two games that are usually sold out; Illinois and Indiana. Indianaโs extremely explosive on offense when they get it going from three, so the last thing you need is to throw gas on the fire. Iโm a big believer in assist-to-turnover ratio. Today we were 21-3. I just donโt think you can win on the road in conference play if you turn it over. When you take care of the ball on the road, you give yourself a chance to win, make the other team play some defense, get your confidence going. Itโll be huge.โ
ย
on forcing a season-high in turnovers for Penn State
โWe put a lot of stock in our deflections. We try to get our hands on the ball; we talk about it, we practice it, we show film on it. We believe that if you move the deflection board, youโll move the scoreboard in your favor. Early on, we were down three, and we only had three deflections. Over the next ten minutes we got a whole bunch and we went from down three to up seven. I think we got ten deflections before they called a time out. We work on it, and we recruit guys who are aggressive and have quickness and athleticism.โ
ย
UCLA guard Skyy Clark
on his role on the team and having a big game
โObviously itโs a good feeling. Weโre both team guys, and however we can help our team win, whether it shows up on the box score or not, it really doesnโt matter to us. We come out every night as a team and play hard and try our best to get a win.โ
ย
on the last few days while dealing with illness
โIโm really proud of the team. Me, as well as Aday, Will, and Tyler were all in bed the entire day on the first day of practice, so we didnโt even get to see practice. We were in the bed, throwing up and everything. The second day of practice, Coach was out with sickness, and the assistant coaches did a great job of getting us prepared for the game. I think everyone was locked in and ready to get the win.โ
ย
on recording very few turnovers
โWeโre playing a lot more confidently too. On offense, that was one of our biggest problems at the beginning of the season. I think throughout this winning streak; weโve been really dialed in on what weโre looking for on offense and running our plays.
ย
on scoring 46 points in the paint while the teamโs bigs were sick
โOur assistant coaches did a good job of preparing us for the game. We knew that they were a very aggressive team on defense, and they like to scramble and go for steals. So, we knew we were going to get some opportunities where they were closing out on us, running full speed. They were missing their big man too, so they didnโt have a lot of rim protection this game. We just took advantage of that as much as possible.โ
ย
on Eric Dailey Jr.โs background
โThatโs my cousin, our dads grew up together. My dad was ten years old watching his dad play high school basketball, so Iโve know Ericโs dad since I was a little kid. Heโs done a great job keeping Eric around the right things. He didnโt play much AAU ball but he had a lot of experience playing international ball. I know he played 3-on-3 FIBA for Team USA, so he knows how to play basketball. Heโs a hooper. Itโs translating, heโs done so many great things for us this season.โ
ย
UCLA guard Kobe Johnson
on this game being the best performance of his college career
โThat was a good game for me. I was able to penetrate and get my teammates open. Thankfully, shots were falling for me, at least in the paint. Iโve just got to keep going for this team to be the best that we can.โ
ย
on recording very few turnovers
โWeโre just taking care of the ball. Not forcing anything, just making the right decisions. I think we all learned that, and weโre all taking care of it, and itโs resulted in scores and wins.โ
ย
on the importance of taking care of the ball on the road
โItโs very important. Weโre going to two very tough places to play on the road, and we need to be able to take care of business and handle the ball, and come out of there with wins.โ
ย
on their back-to-back dunks in the first half
โIt was lit. That was both of our first dunks of the year, so to be able to have them back-to-back like that and get the crowd engaged, I think it changed the tone of the game. It got the crowd really into it, it got the energy back alive. It was fun.โ
ย
Penn State head coach Mike Rhoades
on allowing 24 points off of turnovers
โThat was the difference. We turned it over and we couldnโt defend those turnovers. We got off to a great start in the first half, but we had some turnovers.โ
ย
on UCLAโs defense
โTheyโre such a good defensive team that they donโt let you get on the edges going downhill. In the first half, we had some really good possessions where we got downhill, but then a turnover stunted it. In the second half, we had a good start, and then we had three straight turnovers. We gave up ten offensive rebounds in the second half. Theyโre a team where if you get down 15 on them, itโs like being down 30. They take the air out of the ball. Playing on the road against a team like that, you have to stay within striking distance, and we didnโt do that in the second half.โ
ย
on his overall takeaways from this game
โWe only had seven assists today, and that tells you everything. We didnโt get the right reads. And we had no post presence without Yanic. Theyโre a very good team. They're a second-weekend NCAA tournament team that can really defend. We had too many mistakes and you have to give them some credit for that.โ
ย
on Dominick Stewartโs performance
โHe gave us some good minutes. He plays really hard, and when you play hard, you find the basket. I think heโs going to be a really good player for us, he just has to continue to learn.โ
ย
UCLA 78, Penn State 54ย
Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom (Los Angeles, Calif.)ย
February 8, 2025ย
Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Menโs Head Basketball Coach
opening statement
โFor the record, there was a mistake on the stat sheet, an innocent mistake. Trent Perry did not have a turnover, and we only had three turnovers. The ball went out of bounds across with like a couple of minutes left and they gave us the ball. We only had three. Our goal for the game was three [turnovers] or less โ that was a joke.โ
on only recording three turnovers and 24 points off of opponent turnovers
โWe had one that Tyler tried to shoot late in the shot clock, he tried to get closer because he didnโt have any legs to shoot. But you go 24 to nothing on points off turnovers. The coaching staff got the job done. I was not at practice yesterday, nor was Skyy, Tyler, Will or Aday.โ
ย
on the teamโs illness this week
โIf it looked like Aday or Tyler were having trouble getting up and down, they were. Skyy Clark is a stud because I know I havenโt eaten since Wednesday night. I had a popsicle this morning with an IV. I donโt know how the hell he did it. Heโs 6-for-7 in only 24 minutes. Some guys are just built better than others. Heโs obviously a much better athlete than his coach. Now I know Iโm old, but I donโt know how he did it.โ
on winning this game after beating Michigan State and struggling with illness
โWell look, obviously Penn Stateโs dealing with some injuries โ their starting center is out and number five was out for them, as well. But you know, I was concerned with an emotional letdown after a big win, where Michigan State came in here ranked seventh in the country. It was an emotional win, and closer than it should have been because of our offense, but an emotional win. Pauley was charged. So, concerned with the letdown, but maybe what happened is this illness focused some other guys. Me going down yesterday and sending guys home on Thursday โ as we were getting ready for practice, and it was like who drops next, where we had to invoke Covid rules. Shooting at your own basket, sanitizing the practice facility, everybodyโs food, and then out the door. I think Michigan State had two guys out today.โ
ย
on Kobe Johnsonโs performance
โTremendous. Thirteen rebounds. I was happy to see him get it going on offense. Six assists, this is who he is. We had a tough stretch of games in early January. December beat us up, Eric broke his nose, and Will had surgery. Everybody has a tough patch in their schedule. So far, weโve had a pretty good year. Kobeโs a big part of that because he gave us a senior leader that is a winner. Heโs a winning player. He wins with the pass, he wins with the rebound, he obviously wins with the defense, and then he can score as well. He does all four things. You look down and the guy has 13 rebounds, four steals, six assists, 15 points, and a blocked shot. Heโs been doing this all year for us. He just does a lot of things that donโt show up on the stat sheet, and there are a lot of NBA guys that are friends of mine that know it. Heโs going to get his chance at the next level because people like to win. He was awesome today.โ
ย
on Trent Perryโs performance
โIt was nice to see him get a good luck, knock it down, and get his confidence going. Trentโs minutes have been spotty; itโs been hard for him. And heโs been in bed a lot the last couple of days. Watching the Michigan State game, I think it was his best defensive game by far. Heโs such an intelligent player that I think as he gets older, I still think the sky is the limit for him as a player. Because he can shoot it. Heโs still got some habits that I need to work on. He holds the ball for too long when heโs getting pressured. Heโs got a world of potential, and it was nice to get him to knock one down. One of the areas where our team can improve is Trent Perry playing well and consistently. That makes us way better, and I still think that can happen.โ
ย
on Lazar Stefanovic
โHe didnโt make shots today, but Lazar is a winner. He had a great pass in the first half as we were pulling away on a high-low feed to William Kyle for a dunk. Most dunks are preceded by a great pass. Adayโs on the break was from Kobe, Willโs in the first half was Lazar.โ
ย
on the upcoming road trip while dealing with illness
โItโs tough to say. I heard the womenโs team had somebody out and I heard football had like 30 guys deal with it in the last couple of weeks.โ
ย
on keeping turnovers low in their next two games
โItโs going to be huge. Weโll get to play two games that are usually sold out; Illinois and Indiana. Indianaโs extremely explosive on offense when they get it going from three, so the last thing you need is to throw gas on the fire. Iโm a big believer in assist-to-turnover ratio. Today we were 21-3. I just donโt think you can win on the road in conference play if you turn it over. When you take care of the ball on the road, you give yourself a chance to win, make the other team play some defense, get your confidence going. Itโll be huge.โ
ย
on forcing a season-high in turnovers for Penn State
โWe put a lot of stock in our deflections. We try to get our hands on the ball; we talk about it, we practice it, we show film on it. We believe that if you move the deflection board, youโll move the scoreboard in your favor. Early on, we were down three, and we only had three deflections. Over the next ten minutes we got a whole bunch and we went from down three to up seven. I think we got ten deflections before they called a time out. We work on it, and we recruit guys who are aggressive and have quickness and athleticism.โ
ย
UCLA guard Skyy Clark
on his role on the team and having a big game
โObviously itโs a good feeling. Weโre both team guys, and however we can help our team win, whether it shows up on the box score or not, it really doesnโt matter to us. We come out every night as a team and play hard and try our best to get a win.โ
ย
on the last few days while dealing with illness
โIโm really proud of the team. Me, as well as Aday, Will, and Tyler were all in bed the entire day on the first day of practice, so we didnโt even get to see practice. We were in the bed, throwing up and everything. The second day of practice, Coach was out with sickness, and the assistant coaches did a great job of getting us prepared for the game. I think everyone was locked in and ready to get the win.โ
ย
on recording very few turnovers
โWeโre playing a lot more confidently too. On offense, that was one of our biggest problems at the beginning of the season. I think throughout this winning streak; weโve been really dialed in on what weโre looking for on offense and running our plays.
ย
on scoring 46 points in the paint while the teamโs bigs were sick
โOur assistant coaches did a good job of preparing us for the game. We knew that they were a very aggressive team on defense, and they like to scramble and go for steals. So, we knew we were going to get some opportunities where they were closing out on us, running full speed. They were missing their big man too, so they didnโt have a lot of rim protection this game. We just took advantage of that as much as possible.โ
ย
on Eric Dailey Jr.โs background
โThatโs my cousin, our dads grew up together. My dad was ten years old watching his dad play high school basketball, so Iโve know Ericโs dad since I was a little kid. Heโs done a great job keeping Eric around the right things. He didnโt play much AAU ball but he had a lot of experience playing international ball. I know he played 3-on-3 FIBA for Team USA, so he knows how to play basketball. Heโs a hooper. Itโs translating, heโs done so many great things for us this season.โ
ย
UCLA guard Kobe Johnson
on this game being the best performance of his college career
โThat was a good game for me. I was able to penetrate and get my teammates open. Thankfully, shots were falling for me, at least in the paint. Iโve just got to keep going for this team to be the best that we can.โ
ย
on recording very few turnovers
โWeโre just taking care of the ball. Not forcing anything, just making the right decisions. I think we all learned that, and weโre all taking care of it, and itโs resulted in scores and wins.โ
ย
on the importance of taking care of the ball on the road
โItโs very important. Weโre going to two very tough places to play on the road, and we need to be able to take care of business and handle the ball, and come out of there with wins.โ
ย
on their back-to-back dunks in the first half
โIt was lit. That was both of our first dunks of the year, so to be able to have them back-to-back like that and get the crowd engaged, I think it changed the tone of the game. It got the crowd really into it, it got the energy back alive. It was fun.โ
ย
Penn State head coach Mike Rhoades
on allowing 24 points off of turnovers
โThat was the difference. We turned it over and we couldnโt defend those turnovers. We got off to a great start in the first half, but we had some turnovers.โ
ย
on UCLAโs defense
โTheyโre such a good defensive team that they donโt let you get on the edges going downhill. In the first half, we had some really good possessions where we got downhill, but then a turnover stunted it. In the second half, we had a good start, and then we had three straight turnovers. We gave up ten offensive rebounds in the second half. Theyโre a team where if you get down 15 on them, itโs like being down 30. They take the air out of the ball. Playing on the road against a team like that, you have to stay within striking distance, and we didnโt do that in the second half.โ
ย
on his overall takeaways from this game
โWe only had seven assists today, and that tells you everything. We didnโt get the right reads. And we had no post presence without Yanic. Theyโre a very good team. They're a second-weekend NCAA tournament team that can really defend. We had too many mistakes and you have to give them some credit for that.โ
ย
on Dominick Stewartโs performance
โHe gave us some good minutes. He plays really hard, and when you play hard, you find the basket. I think heโs going to be a really good player for us, he just has to continue to learn.โ
ย