University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics
Postgame Quotes - UCLA 75, UCF 71
POSTGAME QUOTES
UCLA 75, UCF 71
NCAA Tournament (First Round)
Philadelphia, Pa. (Xfinity Mobile Arena)
March 20, 2026
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Mick Cronin, The Michael Price Family UCLA Menโs Head Basketball Coach
opening statement
โCongratulations to Johnny, Coach Dawkins. Robbie Laing's assistant. I know those guys from my days at Cincinnati. What they have done at Central Florida is really, really, really impressive. Like I said the other day, it was a mid-major program before Coach Dawkins got there. Now he's banging away in the Big 12, winning games. I didn't ask him this, but I would doubt that he's got half of what the teams at the top of that league's got and he beat some of them. Congratulations to them. Their kids never gave up. They fired in some tough shots, especially Burks, late. Crazy stuff happens in March, like Trent missing three free throws. Never happens. But he's human. I still want the ball if his hands and believe in him. We got, what? Skyy didn't get to double figures because of foul trouble โ got his tooth knocked out, no call. A couple of times. It was a wild game, man, but a lot of guys stepped up, obviously, with Tyler not being able to go tonight. Before you guys ask, he had a good practice yesterday, woke up stiff today. I didn't like the way he was moving in shoot around this morning. He wanted to play and I said no. If you want to know why I said no, then you should probably never coach. You got to be responsible for the people underneath you and try to do the right thing. You might see me being hard on guys, but when the rubber meets the road and they need somebody, I'm the guy, so they can take it to the bank. I'm not going to put that guy in harm's way. Hopefully, he has a good day tomorrow. Before you ask, we'll see how he is on Sunday.โ
on Xavier Bookerโs night (15 points and eight rebounds)
โWe talked about it at halftime. Their lineup was struggling to stop us. They were going to go small again. Johnny did a great job. They got back in the game by going small and switching everything. We didn't throw it to Xavier inside against the switch at the last six minutes of the half. We talked about doing it, and he was able to get four interior baskets. We threw it to him. We need that. He's an offensive player. He can play on that end. I was mostly happy with his eight rebounds, though. But we did a better job of finding him in the paint in the second half.โ
on how the team responded to the runs made by UCF
โWe talked about it pre-game, to answer your question. They have five wins this year, but they came back from ten down or more. We talked about with our team and although at times it didn't look like it, we worked all week on our press offense. We knew it was coming. We started breaking the press and scoring.โ
on UCLAโs free throws
โWe missed them, too. The missed free throws, I would tell you, who's shooting them? Don't ever undeestimate the game plan, my friend. Don't give them easy baskets, because they're not a great free-throw shooter. So that might remember in our game plan, to foul certain players.โ
on if he saw Skyy Clarkโs tooth fly out
โHe looked so good in the locker room. Looks like a boxer. Keep trying to talk to these guys about my old days. He just looked tough. Looks tough. In the locker room, smiling. There's blood.โ
on the Bruinsโ deflection totals against UCF
โWe kid around, we're way better without you defensively [to Tyler Bilodeau]. We were just kidding, but we end up like 47 or 48. The game plan, mathematically, under two minutes, if you're up eight or more, you can't lose if you don't give up threes. If you do two things โ no threes, don't turn it over. It's literally like a one percent chance you could lose, and we failed that miserably. A contested three is still a three, especially with the guy who was hitting him โ Burks, so we got to do a better job with that. Plus, it's March, man. Crazy stuff happens. Kentucky banked it in today. I was sitting in my room and saw that.โ
on what he can take away from a game like tonightโs
โWe win and we play Sunday. I keep it pretty simple. I think it was good for us to win a game. The guys, they didn't know, because Tyler [Bilodeau] practiced yesterday, so they thought he was going to play. Then he woke up this morning stiff, and I saw the look on their face at shootaround. Eric is a super confident kid. He gives us the toughness we need, but the key was Xavier Booker's play. You have to make up for Tyler. He averages 17 a game. Book had 15 tonight. Book had 15 and Steve had two, so we got 17 out of that position. Nobody else got hurt. I don't know what we're going to do with Skyy. Need, the dental stuff. An oral surgeon. We need a late-night oral surgeon. I'm going late night Joe's steak and sodas. Is that the name of it? We had Dalessandro's. I never had my team so happy with me โ delivery. I got to watch the game.โ
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on breaking the press and if repeatedly facing that defense will help
โYou would hope so. Skyy got sped up on the last play and the game was over. All he did was hold the ball. Had two time-outs, he took off. They're athletic. Like I said, Coach Dawkins did a good job, kept coming after us. In this situation, in an elimination game, you have nothing to lose. Once they got the game got down under 10 [minutes], and we pushed it back out. I told them, they're coming now. They're just going to start running and trapping the ball, even in the half court, which is unusual for your team to play against. We weathered it all. Skyy's 86 percent coming in tonight and Trentโs 87 percent. They missed five free throws late or, even with the made threes, it's a 10-point game, so.โ
UCLA junior Eric Dailey Jr.
on finding his rhythm in the game:
โNothing was going through my head. I'll make the next one, for sure. I wasn't worried about it. All right. I got two up. Let's keep shooting. No problem with that.โ
on if he saw Skyy Clarkโs tooth fly out
โNo, I saw him smile and it was bleeding.โ
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UCLA sophomore Trent Perry
on Xavier Bookerโs night
โIt's huge. Coach has been telling him. He's worried about his activity more than anything. Just defense, blocking, he's offensively very talented. Just to see his activity tonight, especially in a game like this, it's huge for us.โ
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on his free throw shooting down the stretch
โAt the end of the day, just be confident. Trust in the work, trust in the process. It's something I have been doing for a living, so never lost confidence in that.โ
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on hitting free throws late on in a game
โA game like this, in an environment like that, just stick to what I have been doing for the past years. Honestly, just trust in the work. That's really it. It's routine.โ
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on what it means to have the confidence of his coaches, down the stretch
โFor sure. It means a lot just to have the backing of my coach. At first, I didn't really want to take bad shots at all, especially in a game like this, but when he told me to be aggressive, I just saw the light and trusted my work.โ
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on how the team responded to the runs made by UCF
โJust stay playing defense, honestly. Stops are going to convert to offense, then not turning the ball over is big, is a big key for us. During the year, we have been in games where we have been down and come back. All that was practice for this moment. The defensive side of things just keeps taking over.โ