Courtesy of the LA Times and Daily Bruin:
Mick Cronin
WENT AWAY FROM TWO BIGS, THINK THAT WAS COINCIDENTAL WITH THE RUN?
“Yeah, I told the staff, look, you know, coach Calhoun, I have a lot of respect for, Jim Calhoun, so when Connecticut used to play big and they would play these games and I remember one time he said, ‘Hey’–this was obviously in the Big East–he goes, ‘We’re not going to be able to go small and win in the Big East, so we need to learn how to deal with this,’ so I knew we should have probably started small and just switched everything, but I didn’t think we would get anything out of that. Now, you’re going to say, ‘You’re absolutely nuts, ya’ll could have lost’ and maybe I am, I’m sure there’s a lot of people who would probably agree with you that I am crazy, but I just thought we needed to try to be able to defend them with a bigger lineup. Now, we’re not going to play many teams with a five man that spends all his time at the three-point line, so I just thought that we needed to try it. Look, Aday, all we’ve got to do is throw him the ball and you can’t guard him, but it was tough in the second half because I decided to go small and switch everything. I knew at some point tonight it might be a possibility that I had to do it, but it was time. I think we were seven.”
DEFENSE PICKED UP FROM THAT POINT?
“Yeah, I mean once we started switching everything, it kind of eliminated them–they didn’t make a three the last 17 minutes, so they had seven made threes, hit a couple right out of the gate to start the second half and once we started switching everything they never made another one.”
WHEN YOU GO WITH ONE POST, WHAT DID IT DO FOR YOU OFFENSIVELY?
“I don’t know if that was great. I’ll have to watch the film because look, Adem struggled. I told him, you know, I didn’t get through to him and I told coach Savino it was a complete failure on our part that you’ve got to pass the ball, they’re going to be all over you. I mean, they’re going to be all over you and you’re going to have to pass it out and we’re going to have to make shots. That’s just what’s coming. If you can’t catch it and score, if you have to make a post move, they’re going to be all over you–they watched the game the other night–so we failed at that.”
SHORTENED ROTATION IN FIRST HALF?
“At some point, I had to try and get five guys who could get a stop and Ilane is one of our better defenders.”
DYLAN AND SEBASTIAN DOING SO MUCH IN ADEM’S PLACE?
“Well, they had plenty of opportunities where they were going under all their screens and just giving them shots. I mean, look, I think it was the right thing to do if you’re them. You’ve got to just pack it in and hope for the best. It’s what gave them a chance because we missed a lot of open shots to start the game. So it’s just opportunity. Every game is different, guys. So tonight they were going to pack it in, somebody’s got to knock some shots in. But I think we got in transition. I would say that’s what helped our offense more than big, small, whatever–we got some steals, got out in transition, got some layups. I don’t know how many we had at halftime, I think none, but we had 10 fastbreak points and I think they were all in the second half.”
FIVE ASSISTS IN SECOND HALF AFTER TWO IN FIRST? LOT OF ISOLATION?
“No, they were going under and giving us the shot and we were taking the bait and we weren’t getting the ball to the second side. It’s a growth process with this team. Literally, we were just taking the bait and I know we were open, but their coaching staff–and I think it was a smart move–said, ‘We’re just going to give that up so they’re going to take open shots but they’re not going to get a rebound because they’re not going to move us, so we’re going to expend no energy defensively, they’re going to throw one or two passes and we’re going to go under and let them shoot and we’re going to spend all our energy back-cutting, wheeling, passing, wheeling, and they’re spending all their energy trying to break us down on the offensive end. On defense, let’s just go back, pack it in, let them shoot, box out. You get no rebounds when you don’t move the ball and they expend no energy defensively, so I thought it was a great game plan by them.”
DO YOU PREFER SCORE-FIRST VERSION DYLAN?
“What version?”
SCORE-FIRST?
“Did I tell him to do that? That wasn’t his mindset. Did you talk to him.”
NO.
“I was just wondering because you just told me his mindset was score-first.”
JUST THOUGHT HE CAME OUT LOOKING TO SHOOT?
“I just said they weren’t guarding him. What I prefer is guys who take what the defense gives them; they just weren’t guarding him, so what I prefer on offense are players that make the right decision. Dylan made a lot of good decisions tonight, Adem did not, but it’s going to be a learning process with him.”
DYLAN COMING BACK FROM INJURY ALL THE WAY BACK?
“I would think so, we haven’t talked about that in a long time. I just thought his decisions of when to shoot and pass were much better tonight, much, much better tonight, and when you do that it’s amazing how you shoot a higher percentage. But if you come out with a score-first mentality and you’re just going to try to score, you’re going to be a bad player. So that’s why I get nervous when you say that. They just gave him shots, guys, and he took his time and knocked them in, but it was a result–he had two really, really good practices. I thought Ilane Fibleuil was a big key tonight for us. He’s really struggled, he’s still got a big gash on his hand from where he fell, it’s tough for him to grip the ball, so his shooting is messed up because it’s right where he shoots the ball, so it’s tough, you rip your hand open falling on the concrete, it’s hard. You can’t speed up the healing.”
WHEN IT COMES TO GOING FOUR OUT ONE IN OR WITH TWO POSTS …
“It’s more for defense.”
DO YOU WANT TO FIND A WAY TO PLAY AND MAKE TEAMS ADJUST TO THAT OR JUST KEEP DOING WHAT YOU NEED ON A GIVEN NIGHT?
“I think you’ve got … I’ve always tried to recruit at least one guy 6-7 that can defend small and big, which would have been Jaime, a Chris Smith, Tre Scott, Gary Clark, the guys at Cincinnati, so if you need to go small you can because as my friend George Jackson used to tell me, to win the trophy you’ve got to dance to every song they play, you can’t just play the big lineup, sometimes you’ve got to play the small lineup. We went to the Final Four playing Jaylen Clark at center when Cody got in foul trouble against Alabama, we didn’t put Kenny in, they were too fast for Kenny, so that’s why I recruited Jaylen Clark because I knew this guy can do everything on defense. He guarded ones, he guarded fives, so winning players come in all type of different packages so that’s why Ilane is a key recruit for us, you know it’s tough because we’re going to have to play some zone to get real to the crux of what you're trying to [ask], to play Aday and Adem, it depends on who you’re playing but here’s a team that’s just wheeling around the three-point line, it’s tough. I mean, where are you going to put Aday Mara, are you going to ask him to defend the three-point line? And you’re not going to see that in high-major games but it was tough because they couldn’t have guarded him. He was nervous the other night but he had great practices and he was ready and all we’ve got to do is throw it to him. You talk about offensive issues, that will solve offensive issues, just throw him the ball because hes more polished as a scorer than Adem.”
BERKE?
“Day to day. We’re doing everything we can to get an answer ans speed it up as much as we can. Its’s frustrating, very frustrating. I fee for him. You know, people forget in this whole scheme of things you’ve got a kid that is trying to chase his dreams, but that tends to get lost in the shuffle a lot, a lot.”
ucla.rivals.com
