Courtesy of Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times:
Mick Cronin
YOU STUCK WITH IT AND DYLAN MADE THE SHOT?
“Fortunate at the end. For 38, 39 minutes we played great. I thought we played great for a long time, first road game together as a group, I thought we played really well for a long period of time. Really got work to do with our late-game defense. I’ve had this conversation, coach Pitino and I are very close, Kevin Willard, our family of coaches — guys haven’t played college basketball if they haven’t played for you, so we talked about it, we’ll watch it, no block-out at the foul line, gave up an and-one, gave up an out-of-bounds play foul, didn’t step out on the last play, so defensively we were not ourselves at the end of the game, so we tried to give it away, we just got fortunate that we got a shot to go in at the end, so we’ll take it and try to get better.”
PLAY YOU WANTED COMING OUT OF LAST TIMEOUT?
“Well, they switched. Look, we struggled throwing the ball to Tyler Bilodeau right now; we’re really struggling. Dylan’s — I’ve got to do a better job coaching his passing, there’s just no other way around it. We’re really struggling to get him the ball when he’s wide open. So we thought they’d switch, we could drive by the guy or get Bilodeau or Tyler on the roll, we lifted Lazar, we thought they would run out with him and Tyler would be right there in the paint, so it’s just fortunate that we got a shot to go in, so.”
TO KNOW YOU HAVE AREAS FOR IMPROVEMENT AND STILL GET THE WIN, HOW BIG IS THAT?
“Yeah, look, I was happy for Lazar. Look, all these teams, this is just the way it is now. You know, you don’t just get six transfers and two freshmen and start looking like a well-oiled machine. So like I said, guys have played but they haven’t played for us and it takes a while to create habits, create continuity, but my biggest thing was our fight — first road game, make sure we packed our toughness, make sure we took care of the ball — we didn’t turn it over one time against their press and I told them if we do that we’re going to have a chance to win.”
ERIC DAILEY HAD A BIG GAME BUT YOU WENT AWAY FROM HIM WHEN THEY MADE THEIR RUN?
“Well, his scoring was good but when he didn’t block out on the foul line, that’s about as bad as it gets, so once we got us the lead with his offense, so I was trying to get a better defensive lineup in there. He’s still a young guy, he hasn’t been coached a lot on the defensive end. So he’s still got to get better at that. Plus he’s going to have a little 6 a.m. [workout] on Tuesday morning. The only guy who can get technical fouls on this team is me.”
BELIEVE IN STATEMENT GAMES?
“Nah. My analysis early of the Big Ten is, it’s so deep and I know it probably always was that way but now it’s deeper. You know, you’ve just got to get better. I also coach at UCLA, where we’ve been got the most titles and the second-most Final Fours, so I didn’t come to UCLA to win regular-season games either, so for us, it’s about progression, get better. You’ve heard this from me for now in my sixth year — progression, get better. Today, I thought we were able to win but I thought we got a lot better today. We came together, we got more cohesive, the guys played with confidence. Defensively, we were bad down the stretch and anybody that knows me knows that that just crushes me; I’m not used to that. I’m used to teams struggling to get the ball in the basket, but not give up easy baskets or foul or not block out at the foul line with the game on the line. I am not used to that at all.”
SEBASTIAN GAVE YOU A NICE LIFT?
“Yeah, he’s good all year. It’s just nice to bring him off [the bench] because he injects offense. When he comes in, you’re actually getting better. Even though he’s a sophomore, you’re getting better when he comes in, so that’s why I’m not starting him, but I don’t look at him like a guy — I look at him as probably our best offensive player, definitely on the perimeter. But I still think we’ve got to get Tyler Bilodeau more involved offensively. How many shots did he get?”
ELEVEN.
“I think he’s got to get at least that. And obviously we’re up four, he’s got to get fouled or score and put the game on ice with 40-something seconds left. He can’t get his shot blocked by a point guard, which is what happened and it almost cost us the game.”
WHO GAVE UP THE REBOUND TO ANGEL?
“That was Eric.”
WENT SMALL ON BITTLE FOR A BIG PART OF THE GAME?
“Well, look, Aday’s really the only big guy we got. And I’ve got to get him more minutes, our press has to be more of a factor because I want Trent and Dom to play more, so we’re still trying to progress toward who we want to be, but everybody’s small compared to [Bittle] other than Aday. But I think your point was when we had Eric out, we were too small, so he looked like a giant in a fourth-grade game. That’s because I had Eric out, that’s what hurt us. And I don’t need to have Eric out; he’s got to block out and play better defense because obviously we need his size and his toughness and he gave us scoring.”
Eric Dailey Jr.
HOW DOES IT FEEL TO WIN A GAME LIKE THAT?
“Man, it feels great. You know, this is what college basketball is about — exciting games, D.A. hit a big shot for us. You know, we got after it today and played a really good team and we came out with a win on their home court and that was big for us.”
CELEBRATE WITH D.A. IN LOCKER ROOM?
“Oh, he went to Sea World today, we were splashing him with some water, we got him excited, really hit the big shot, a difficult shot, so we were going to definitely celebrate our teammates for sure.”
YOU MADE SEVEN OF EIGHT SHOTS?
“I just really take whatever the defense gives me, you know, every day’s a different game, a different type of play style. With me, I just try to rebound as much as I can, I know that’s the only thing I can consistently do and points-wise, just take whatever the defense gives me and my teammates trusted me today and we got the win, that’s the main thing.”
TIP AT THE END?
“We just didn’t want them to get a shot up, the last point-four seconds. Just look for the ball, find it, swat it away, get the game clock over with and walk out with a win.”
MISSED A BOX-OUT, SO THAT WAS A COMEBACK?
“Yeah, I’ve got to be better, I’m still learning, I still need to be more consistent at things, just to play at this level, to play here — we’re a defensive school so I need to stay consistent on defense and I’ve got things to work on. I’m going to watch film and work on those things for the next thing.”
HOW FAR HAS TEAM COME SINCE NEW MEXICO?
“I feel like just our togetherness and everybody’s starting to be on one page. We know what everybody wants to do, we know how to find people. Defensively, we’re getting better and better each time we play. Offensively, we’re getting better and we’re just being a tough team. I think that’s our motto is toughness, so just continue to bring that toughness to every game and most likely we’ll walk out with a win.”
WHAT THINKING WHEN DYLAN’S SHOT WENT UP?
“I was thinking, go rebound it regardless of what happened. But God gave him the shot, make it, and hey, that’s all we can do is celebrate that, so it’s good.”
[Laughs]
Dylan Andrews
TAKE US THROUGH FINAL SEQUENCE…
“So it’s funny, the last shot wasn’t even for me. I just wanted to get the ball in and the play was actually for Lazar or Tyler Billodeau; we thought that they were going to lift me, so I was going to get a pick and pop or another screen, we were going to set one for T-Bil, Laz comes off, three ball, but they ended up switching everything, so I had the five man on me and we didn’t have that much time, so the main thing was to get the shot off.”
STUMBLED TOO?
“There was a wet spot on the court.”
NOT MUCH OF A CHOICE WITH CLOCK WINDING DOWN, DID SHOT FEEL GOOD GOING OFF YOUR HANDS BECAUSE YOU GOT HELP ON THE BANK?
“Most definitely and then [interrupted by teammates walking past singing his praises] I love my guys, man. The main thing, I wanted to get to his hip and try to get to the basket, get a foul or anything like that, but he was playing so far back that when I took the dribble, he went so far back that it was an easy shot to get off and I saw the ball trailing and during those times you see the ball in slow motion and you see it going toward the backboard and the rest is history.”
FEEL YOU MIGHT NEED THE BACKBOARD WHEN IT LEFT YOUR HANDS?
“It felt good when it left my hand; I just wanted it to go in.”
FEELING WHEN IT WENT THROUGH NET?
“It was just like a little relief because, you know, it was kind of my fault that they scored that last bucket because Nate Bittle ended up getting a deflection on my pass to Tyler Bilodeau and so that was just a relief that I got to make the shot over the person that deflected my pass. But Nate Bittle’s a great player.”
WHAT DID IT MEAN TO COME IN HERE AND GET THE WIN?
“I mean, especially for the returners that’s been here, we lost to them in the Pac-12 playoffs and not only that, we lost to them here, and os we had fire in our eyes coming into the game but we wanted to get the dub and do whatever it takes to get that.”
COACH SAID YOU NEED TO DO A BETTER JOB FEEDING TYLER?
“Yeah, most definitely. You know, when he gets the ball in the post in his sweet spots, you might as well get back on defense and so we’ve got to work on — especially us guards, how can we get him the ball, making sure he gets the ball where he wants it, so we’ll work on that in practice. You know, go and watch film.”
COACH HAPPY DEFENSIVELY, HOW DID YOU GUYS DO?
“I feel like defensively we did a pretty good job other than we were up 10 and we started fouling a little too much and we got away from our press and I feel like it was just fatigue, but we’ve just got to stay with that and also, deflections, especially me, myself — I had zero deflections today and that’s not me.”
HOW MANY DID THE TEAM HAVE?
“In total, I believe we had 30.”
COACH WANTS 40?
“Yeah.”
ERIC HAD BIG SHOTS…
“What a game. What a game from Eric Dailey. I don’t want to use that word — he played really hard. He played his … his played really hard.”
WENT TO SEA WORLD AND GOT SOME WATER IN THE LOCKER ROOM?
“Most definitely. I love my guys, man. As soon as I came up in there, it felt like I jumped into a pool. They got me, man. They got me.”
SURPRISE YOU?
“I saw it coming too late; so they had the waters down and after coach ended his conversation with us, we got into our break and as soon as we got into the break, I saw everybody’s water go up and I felt like every single person had a water bottle.”
WHAT DID IT FEEL LIKE?
“We’re just happy to come out and get the W, man, so it felt great. It felt great.”
HOW FAR HAVE YOU COME? SEVEN WINS IN A ROW?
“I feel like that New Mexico loss helped us out a lot. Just, you know, building chemistry and showing it’s not going to be easy, right? Everything isn’t just given to you; we’ve got to come in here and really take things.”
Mick Cronin
YOU STUCK WITH IT AND DYLAN MADE THE SHOT?
“Fortunate at the end. For 38, 39 minutes we played great. I thought we played great for a long time, first road game together as a group, I thought we played really well for a long period of time. Really got work to do with our late-game defense. I’ve had this conversation, coach Pitino and I are very close, Kevin Willard, our family of coaches — guys haven’t played college basketball if they haven’t played for you, so we talked about it, we’ll watch it, no block-out at the foul line, gave up an and-one, gave up an out-of-bounds play foul, didn’t step out on the last play, so defensively we were not ourselves at the end of the game, so we tried to give it away, we just got fortunate that we got a shot to go in at the end, so we’ll take it and try to get better.”
PLAY YOU WANTED COMING OUT OF LAST TIMEOUT?
“Well, they switched. Look, we struggled throwing the ball to Tyler Bilodeau right now; we’re really struggling. Dylan’s — I’ve got to do a better job coaching his passing, there’s just no other way around it. We’re really struggling to get him the ball when he’s wide open. So we thought they’d switch, we could drive by the guy or get Bilodeau or Tyler on the roll, we lifted Lazar, we thought they would run out with him and Tyler would be right there in the paint, so it’s just fortunate that we got a shot to go in, so.”
TO KNOW YOU HAVE AREAS FOR IMPROVEMENT AND STILL GET THE WIN, HOW BIG IS THAT?
“Yeah, look, I was happy for Lazar. Look, all these teams, this is just the way it is now. You know, you don’t just get six transfers and two freshmen and start looking like a well-oiled machine. So like I said, guys have played but they haven’t played for us and it takes a while to create habits, create continuity, but my biggest thing was our fight — first road game, make sure we packed our toughness, make sure we took care of the ball — we didn’t turn it over one time against their press and I told them if we do that we’re going to have a chance to win.”
ERIC DAILEY HAD A BIG GAME BUT YOU WENT AWAY FROM HIM WHEN THEY MADE THEIR RUN?
“Well, his scoring was good but when he didn’t block out on the foul line, that’s about as bad as it gets, so once we got us the lead with his offense, so I was trying to get a better defensive lineup in there. He’s still a young guy, he hasn’t been coached a lot on the defensive end. So he’s still got to get better at that. Plus he’s going to have a little 6 a.m. [workout] on Tuesday morning. The only guy who can get technical fouls on this team is me.”
BELIEVE IN STATEMENT GAMES?
“Nah. My analysis early of the Big Ten is, it’s so deep and I know it probably always was that way but now it’s deeper. You know, you’ve just got to get better. I also coach at UCLA, where we’ve been got the most titles and the second-most Final Fours, so I didn’t come to UCLA to win regular-season games either, so for us, it’s about progression, get better. You’ve heard this from me for now in my sixth year — progression, get better. Today, I thought we were able to win but I thought we got a lot better today. We came together, we got more cohesive, the guys played with confidence. Defensively, we were bad down the stretch and anybody that knows me knows that that just crushes me; I’m not used to that. I’m used to teams struggling to get the ball in the basket, but not give up easy baskets or foul or not block out at the foul line with the game on the line. I am not used to that at all.”
SEBASTIAN GAVE YOU A NICE LIFT?
“Yeah, he’s good all year. It’s just nice to bring him off [the bench] because he injects offense. When he comes in, you’re actually getting better. Even though he’s a sophomore, you’re getting better when he comes in, so that’s why I’m not starting him, but I don’t look at him like a guy — I look at him as probably our best offensive player, definitely on the perimeter. But I still think we’ve got to get Tyler Bilodeau more involved offensively. How many shots did he get?”
ELEVEN.
“I think he’s got to get at least that. And obviously we’re up four, he’s got to get fouled or score and put the game on ice with 40-something seconds left. He can’t get his shot blocked by a point guard, which is what happened and it almost cost us the game.”
WHO GAVE UP THE REBOUND TO ANGEL?
“That was Eric.”
WENT SMALL ON BITTLE FOR A BIG PART OF THE GAME?
“Well, look, Aday’s really the only big guy we got. And I’ve got to get him more minutes, our press has to be more of a factor because I want Trent and Dom to play more, so we’re still trying to progress toward who we want to be, but everybody’s small compared to [Bittle] other than Aday. But I think your point was when we had Eric out, we were too small, so he looked like a giant in a fourth-grade game. That’s because I had Eric out, that’s what hurt us. And I don’t need to have Eric out; he’s got to block out and play better defense because obviously we need his size and his toughness and he gave us scoring.”
Eric Dailey Jr.
HOW DOES IT FEEL TO WIN A GAME LIKE THAT?
“Man, it feels great. You know, this is what college basketball is about — exciting games, D.A. hit a big shot for us. You know, we got after it today and played a really good team and we came out with a win on their home court and that was big for us.”
CELEBRATE WITH D.A. IN LOCKER ROOM?
“Oh, he went to Sea World today, we were splashing him with some water, we got him excited, really hit the big shot, a difficult shot, so we were going to definitely celebrate our teammates for sure.”
YOU MADE SEVEN OF EIGHT SHOTS?
“I just really take whatever the defense gives me, you know, every day’s a different game, a different type of play style. With me, I just try to rebound as much as I can, I know that’s the only thing I can consistently do and points-wise, just take whatever the defense gives me and my teammates trusted me today and we got the win, that’s the main thing.”
TIP AT THE END?
“We just didn’t want them to get a shot up, the last point-four seconds. Just look for the ball, find it, swat it away, get the game clock over with and walk out with a win.”
MISSED A BOX-OUT, SO THAT WAS A COMEBACK?
“Yeah, I’ve got to be better, I’m still learning, I still need to be more consistent at things, just to play at this level, to play here — we’re a defensive school so I need to stay consistent on defense and I’ve got things to work on. I’m going to watch film and work on those things for the next thing.”
HOW FAR HAS TEAM COME SINCE NEW MEXICO?
“I feel like just our togetherness and everybody’s starting to be on one page. We know what everybody wants to do, we know how to find people. Defensively, we’re getting better and better each time we play. Offensively, we’re getting better and we’re just being a tough team. I think that’s our motto is toughness, so just continue to bring that toughness to every game and most likely we’ll walk out with a win.”
WHAT THINKING WHEN DYLAN’S SHOT WENT UP?
“I was thinking, go rebound it regardless of what happened. But God gave him the shot, make it, and hey, that’s all we can do is celebrate that, so it’s good.”
[Laughs]
Dylan Andrews
TAKE US THROUGH FINAL SEQUENCE…
“So it’s funny, the last shot wasn’t even for me. I just wanted to get the ball in and the play was actually for Lazar or Tyler Billodeau; we thought that they were going to lift me, so I was going to get a pick and pop or another screen, we were going to set one for T-Bil, Laz comes off, three ball, but they ended up switching everything, so I had the five man on me and we didn’t have that much time, so the main thing was to get the shot off.”
STUMBLED TOO?
“There was a wet spot on the court.”
NOT MUCH OF A CHOICE WITH CLOCK WINDING DOWN, DID SHOT FEEL GOOD GOING OFF YOUR HANDS BECAUSE YOU GOT HELP ON THE BANK?
“Most definitely and then [interrupted by teammates walking past singing his praises] I love my guys, man. The main thing, I wanted to get to his hip and try to get to the basket, get a foul or anything like that, but he was playing so far back that when I took the dribble, he went so far back that it was an easy shot to get off and I saw the ball trailing and during those times you see the ball in slow motion and you see it going toward the backboard and the rest is history.”
FEEL YOU MIGHT NEED THE BACKBOARD WHEN IT LEFT YOUR HANDS?
“It felt good when it left my hand; I just wanted it to go in.”
FEELING WHEN IT WENT THROUGH NET?
“It was just like a little relief because, you know, it was kind of my fault that they scored that last bucket because Nate Bittle ended up getting a deflection on my pass to Tyler Bilodeau and so that was just a relief that I got to make the shot over the person that deflected my pass. But Nate Bittle’s a great player.”
WHAT DID IT MEAN TO COME IN HERE AND GET THE WIN?
“I mean, especially for the returners that’s been here, we lost to them in the Pac-12 playoffs and not only that, we lost to them here, and os we had fire in our eyes coming into the game but we wanted to get the dub and do whatever it takes to get that.”
COACH SAID YOU NEED TO DO A BETTER JOB FEEDING TYLER?
“Yeah, most definitely. You know, when he gets the ball in the post in his sweet spots, you might as well get back on defense and so we’ve got to work on — especially us guards, how can we get him the ball, making sure he gets the ball where he wants it, so we’ll work on that in practice. You know, go and watch film.”
COACH HAPPY DEFENSIVELY, HOW DID YOU GUYS DO?
“I feel like defensively we did a pretty good job other than we were up 10 and we started fouling a little too much and we got away from our press and I feel like it was just fatigue, but we’ve just got to stay with that and also, deflections, especially me, myself — I had zero deflections today and that’s not me.”
HOW MANY DID THE TEAM HAVE?
“In total, I believe we had 30.”
COACH WANTS 40?
“Yeah.”
ERIC HAD BIG SHOTS…
“What a game. What a game from Eric Dailey. I don’t want to use that word — he played really hard. He played his … his played really hard.”
WENT TO SEA WORLD AND GOT SOME WATER IN THE LOCKER ROOM?
“Most definitely. I love my guys, man. As soon as I came up in there, it felt like I jumped into a pool. They got me, man. They got me.”
SURPRISE YOU?
“I saw it coming too late; so they had the waters down and after coach ended his conversation with us, we got into our break and as soon as we got into the break, I saw everybody’s water go up and I felt like every single person had a water bottle.”
WHAT DID IT FEEL LIKE?
“We’re just happy to come out and get the W, man, so it felt great. It felt great.”
HOW FAR HAVE YOU COME? SEVEN WINS IN A ROW?
“I feel like that New Mexico loss helped us out a lot. Just, you know, building chemistry and showing it’s not going to be easy, right? Everything isn’t just given to you; we’ve got to come in here and really take things.”
