Oregon vs. UCLA Postgame Quotes
01/31/14 | Men's Basketball
Oregon Head Coach Dana Altman
On his description of the final play…
“We were hoping that Johnathan (Loyd) would make a play for Joseph (Young) there. I'll have to take a look at the play but that is not what we had planned. We wanted Jonny to push it hard and Joe to pop off the baseline. We knew UCLA would pack it in a little bit inside and not let us get to the rim, so we thought we would have an opportunity to get Joe a clean look. We just didn't get it.”
On how frustrating it is to be so close and not come out with a win…
“It's already disappointing when you lose a two point game at home. We had a really bad stretch there. The difference in the game was the start of the second half. We gave up some easy baskets and they got the 11 point lead with about seven or eight minutes left to play. We fought back and I thought the guys fought really hard there. We had some bad offensive possessions in the second half, and that's on me. I'm not sure what we were in a couple times and with an experienced group like we have, that was a little disappointing. We had some bad turnovers, so we went with the smaller lineup.”
OREGON PLAYER QUOTES
#3 Guard Joseph Young
On how the team played…
“We played well on defense. We got better in some spots that we didn't do too well in the past five games. I thought we did good on defense but we just have to finish the game up in the end.”
“At this point we're just overcoming adversity. We fight as a defense and we play good defense. We made some good baskets on offense. We just need to execute more toughness plays on the defensive end.”
On getting over the loss…
“It's tough but we have to get over it. We have USC coming up. We just have to practice hard tomorrow, get ready for USC, put this behind us and go from there. “
“I just stay in the gym. My teammates get me better. Coach gets me better. Just got to stay in the gym consistently and I'll get out of the slump quick.”
On his position as a leader…
“I feel comfortable as a leader. I'm working hard on defense—that's the main focus. Just trying to be better and active on defense.”
UCLA QUOTES
UCLA Head Coach Steve Alford
On the importance of this win to stay close to Arizona in Pac-12 race…
“More so than catching Arizona, for us it's about our growth. We've grown. We've gotten much better defensively. We held an explosive offense to 68 points on 39 percent shooting. We out-rebounded them after they just out-rebounded Washington State by maybe 20. It's not an easy place to win. I told the guys, we were up 15 in the second half. That takes great effort against a team like this. To lose that lead and have enough poise and grit down the stretch was big. The three guys that led us in scoring - the effort plays they had were huge.”
On the final series of plays…
“The (possession) arrow was ours. We talked about that in our timeout. We get a huge tie-up after a miss and get possession again. Their effort was tremendous.”
On his message to the team during final timeout…
“Just keep fighting. We went through a stretch - after scoring so well for the first 15 minutes of the half - where we turned the ball over and played sloppy. We made the plays down the stretch, especially defensively. We made the stops we had to get late in the game.”
