PAC-12 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 11, 2021

Grant Anticevich

California Golden Bears

Postgame Press Conference

Colorado - 61, California - 58

THE MODERATOR: We'll start with questions.

Q. Grant, could you just talk about how difficult this season was and what your level of optimism is for next year? Because you're coming back and so you obviously think it's worth your time. Pretty young team generally. What do you see coming in the future for you guys?

GRANT ANTICEVICH: Yeah, I think that the COVID-season has definitely been hard and it's taken a toll, it's been taxing on a lot of people and a lot of people have had to go through it and it's been tough. But I'm proud of the way that we have gotten through it, I think we have done a good job for the most part and we have kept working and not let it affect us as much as possible, which I'm proud of how we did as a team and, yeah, I'm extremely excited about next year, I think that we're going to have a really good team, I think we have a good team this year, we played some good basketball the last couple weeks, and I think if we keep playing like that and just keep building on the way we played these last couple weeks this pass season I think we'll be a tough team to beat.

Q. You guys played for most of tonight played really well defensively again. Especially early in the game at the other end. What do you think happened offensively tonight?

GRANT ANTICEVICH: I got to give some credit to their defense. They're a really good defensive team and I think especially in the first half I think both teams were playing really good defense, and we weren't able to get a couple of shots to drop, we were getting a couple to drop here and there, but I think we were kind of doing the right things, I think it was like a high-intensity game it was a low-scoring game, which the is the way we wanted it to be, so, yeah.

Q. I was just wondering how much confidence did you guys take coming into this game knowing that you guys have beaten them last time at your building, how much confidence did that give you going into this game, because you played them tough?

GRANT ANTICEVICH: Yeah, obviously it gives us confidence but Colorado's a great team and we have a lot of respect for them and knew coming into the game it was going to be a battle. And that they were going to play hard and play well. So we knew we had our work cut out for us, but obviously having won a game before, that kind of gives us that little confidence, I guess a little edge we feel like we can have, but we knew it was going to be a competitive game, regardless.

Q. I thought one of the most impressive things from you guys tonight was a rare night Matt Bradley did not score very well, and then he fouls out, which to me watching the game when Matt fouled out after he had gotten going, I figured, okay, well that's the end of the game and it really wasn't. Why were you guys able to play so well when Matt had an off night and he fouled out?

GRANT ANTICEVICH: Yeah, Matt played really hard. He got some foul calls and got fouled out. But he got it going and then I think everyone had to -- we knew we had to step up when he got fouled out. We knew the game was close and we knew we could get the win and we feel like we could and we kept battling and we kept just making plays, I think everyone stepped up and played aggressively, played assertively. And unfortunately it didn't go our way. But towards the end it was, the game was depending upon that last shot, so we were right there.

Q. You said the last shot, when you saw it leave Makale's hand did you think it was in?

GRANT ANTICEVICH: Yeah, I mean he's hit that shot before. He hit it I think against San Francisco -- yeah, San Francisco where he just shot the last couple seconds to win us the game. So that's his shot, he hits that shot all the time and when I see it I thought it was going to be good, obviously it didn't go in but he shoots that shot all the time and that's a shot that we like for him to take.

Q. D.J. Thorpe had a pretty nice game tonight. Showed some things, especially offensively that we haven't seen a lot. What do you think he can give you guys going forward?

GRANT ANTICEVICH: Yeah, I think he played really well, I think he was active defensively and offensively he was assertive. He was making plays, he was being strong down in the paint in the block and making some big-time plays, especially when we needed him of the. So he played really well and I think he's just going to keep improving.