PAC-12 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 10, 2023

Mick Cronin

Jaime Jaquez Jr

Tyger Campbell

UCLA Bruins

Postgame Press Conference

UCLA - 75, Oregon - 56

THE MODERATOR: We'll go ahead and get started with an opening statement from coach and then take questions.

MICK CRONIN: Obviously, congratulate Oregon. I thought they brought the fight, played as hard as they could. Once again, our defense and our toughness get better as the game goes on. These guys just know how to win.

The way that we're playing, the pick-and-roll, we thought Tyger could have a big night in our game plan with the coaching staff. He was able to get enough shots where he was able to get in a great rhythm. It doesn't surprise me. He's a great player, so not shocked at all before you ask me if he was, you know, I know he's got that game in him. Tonight was his turn. Yesterday was Amari's turn.

The stat sheet's wrong because in the locker room they gave me one that said the rebounding was 40-40. So second half our rebounding was much, much better, much better. So first half their offensive rebounding kept 'em in the game. They're big. They're bigger than us at every position. But it's not how big you are. It's how tough you are. It's not how tall you are. It's how big you play.

So we stepped it up. Guys were awesome. Guys gave us a lot of contributions off the bench, so onward we fight.

THE MODERATOR: We'll take some questions.

Q. What does it say that Adem goes down, could have been a deflating moment, and they used it and went the other way with it?

MICK CRONIN: Yeah, not a shock. It's why you guys got scholarships. I told you last year I became a hockey fan watching my buddy Eric Johnson. I didn't know the rules. So they actually have to play a man down.

In basketball you get to put somebody else in. It's a heck of a deal. You still get to play five on five. So people say, you don't have this guy or that guy. I mean, it would be different if you didn't have anybody to put in. We got guys on scholarship for a reason. They practice hard, we prepare 'em for a reason, we try to tell 'em their moment's going to come. We tell 'em all year, Your moment's going to come in March and we're going to need you.

So guys gave us big minutes off the bench. And we just worry about defense. If we worry about defense, we worry about playing smart, the ball's eventually going to go in.

Q. Talk a little bit about --

MICK CRONIN: By the way, the rematch. It's my fault I didn't text you. You know who won, right?

Q. I do. Okay.

MICK CRONIN: I let you off the hook with that. High school game.

Q. Second half, 29 percent shooting you kept Oregon to. Some of the contributions of the guys on the bench --

MICK CRONIN: Yeah, it was great, it's great for those guys. I'm happy to see those guys get a chance to get in there. It gets 'em ready for next week, gets 'em some game experience a big-game environment like that, to get off the bench like that.

But I would say this, in my opinion, we stopped getting beat off the dribble and the game changed. Once we were able to stop getting beat off the dribble, which is easier said than done against some of their guys, but once we did that, defensively we took it to another level. They were forced to take a lot of perimeter shots, a lot of jump shots.

So I think that was the whole key in the second half. Look, it's hard, sometimes you got to adjust to the speed of the game, and some of the guys got tremendous quickness on their team. But second half we did a better job with the scouting report.

But, yeah, like you said, I'm happy that Dylan, Mac, Will, Abramo, Kenny all got to contribute.

Q. After Adem went down, Oregon immediately cut the lead to three, then you score 11 of your team's next 13, push the lead back to 11. What did you feel like your team needed from you in that moment?

TYGER CAMPBELL: Well, I was just more worried about winning. You said they cut it to three, and coach called some great plays and our bigs were getting me open on our ball screens, and then we were able to get the switch so I could get the shot that I wanted.

So I was really just trying to make anything happen. I believe in myself as a player and any shot I take I feel like it's going to go in, and they just went in today, so, yeah, I was thankful for that.

Q. I know it's probably too early, but is there any update on Bona?

MICK CRONIN: Do you think I would tell you? No, I have no idea. He looks good in the locker room. But, no.

Q. Your guys' ability to close the games the way do you is very impressive. Can you speak quickly on what that takes?

JAIME JAQUEZ JR: I think it's a lot of, we got, like I said before, we've had a lot of veterans on this team. We had Adem go down and then slide in Kenny right there and he had huge plays for us, big rebounds, big blocks.

We've just been in these situations before. Four years, you get a lot of experience. We got a great point guard right here and he's our closer. We get him the ball, he brings it up the court, he takes care of it for us and gets us all in the right position and, gets our offense in the right position to make plays and defensively as well.

Q. We saw the moves, but what did that feel like when you're making one play after another and the crowd's going nuts and just kind of feeding on itself basically with one kind of highlight after another?

TYGER CAMPBELL: All I'm really worried about is just winning the game. Of course it felt good. It felt good. I would say --

MICK CRONIN: It was 1989, but when I did it felt good.

TYGER CAMPBELL: It was more looking over at my teammates and seeing them excited. That really gets me excited. So, yeah, that was about it, just looking over my team.

Q. Dante's been their most consistent player. They tried to go to him early in the game. What did you think of your defense in limiting him? I think he only had one point in the first half.

MICK CRONIN: Yeah, he's 3-11, and 10 of those he tried to take a jumper late, but 10 of them are point blank. So we did a pretty good job. We tried to make it hard to throw it to him. We tried to give him some perimeter guys digging in there just to give him stuff to think about.

Ware actually hurt us more. He can make guarded shots over people. The guy's seven-one. It's like Kenny Nwuba told me one time, he's like, I don't know what else I could do but tackle him. But Dante's had a great career at Oregon, four years, overcome the ACL thing. He still got 10 rebounds.

But we did a good job, no doubt about it. Look, we're not the biggest team in the world, but like I said, it's not how big you are. It's how big you play.

Q. Tyger, on those ball screens where you're snaking off of them, you're getting to that 15-, 18-foot range, I'm curious, who do you watch because you see Chris Paul do that, Ja Morant do that a lot.

MICK CRONIN: Watch his tapes of La Salle High School, 1989.

Q. Is there someone you model for those snaking --

TYGER CAMPBELL: You kind of said it. I watch a lot of Chris Paul highlights. Steve Nash is one of my favorite players. Just guys that kind of mastered the mid-range. So when the team just gives me those shots, I just try it take 'em confidently and try to knock 'em down.

Q. Jaime, what would it mean to you to win this tournament?

JAIME JAQUEZ JR: It would mean that all this hard work paid off. We worked so hard this year. Even the years in the past, we fell short last year. It would be great to just overcome that and bring home the PAC-12 tournament championship.

Q. This might get overlooked a little bit, but Kenny came in with two blocks --

MICK CRONIN: Huge. Big time. Those were big.

Q. Seemed like that kind of set the tone for the way you guys pulled together.

MICK CRONIN: No doubt. Those are big-time blocks too. He came from out of nowhere. I didn't know he was going to get those. Those were impressive plays. It was good to see him moving good again. The injury to his hip has really been bothering him for the last month so it was good to get, to see him get out there and get mobile again. Happy for him. These guys will tell you, man, Kenny's a loyal soldier. Loves his team, loves UCLA, can count on him all the time, whether he gets in or not. He helps you win with his attitude every day. So just a great, great kid. All right guys.

THE MODERATOR: All right. Thank you very much.