Everything Miami Head Coach Jai Lucas Said After 'Margins' Loss to California

CORAL GABLES, Fla. — The Miami Hurricanes (17-4, 6-3 ACC) lost the battle in the margins against the California Golden Bears 86-85.

It was the most given up all season and Jai Lucas wasn't satisfied with the work that was on display.

Here is what he had to say after the game:

On the Offense in the first half compared to the Second...

"I felt the first half, we both teams really got whatever we wanted on the offensive side of the ball," Lucas said after the defeat."I thought in the second half, we had a stretch where it gave us some cushions, and then towards the end, like the last nine, eight minutes, it came off like a free-throw battle, and the fouls were just being called everywhere, kind of changed the game.

"We missed some. They made theirs, we missed some little plays, some rebounds, had some time to turn over, some little things that add up.  And then these games are hard. It's hard to win and know margins. Margins are so slim."

On the Last Two Shots...

I mean, the last two plays, Tre, and Shelton, I, that's all you can ask. layups.  I had it at the rim; you've got to finish. Got if you got ball holes and bounce out. Funny things happen sometimes, but you know, you're always in that situation when to put pressure on the rim. Maybe you get a foul. Which you always want to give yourself the highest percentage shot.

On Calling A Timeout After the Two Missed Free Throws...

"You want to make sure you get a quality shot," Lucas said. "You want to make sure if something happens, you have a plan, like you foul right away, being next to you, maybe extend the game a little bit, you know, the situation would have been a free throw.  If it was a turnover or something, I may not called it, but would it be a mystery or that being able to get back and not have anybody on the line? I just kind of felt it was the best time."

On Where He Wants the team to grow in Febuary...

I think garden ball. We've got to guard the ball better; we've got to find the ball better.  I mean, usually we're the ones that shoot 32, three throws, and 34 free throws. I mean, they got 32 and 34, and whenever a team that's with us on the time, it's going to be tough. It's going to be tough.  But even with that said, we want to win that one play, a week from winning.

On What He Liked About the Performace

That's the thing that's shown all year, just their ability to compete and play the whole 40 minutes and never feel like they're out of it, you know, all these games are hard, so win some games and lose some. I know they're going to compete, and they're going to play.  They will always give us a chance to win.

On John Camden and Justin Pippen...

I mean, [Camden] shot to be a shooting, snot out of it. I saw it against the Stanford game, where he was to do against them. He gives you a decision if you want to switch, how you want to kind of guard his ballstrings, we mix it up; we did different things. Once the guy gets going like that, it's kind of tough. When you have somebody like, when you have somebody like Justin, to come and play the way that he did, eight assists, two turnovers, the way that typically generates turnovers, he wasn't allowing that to happen.

Yeah, I thought [Justin Pippen] controlled the game. You know, as you said, whenever you get 80 turns, I thought he controlled the game.  He's really solid in the big role. We found people on time and on target. It was just that he ran the team.  He ran the team and did a good job.

On the similarities between last game and the one before with free throws...

Yeah, you know, throughout the game, they did, definitely. I mean, whenever you, I think we missed like five in a row or something like that. It's just one; it drains you, drains the team, and drains the momentum. Put two of the three points.  You know, and this is something we've dealt with all year. We shoot them, we practice them, we work at it. So, you know, I'm not going to hang my head because if it was something up here, we weren't going to get better at it, then I would say, yeah, but, you know.

I thought our desperation was there. I just didn't think we were playing ahead of the ball defensively.  I thought we played with great energy, great effort. It wasn't a desperation thing tonight. We just had we struggled to contain the ball, and it happened against Florida State.  It happened this game, and you know, we did a good job the last game against Stemford with the court, but this one was different where we needed to really contain the ball, especially down the stretch

On Shelton Henderson's development...

The development is a big piece of it.  So, you know, those guys and everybody who's here want them to continually get better throughout the year, and show has. You know, he's added more to his game. He's expanded a lot.  We're able to post them. And now put him kind of in that mid-post area, like you're saying, with those turnarounds. He had been shooting it at two.  So he's continued to get better, which is always a good sign.

On Dante Allen's Ascension...

Dante's always capability to playing like this, you know, just throughout the season, throughout the time, rotations and lineups and things change, it's just a little deep in time.  Stay in Tick and the ability to keep working and just seeing that jump and making that jump, which he has, it's always a positive