WATCH: Jaime Jaquez Jr., Tyger Campbell, Adem Bona on UCLA's Win
UCLA men's basketball guard/forward Jaime Jaquez Jr., point guard Tyger Campbell and center Adem Bona spoke to reporters following the Bruins' 81-60 win over Bellarmine at Pauley Pavilion on Sunday. The trio talked about the importance of moving the ball, while Jaquez touched on how difficult the Knights were to defend on the perimeter and Bona spoke on how much fun his lob dunks were.
What sparked the ball movement tonight?
Jaime Jaquez Jr.: I think it was just our preparation going into practice, knowing what we need to do to put the ball in the basket. We’ve got a lot of guys who can score every time, but we’ve got to understand, we’re starting to realize that the more you move the ball, the more easy buckets that you’re allowed to get and we’re just buying into that and it showed tonight.
How much fun were your lob dunks, Adem?
Adem Bona: It was amazing, I’ve been waiting for that all year and it happened today—Tyger found me, Amari found me, it’s amazing feeling.
You had a few nice assists too?
AB: Oh, yeah, it was fun. I think all my assists were to Jaime, I had all three to Jaime and I was trying to be fancy a little bit but [inaudible].
What was Bellarmine doing that made them so hard to defend on 3s?
JJJ: Well, the way I would describe it and the way I was thinking in my head, all five of the guys are running around like Steph Curry trying to get open, trying to back cut, trying to shoot and I mean, they didn’t seem to get very tired and that’s very hard to guard and it’s hard when you’ve got a lot of young guys and even us older guys were making mistakes, just so much movement and we tried to take a page out of their book and implement that movement and running and cutting into our offense as well but they’re a very tough team to guard.
Defense really good for the first 15 minutes – did you know you would have to step up defensively without Jaylen Clark?
Tyger Campbell: Yeah, we wanted to really come out with a defensive presence—like you said, not having J, who leads the Pac-12 in steals, you’re missing something big, but we’re just trying to get up full court, trying to pressure them into mistakes and be there when we get beat with the help.
Coach have a message for you and Jaime when you came out with a minute left, anything special?
TC: Yeah, just game stuff.
Ready to start Pac-12 play on Thursday?
JJJ: I know we’re going to get ready with this week of practice coming up, coach is going to have us prepared and we’re going to go through our scout and our film and we’ll be ready by then.
Tyger, how does it feel to have a couple of other guys able to pass the ball to help you?
TC: It’s good, it really helps me get more time off the ball where I can move around and shoot more or cut and get open or set screens to get people open, so I’d say it really opens up my game more and people like Amari, this guy’s been coming off screens, not having J Clark, he’s a good ball-screen person, D.A. It’s just good playing off the ball, I really like it.
Coach say anything about diving on the floor to you?
TC: Um, not yet. We’ll watch it in film, though. He’ll say something when we watch film.
David Singleton's defense better?
TC: Yeah, this offseason he really worked on it a lot, you know his foot quickness and just being in the right place on defense watching film, so yeah, all power to him, he’s been working really hard on that stuff.
You've been in a cold streak shooting 3s – how big was it to hit that one in the second half?
TC: It always feels good to hit a shot but they’re still going up, so I feel confident and I guess I’ve just got to start hitting them.
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