WATCH: Jaylen Clark Talks UCLA's Defensive Energy, Torn Jerseys
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UCLA men's basketball guard Jaylen Clark spoke with reporters ahead of Wednesday afternoon's practice session at the Mo Ostin Basketball Center. Clark talked about what he can do to help Tyger Campbell work through his shooting slump, the defensive energy that Dylan Andrews and Abramo Canka bring off the bench, how much fun he has playing a press and why he keeps wearing torn jerseys in practice.
Do you speak Italian?
Nah.
What have you thought about Tyger's new role and how he's transitioning into that?
Uh, I mean, it’s huge for us, last year he didn’t have to go score the ball like we need him to this year, so I think it’s just been a little adjustment period, but I think by the end of the year we’ll have it figured it out and he’ll be rolling and back to what he’s used to doing.
How can you help him in this new role?
Um, I feel like we all give him our support and tell him to remain confident because I feel like all shooters go through slumps and stuff like that, so regardless we just need to keep trying to put him in the best positions to score the ball so we can win some games.
How big is the defensive energy from guys like Abramo and Dylan off the bench?
It’s huge. I remember what it’s like because that used to be me a year ago, if you know what I mean, so it’s just like a sparkplug, energy, like everybody we’ve been playing eight, nine minutes, they all have fresh legs, they can go in there and like you said, Abramo can go pick somebody up and cause him to bounce it off his foot and go out of bounds or Dylan, who’s a great defender, can go in there and cause havoc and it gets us going again.
When coach wants you to press, how much do you enjoy it? Like pressing a button?
Yeah. In part I was mad because at Stanford I wasn’t feeling too well, but we’ve only done that one time and just seeing how like shocked and caught off guard because I don’t think, teams now have seen it, so now they know we may press them or we may not, but Stanford had no idea.
Almost like blood in the water?
Yeah. You could sense that they were lost and didn’t know what to do and their coaches didn’t know if it was a man or a zone, so it was fun.
What's an example of how you can disguise it now to make it just as effective? EFFECTIVE?
Yeah, like I said, people don’t know if we’re in man or zone, like it depends on what they do and whether we stay in man or go to zone but I feel like the biggest thing is just our on-ball pressure, and weak [?] pressure and we get people turning, we’re going to become or not like, I feel like there’s so many ways Cronin has to disguise it without trying to reveal it, so I’m pretty sure people who haven’t seen it be watching themselves, so.
What happened to your shirt there?
Oh, all my jerseys are ripped from practice, so like this one is more ripped than the other one. I have another one that’s ripped but at least this part’s connected so it looks better but it didn’t make the laundry, so I have to wear this one today. I don’t have any normal jerseys. All my jerseys are ripped.
How do they get ripped?
Oh, various ways. [Laughs] A lot of different ways. I think this one, I ripped myself. The other time, I’ll just be like, I’ll reach and do something and then out of reaction somebody will grab it or I’ll go and try to tip it and be fighting for a rebound and be boxing out and somebody will pull on it. Yeah.
A badge of honor?
Yeah.
Like having a dirty football uniform?
Yeah. Like the most cracks on your helmet. Jaime has a few ripped jerseys too but he has some new ones, I didn’t get any new ones.
Maybe you can use Under Armour ones?
Yeah, I don’t know if we’re allowed to do that, use them.
Are those Pangos socks?
Oh, yeah. I’ll wear anything. Like, since I don’t live at home no more I don’t do my laundry as much because I’m used to being able to walk downstairs and just throw it in the washer and dryer and then like go play video games and play around and three hours later moving it from the washer to the dryer and leaving it overnight but because I’m in an apartment complex, if you forget it, people will just take it out and just throw it wherever they throw it, so I go home every once in a while but because I do, I wear regular stuff to practice.
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