WATCH: Mick Cronin, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Tyger Campbell on UCLA's Loss
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UCLA men's basketball coach Mick Cronin, guard/forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. and point guard Tyger Campbell spoke with the media following their loss to Gonzaga in the Sweet 16 on Thursday night. Jaquez and Campbell talked about the emotions in the final moments, while Cronin talked about what went wrong for the Bruins and how important the seniors have been to the program's resurgence.
THE MODERATOR: We're joined by UCLA.
COACH CRONIN: My opening statement is it took 33 minutes to get me in here, which is ridiculous.
Q. Talk about those final moments. Amari Bailey makes the 3 and there's 12 seconds left. Clearly the game's not over, what's going through your game?
JAIME JAQUEZ JR.: That the game is not over, try to stay pretty level headed. Every game try not to get too high, try not to get too low. He hit a big shot and we lost.
Q. The offensive drought in the second half, from your eyes, what was happening? Was there a specific reason, just shots not going down? Were there other things that you could have done?
TYGER CAMPBELL: I'd say we ran some really good sets to go at what we thought we could take advantage of, and we got some really good looks, and we just weren't able is to knock 'em in. So I would say that our drought was due to us taking good shots and us not making them, that's what I would say.
Q. Jaime, Drew Timme finished with 36 points, something around there. Without Adem Bona what were some of the things you guys tried to neutralize him as best you could?
JAIME JAQUEZ JR.: I think we tried our best to stop him. We didn't get it done.
Q. Jaime, I'm curious on that last 3 by Strawther. You went under --
COACH CRONIN: He was not guarding Strawther. He was not guarding Strawther.
Q. Can you take me through that play. Was there a miscommunication? What did you see coverage-wise?
JAIME JAQUEZ JR.: I was guarding Sallis, I think.
COACH CRONIN: Yes.
JAIME JAQUEZ JR.: Guarding Sallis. I knew he was a driver and I had to play off him and kind of being helped. I think Dylan was guarding Strawther. Like I said, he had a big shot. That was tough.
Q. Can you talk about Amari Bailey's shot there at the end that put you guys up? What was it like having a freshman step up in a moment like that?
JAIME JAQUEZ JR.: That's who he is. He's a shooter. I've been telling him that. He can really shoot the ball. He's played tremendous for us this entire year. Really stepped it up towards the end when we needed him to. And that just shows who he is. He's a gamer. And big-time player. Big-time players shine in moments like this.
Q. What was the game plan for Drew Timme? Obviously he's a great player, but they have great players around the perimeter as well. What was the game plan for that?
COACH CRONIN: Do our best.
Q. In that drought in the second half --
COACH CRONIN: A lot of open shots that didn't go down. There's no hindsight. Wide open shots. And multiple times we got fouled, no call. Dave and Tyger didn't make a basket in the second half. They had good looks. And Jaime got murdered on about four layups.
Q. Could you talk about the decision to not play Adem Bona?
COACH CRONIN: He wasn't able to play.
Q. Too much pain --
COACH CRONIN: He wasn't able to play. If I wanted to elaborate, I would elaborate.
Q. Jaime was all over the stats, assists, steals, all of that. How often is it to have a player that takes pride in defense as much as he does on offense?
COACH CRONIN: Jaime is one of the best four-year players to ever play at the school with the best tradition and the most great players in the history of college basketball. And since Coach Wooden's retirement, the freshmen became eligible he goes down with the guys who played four years, as good as any of them.
Q. On their shot to go ahead, what's the best way to defend that play? It's like a tricky kind of --
COACH CRONIN: We should have been tighter on Strawther. We were the whole game. We just weren't on that play. If we were tighter then he couldn't have looped behind. We were sagging off -- Dylan was off too far. That's the answer to that.
And that was our game plan against him all night because he's made those shots. Xavier had them beat back in November and he went behind and hit two 30-footers against Xavier.
Q. Knowing Jaime, Tyger and Dave, who elevated this program, won't play again together again. How hard is it to know it's come to an end?
COACH CRONIN: We addressed why we lost we got outrebounded by 24. We had a tough whistle and our guards didn't make a shot in the second half.
Then I told them how proud I was of them because they didn't flinch. I mean, you lose two of the best players in the Pac-12, defensive player of the year, freshman of the year, we still expect to win.
And I'm happy because they still expected to win. I'm happy that they still expected to win. And that we're still upset that we lost. I had people say what a game we played against Arizona in the conference finals. Thought you were going to get beat 25 without those two guys.
Have you not been watching our program? Do you not know what we're about? Like, that's not what time it is at UCLA.
There's a lot of good teams out there this year but a lot of them got whacked by 20 on multiple nights. Not us, not us.
Took a great player, a 32-foot shot, and a great player in Drew Timme and a really tough whistle to send us home, despite everything we've been through.
Q. If you could kind of elaborate on what Jaime, Tyger and David have meant to this program, not just this year but the whole time they've been there, and what they've done to help elevate this program?
COACH CRONIN: Loyalty, which is rare in today's society, which is something that I have great respect for. And when I look at those guys, I respect people, I think -- I don't respect anybody I think that's a fraud that doesn't work hard. I just don't. I don't care if you like me.
I have great respect for those three because when you watch them play you don't think, well, he should be better than that. When you watch Dave Singleton and you see he's limited athletically, and you see that he gets everything he can out of his body and his talent.
Tyger Campbell, unbelievable career. You can't get any more out of his body and his God-given things that he has that he can't change. He totally maxes it out.
And Jaime Jaquez, same thing. Came in to us as a human turnover the first two months. And I just played him because he was as crazy as me. We were losing. He was pissed. I said I can build a program with this guy because he's got heart. Now look at him.
But it proves, if you work hard, you have a great attitude, you can become a really, really good player. So that's why I respect those guys so much.
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