Watch: Mick Cronin on UCLA's Lineup Changes, Remembering Jalen Hill

Opening statement

We forced 24 turnovers. Can you guys hear me? I don’t know if this is working or not. I feel like it’s not working. [Tap, tap, tap] Yeah, all right, so we forced 24 turnovers. The first half, I thought our offense—it happens, you miss shots, it happened against Oregon. But I was really unhappy with our energy. When the shots don’t go in, we’ve got to rebound the ball and then our leaders, in particular our guards, you can’t look like they lost their dog when their shot don’t go in; you’ve got to go play harder, which is what Dylan and Dave do, so before you ask that’s why they started the second half and you saw what happened, so you can’t worry about whether your shot goes in, OK? Those two guys were 0 of eight from three? I don’t care. I could care less, I could care less. Four years in, around here, you worry about playing hard and having a great attitude, being physical and go rebound the ball—I think we had nine offensive in the second half. So we miss 21 shots and we got nine rebounds in the second half, it’s almost half our misses, so those are things you can control. We took a lot of good shots that didn’t go in in the first half—you can’t control that. You can control your attitude, your effort, your energy. You’ve got to be mature enough to know you’re not going to make shots all the time, let’s go rebound the ball. But Jaime’s got to get more than two rebounds.

Emotional pregame ceremony, Tyger was Jalen's roommate – do you think that might have had an impact?

No. I think the pregame ceremony was awesome; I don’t believe in any excuses for performance. But I think the pregame ceremony, it was unfortunate that we had it; it’s still hard for all of us to process—really, really hard—but we’re all going to a celebration of life for him tomorrow as a team, so probably will be the first time that it will be more tangible and real just because of the way everything’s happened.

Start the game with a tie?

Yeah.

Last time you had taken one off during a game?

No idea.

Happen at halftime?

Yes. I wasn’t happy. You have to – no one player is more important than your culture whether it’s at your business, on your team. Your culture, your standard is your standard. I wasn’t happy with us worrying about the wrong things—you worry about the right things, the right things happen. Twenty years, I’ve been a head coach. You worry about the right things, the right things happen. You worry about the wrong things, you get fired because then people say comments like, ‘Boy, he can’t coach, they’ve got all this talent but they don’t win.’ Yeah, because they worry about offense, scoring, shooting instead of execution, toughness, defense, rebounding, so somewhere along the line I lost my tie, I still don’t know where it’s at.

Jaime needs more than two rebounds?

Yeah, he’s got to get way more than two rebounds.

What role does he play for this team?

Well, he’s become an elite scorer in college basketball, you see that. Like, today, my goal was to get a bunch of guys minutes, so some of my act is staged, premeditated, but when we need a bucket, it’s pretty simple where you go. Very few guys in college basketball can score without the offense, they can just go—give them the ball and they can just go get it. That’s a thing you usually only see in the pros, you see that on TNT, not on ESPN, but he can do it, he can score over his man, around his man, but we’re a small team the way we play, so he and Jaylen Clark, for us, have to rebound. He was a role player, hustle guy, and he’s evolved. When you stay in school and you have a great attitude and you put the work in, you can evolve as a player. You see his evolution. He can really score.

Tyger’s focus, not starting the second half?

We’re worried about the wrong things. Look, Tyger’s the best. I got no chance building this program without him. He’s not as tall as we list him. I don’t know if he can grab the rim. He’s done nothing but win here. And he’s the ultimate competitor. But at times, I want him to be more vocal and he’s gotta be an extension of me. That’s the same message to Amari. They need to be an extension of me. And he’s older. I could care less about his shooting. I care about his ball pressure, his body language, his talking to his teammates - where Dave Singleton excels at all. And so does Dylan, really. You saw how he started the second half. But, you know, hard for me to not admit that you’re playing Denver and you know your next two games are Maryland and Kentucky. Maybe what Ben said, honoring Jalen. When you’ve started for four years all the games and maybe, you know, you’re not as ready for today. But I just want him to be an All-American so I want him to play great every game. But I got to protect my culture. So you gotta be an extension of me, your toughness and your fire and your competitiveness or you don’t get to play. You definitely don’t get to start.

Will McClendon?

Yeah, it was great to have him out there. He passed up a shot I didn’t like, I ran a little play for him. What he get? He got 10 minutes. It’s his first real minutes in a long, long time. Since when they won the state at Bishop Gorman his junior year in a real game. He hates that knee brace, he doesn’t need it. Doctors like him and Mac wearing it, for a couple weeks. You know, certain period of time before they let him shed it but he hates it. Cause you know speed and quickness as a guard. But it’s great to have him out there. I’m a big fan of Will. He defends. He’s everything that I’ve just talked about. He believes in playing hard - all the right things. Guy’s got great parents, one of the best high school coaches in the country in Grant Rice - can’t beat me in golf but he’s a great coach. I believe in Will. Really happy. Can’t imagine how happy he is right now. You imagine if you don’t play for two years, it’s crazy.

Jaylen Clark back to pre-flu form?

Yep, you know, he’s a good player. He only made one bad play, I got upset late in the first half. I said, ‘No more fouls, no more trapping.’ He fouled immediately and Amari Bailey kept trapping. It might’ve been why the tie came off at halftime. Not sure.

That tie go to the Hall of Fame?

I honestly don’t know. It could’ve got ripped. I don’t know where it ended up. I got a few of them so we’re okay. More concerned with you and I which kind of Pinot we’re going to have later - text me.