Feb. 23, 2002
UCLA Head Coach Steve Lavin -
Opening Statement: I'm really proud of our kids to bounce back like this after Thursday night. It's a theme of our team to come together and rally. Hopefully, we can continue to play like this. I've thought we could be a heck of a basketball team, but we've only shown it in spurts. They really played their hearts out today, I'm really proud of them.
What was different in today's game compared to Thursday night against Cal?
I thought our spacing, shooting and poise was the difference. We sometimes dribble too much and shoot too soon. We didn't do that too much today and that helped.
Did you challenge the freshmen today?
No. I think collectively, we had a great practice yesterday in here for one and a half hours. It was encouraging because we've been trying to find ourselves all season.
Why has it taken you this much of the season to find yourselves?
Well, we've had to redefine ourselves two or three times this season. Losing Cedric Bozeman for six weeks at a pivotal stage in his formation was hard. LA is a tough town - especially for younger guys.
Stanford Head Coach Mike Montgomery -
Opening Statement: I don't know what to say other than we're not playing well enough to win games like this. I thought we'd turned a corner with our energy, but we could not shoot the ball. I tried a lot of people and combinations, but no one had any confidence. I kept telling them to just keep shooting, but no one wanted to. We shot 42 threes - and I wanted them to keep shooting as long as UCLA was giving us the opportunity. UCLA played open court, 4-out, 1-in and really didn't run any set plays. In the first half, we had a huge problem rebounding the ball. We've got our work cut out for us. Everything we want to accomplish is still ahead of us. We're going to dig down and try to grab a few more wins.
Were zones a problem for Curtis Borchardt today?
Yes, they were packing in on him. Teyo Johnson is doing all that he can as a 6'5" guy at the post. We're in a tough spot as to what to do offensively and defensively at that post spot. We were open a lot and guys would drive in and kick it out to someone else because no one had any confidence. The one guy who you do have confidence in, Casey Jacobsen, is the guy that UCLA isn't letting see the ball because they're all over him.
What do the two losses do for your seeding in the conference tournament?
We're going to drop down in the standings - we'll probably be in a fourth or fifth place situation. We have two more games in Arizona and then the Pac-10 Tournament and then we'll be looking at our seeding in the NCAA Tournament. We need wins. We got tougher towards the end of today's game, but this is not a group with confidence right now.