UCLA Basketball Meets with the Media
LOS ANGELES - UCLA head coach Steve Alford and several basketball players met with the media prior to Tuesday afternoon's practice in the Student Activities Center on campus.
Alford spoke about the team’s preseason practices, depth chart, summer workouts and the status of Pauley Pavilion as the Bruins inch closer to the 2014-15 campaign. In his second year as UCLA’s head coach, Alford and his coaching staff secured an incoming class hailed as a nationally top-10 ranked group, according to several national ranking services.
Tuesday’s media availability coincided with the birthday of the late head coach John Wooden, who was born 104 years ago on this day in Martinsville, Ind. Earlier Tuesday morning, Alford dined with Wooden family members (including Nan Wooden) and friends of the family at Vip’s Café in Tarzana, Calif., a local and longtime favorite dining spot of Coach Wooden.
UCLA's 2014-15 team, backed by the return of senior Norman Powell, junior Tony Parker and sophomore Bryce Alford, will play an exhibition game against Azusa Pacific on Friday, Oct. 31, in Pauley Pavilion. Game time is 7:30 p.m.
UCLA, which went 28-9 last season en route to a Sweet 16 appearance in the NCAA Tournament, will opens its regular season against Montana State in Pauley Pavilion the night of Friday, Nov. 14. Game time of the regular season opener is 9 p.m.
UCLA head coach Steve Alford
transcript of comments prior to Tuesday's practice
on how practices have gone so far
“It’s been great. This has been the eighth or ninth practice today, and this has been a really good group. That is what has been exciting. We thought, during the summer, it was a team that would look one way by October, and then look a different way in January or February. And I really, honestly believe that with this team. The young guys are extremely talented, and I think that as we get more practices and they get more experience, it’s really going to help them. Now, with the schedule that we got in November and December, they are going to get huge tests right away. I really like the development, the demeanor, the foundation laid last year, has really helped the guys who are returning. It hasn’t just helped them, but I think it has really helped these new guys in a different situation. Right now, things are going as well as we could hope for."
on the team’s rotation of guards
“It’s almost the opposite of a year ago. When we got here, I remember in the first locker room talk when I met the guys and we had seven guys on scholarship. And, we were deep at guard and we were probably two bodies short up front. Last year, we pretty much played the Wears and Tony [Parker] up front, obviously with Kyle [Anderson], we would swing Kyle up front. But we were very fragile up front. And now a year later, you lose three guards to the first round and the Wears, that’s five of the eight you were playing last year. But, it’s almost flipped. Now we have a little bit more depth – not all the depth we want up front – but we have a little more frontline depth than we had one year ago. And not as much depth in the backcourt. I think that is why so much is going to be on Isaac and Bryce and Norman. Those are three good, experienced guards, even though Isaac has not played a lot. He has played in our program for one year now. A lot will be put on them. But I think the development of Noah [Allen] and the development of Wanaah [Bail] has been really good. Since the spring and moving forward, I have really liked their development. You are going to see them in the rotation. Obviously, the depth in the backcourt is not where you want it right now."
on the point guard position with Bryce Alford and Isaac Hamilton
“Well, they can both play it. And eventually, as we move along, Kevon [Looney] will have the ability as we get deeper into the season – and we won’t wait very long on that, he is such a great rebounder that he can rebound and go. But, we are very comfortable with Bryce and Isaac. These are two very good players. Bryce, obviously, an outstanding freshman season who proved himself as a point guard and Isaac, who played point on our reserve team all of last year going against our guys. So, he has been able to do that all year as well. They are both comfortable playing either or, and I think that is where they are going to complement each other. We have worked all summer, last year we mixed teams up a lot, because we knew that Kyle would play some point and some stretch four if that’s what you want to call him, or big guard, this year we have gone since day one with pretty much the same teams. That has really been to make sure that Norman and Bryce and Isaac are playing a lot of minutes together. We did that starting back in June and July. All three of those guys were on campus together all summer. They are getting more experience doing that, because they are going play a lot together.”
on Norman Powell’s role, after losing scoring production from last season’s team
“Norman has had great progression and that’s what you want to see. But his development has been incredible. Last year, a great junior year. This year, we will ask more of him. That doesn’t mean that you force things. These guys know our program. It’s about ball movement. It’s about sharing. What is going to happen with Norman is that his minutes will go up. It’s a year where Norman has got to be 30 minutes plus, where last year he was probably 26 or 27 or 28 minutes. His production will go up because of minutes. He has earned that. At adidas Nations this summer, he was MVP. He has had a great summer. He has worked really hard on his jump shot. I think that he is the best driving guard in college basketball. And maybe I’m biased, but there is not anybody who I have seen drive the ball in the open court or the half court like he does. If the jump shot matches up to it, you have one of the best guards in the country. I really think that will happen because Norman has had a really good summer. As you mentioned with scoring, I think it will be a lot of committee. Bryce and Isaac will have the ability to score. You have to guard them, because when you look at just pure shooting on our team, it probably starts with Bryce and Isaac. So, you will have to guard the two of those. I think what will be a little bit different this year is that we will have go-to guys that are in the post, other than guards. We posted guards a lot last year. But the addition of [Thomas] Welsh to Parker will really help us. Tony had a very good summer and Thomas has been here all summer long. That gives us two legit guys to throw it to in the post. And then you swing two guys like Wanaah and Kevon – and Noah has had a very good summer. Noah’s production wasn’t much last year, and that wasn’t his fault. He was in the rotation, messed up his face and that put him out for a while. But Noah is somebody who can score the ball as well. You will have some new guys come to the forefront, and then some guys who were here last year will be asked to do a little bit more. And that’s what should happen as guys go from one year to the next.”
on whether a tough non-conference schedule is good or bad
“That’s what we want to do. We want to play. If there is something out there called the Champions Classic, UCLA should be in it. We’ve got the most championships in college basketball, so we should be in it. Being in a tournament, or a classic, with the likes of North Carolina and Kentucky and now Ohio State, that’s the type of classic we should be in with. We’ve got a new home-and-home with Gonzaga, which I think will be a great home-and-home series. We play in the Bahamas where we could play three ranked opponents in our three games. We will play at Alabama. So, you look at that stretch where we will play Gonzaga at home, and then Kentucky and at Alabama and then you’re at Utah and Colorado, that is a stretch. We have a lot of games to prepare us for that stretch. Those first four games are going to be pivotal because three of those four home games have an awful lot of starters and scoring back. We will get tested very early.”
on laying a foundation for success and losing five key players
“We were able to lay the foundation because those five individuals had an awful lot to do with it. We have five guys in NBA camps right now, and that doesn’t happen very often. You lose five guys, and they are in NBA camps and trying to make rosters and some of them could be locks for roster spots. Those are five very talented people, but they had a very good basketball IQ of how to do things, and they bought in right away. What has helped is that the guys who are remaining – Tony and Bryce and Isaac, who was out last year, and Norman – those four guys who were here last year, they got to see that. Now they have brought in that kind of respect and foundation, and they are passing it along to this very talented freshman group. You hope that all of that blends well.”
on freshman Jonah Bolden, who will not play this season
“Well, with Jonah, we knew. We are getting somebody there who is 6-10 and is really skilled. He can play multiple positions, and you cannot pass on anybody like that, not to mention that he is a terrific individual. It has nothing to do with him academically. His clock, his international clock, is the thing that got messed up, and we were hoping to have an outside chance to win that waiver. We did not win that waiver. But, we knew it was probably 50/50 whether he would be ready to go this year or not. He will hopefully get started practicing with the guys in December, similar to what Isaac got last year. And I think what you’ll see with Isaac this year is the benefits of having a year where you sit out and learn and get stronger and get quicker and all those things. That will happen with Jonah. We don’t get him this year, but that will be a tremendous addition next year.”
on the development of Isaac Hamilton in the last year
“Well, what I have liked about Isaac, for one, is that he is a terrific person. From day one last year, he played like he was playing in games. He never took any practices off. The only times he was out of practice was when he had an academic situation with class or tests, or something that he had to get to. Every practice, he busted his tail. I can remember him grabbing Coach Schilling after every single practice that he went through, to work another half hour with Coach Schilling. That shows what kind of individual we were getting, and how he was really driven. Isaac is a very driven individual. He fit in last year. But you watch us practice, he fits into what we are doing right from the beginning. He is a terrific player.”
on pushing the ball and overcoming the loss of Kyle Anderson
“I hope so, because that [pushing the ball] is the foundation we want to lay. If you look at last year, the way that Zach and Bryce played off the bench, that is what Bryce likes to do, pushing the ball. Isaac can push the ball. Kevon gets rebounds. He is going to be able to get it and go if there is no outlet. We were very efficient, offensively, and played at a very high tempo. I hope that we can continue to play at that tempo, because I like who we have running. With Wanaah Bail, that is his strength. He runs the floor better than anybody. There are some guys who we will have in different lineups where they’ll run better than others. The argument would be when we came to our bench last year, we ran better. I don’t know if we were more efficient on offense or defense, but when we came to the bench, we got quicker. This year, it may not be go to the bench to get quicker, or it may be that way. We have to wait and see how that factors in with practices. But, I do think that the athleticism of what we have seen so far has been good. Now, we are on a short court right now, we probably look really fast. We are hoping to get back into Pauley soon, to take advantage of that court again.”
on overcoming challenges with the flood that affected Pauley Pavilion
“The university and the people working within the university have been tremendous since that happened. I was on vacation at the time, and I got all the pictures. You’re looking at having as much as wood as you have here in the Men’s Gym, and you’re looking at it being almost half deep. That is all through. The locker room was ruined. The training room was ruined. Our weight room was ruined. So, we have been able to make a lot of changes, for one. Rules changed on August 1, as far as what we could provide for the student-athlete now. So we have made some changes to the infrastructure, which will really help. You’ll see the media room is now our weight room, slash media room. We will now have our old weight room become our nutrition room. We were able to make some changes to our training room, where had the flood not happened, some of these change would probably not have happened. So, we really have been able to turn a negative into a positive. The people working on campus are here from six in the morning until six at night trying to get us back in there. Hopefully, by this time next week or maybe late next week, we will be back in Pauley. But everybody has been very accommodating to help get us back in there.”
on incoming freshman Thomas Welsh
“Thomas has been terrific. I have said it all along, if you get 13 individuals like that, I mean he’s just a tremendous person with a tremendous work ethic. He comes up to you at every practice and thanks you for just coaching him for two hours. The thing that I’ve learned with Thomas, is that I’ve got to be on my toes. After every practice, he asks me personally ‘What do I need to work on?’ And, you’ve got to be ready to give him an answer. I’ve always prepared. When we shoot free throws now at the end of practice, I’m not just messing around with our coaches. I’m collecting my thoughts of what am I going to tell Thomas because in the next five minutes, he is coming up to me. That’s the kind of player you want – somebody who is just a sponge who wants to get better. And at seven feet, that’s a pretty good sponge to have. He’s been terrific. He is running the floor well and he is working very hard. I think it helps him and Tony. Last year, Tony didn’t have a true center and he was having to guard out on the floor. When he was guarding either of the Wears, they were picking and popping and playing out on the floor. Now, with Tony and Thomas, those guys are natural centers and they’re going to go against each other every day. They are going to get better because of it.”