UCLA's Steve Alford Talks About Last Week's Exhibition Game
LOS ANGELES - Head coach Steve Alford met with members of the local media prior to Tuesday afternoon’s practice, reflecting on UCLA’s exhibition game last Friday night.
The Bruins defeated Azusa Pacific, 80-53, in the team’s first tune-up before opening the season against Montana State on Friday, Nov. 14. Norman Powell led UCLA with 21 points, while Tony Parker (16 points, 10 rebounds) and Kevon Looney (10 points, 12 rebounds) each logged double-doubles.
Friday night’s exhibition game marked the first college game for sophomore Isaac Hamilton and freshmen Thomas Welsh, G.G. Goloman, Alec Wulff and Looney.
UCLA will open the season with seven games over a 15-day stretch. Following the season opener on Friday, Nov. 14, the Bruins will host non-conference games against Coastal Carolina (Nov. 16), Nicholls State (Nov. 20) and Long Beach State (Nov. 23). UCLA will play three games in as many days in The Bahamas, competing in the Battle 4 Atlantis from Nov. 26-28.
Quotes from head coach Steve Alford
Tuesday, Nov. 4
on observations from Friday’s exhibition game
“They’ve been getting better through three weeks of practice. What we saw in the exhibition game was some of the same things. The first half was not so good. There wasn't a lot of good that came out of the first half, outside the first eight minutes of the game. In the last 12, you saw a lot of anxiousness and a lot of nerves. You struggle, as a coach, on whether you want to play two exhibition games, or an exhibition game and one scrimmage. I think that we’ll get a lot out of the scrimmage coming up, but those exhibition games are pivotal because you get the live ambiance. You get everything of what a game looks like. That really helps our young guys. They were very anxious in the first half and were better in the second half. Hopefully, each time that we are in here, we’ll make it as game-like as we can. I think that we saw that our second half was better than the first half, offensively and defensively. You had nine turnovers in the first half and three in the second. They played better in the second half. That’s the way this team has been. It’s always a good trend. You can see how things went wrong, and now you can get better. We did that within the game.”
on sophomore Isaac Hamilton
“I thought that he improved. He’s been terrific since then, including in the practice that we had yesterday. He's come in and watched tape. This is all new for him, not just playing, but people kind of forget that the last time he played in front of anybody was about 18 months ago. That was his last game in high school. I thought that he was very anxious, and yet he played very hard. He did a lot of good things. He took care of the basketball. It wasn’t like had a five-turnover game. He valued the ball. He valued the possession. And he’s going to score. We’re not worried about him scoring. I think that his scoring is going to come as he is able to learn not just the off-guard position, but also as he learns the point guard position.”
on positives from Friday night’s exhibition game
“I thought that we did a good job of getting to the free throw line. Our offense did not shoot the ball at a high rate. It wasn’t one of our better shooting nights. But, we got to the free throw line. We went into halftime with a deficit of assists to turnovers. We had five assists to nine turnovers. By the time the game was over, we had more assists than turnovers. Last year, we were one of the better teams in the country with that. I think we averaged something like 17 and a half assists and about 10 turnovers. We are nowhere near that, yet. I liked how they saw what happened in the first half, and the improvement in our play in the second half. I thought our defense improved. The concern that can be misleading, because [Azusa Pacific] took so many more shots than we did, was the backboard. We gave up 20 offensive rebounds. We obviously cannot do that. We have really started to focus on that this week. I think that we have a chance to be a pretty strong rebounding team.”
on the performance of UCLA’s freshmen
“I like what all the freshmen are doing, especially in practice. With the exhibition game, Kevon [Looney] hit the thing rolling right away. Thomas [Welsh] and G.G. [Goloman], the second time they were in, they were much better. I think that you are going to see that. I can remember watching tape, when I was home this weekend watching tape for like the second or third time, and you find more and more as you watch it. Thomas had missed a couple shots. And then in the second half he makes a shot right at the free throw line, and when he makes it he just starts fist pumping all the way down the court. Sometimes you forget that he’s an L.A. guy, it’s the first basket in Pauley Pavilion, and that means something. That’s what you want. You want players to feel that. The anxiousness and the nerves will take care of itself as you play more games. I think you’ll really see the freshmen coming into their own.”
on sophomores Wanaah Bail and Noah Allen
“I really liked what they did, especially the second time that they were in. Wanaah and Noah are in different roles. Even Bryce, Norman and Tony, are in new roles. Bryce as the starting point guard role, Tony in a starting center role, and Norman now isn’t just that third or maybe fourth option, he’s the first option. Those guys have different roles this year. It will take them some time. The same thing is true with Wanaah and Noah. These are guys who, for the most part of last season, were not in the rotation. Now they are in the rotation. They’ve got to learn what is expected of them. I think that we saw that. In the first half, Wanaah probably took one or two tough, ill-advised shots from the perimeter and got away from what he really needs to do. He needs to run the floor, defend and rebound. In the second half, he did a much better job of that. Noah got us six points off the bench in 15 minutes. Our bench production is going to be something that we have to watch. Last year, we had Tony and Zach and Bryce coming off our bench. Scoring was up, as we got about 22 points off our bench last year. I don’t know that we are going to get 22 points off our bench this year. Noah is one of those guys who can provide some offense for us.”
on Norman Powell asserting himself and being more aggressive
“He shot 10 free throws in about 26 or 27 minutes of playing time. That was the most encouraging thing I saw from the offensive end for Norman. And he made them all. He was 10 for 10 at the free throw line. That tells me about his concentration level. That tells me in 25 or 26 minutes, if you can get there 10 times, how aggressive you are. He still got 10 or 11 shots off. He’s on top of the free throws. He’s very aggressive. I thought that defensively, I wasn’t happy with any of them. That’s part of his role. He has to be one of our top defenders in the backcourt, and he has to be one of our leading scorers. That’s different from last year. Last year, we were asking him to be the top-notch defender and then you can still be the third or fourth-leading scorer. That role has changed, so he needs to adjust to that.”
on what adjustments he would like to see on defense
“We were out of stance a lot. We spend a vast majority of our foundation jumping to the ball. We didn’t jump to the ball very well. We were very man-oriented. And we are not a man-oriented defense. Whether we are in zone or in man, it’s all predicated on help and recover. I didn’t like how we helped, and I didn’t like how we recovered. That affected our board play. If you watch the tape, the ball went up and we all kind of went to the rim. The only balls that you’re rebounding are the ones that go in. I don’t need the balls that go in rebounded. It’s a matter of you help and then you recover to your man. We will spend all week working on that as we go into this scrimmage on Saturday. I’m hoping that I see a lot of improvement there. We are going to mix defenses. The bench will be developed throughout the year. Those starters are going to log a lot of minutes. So to do that with a lot of foul trouble and everything else, we have got to mix in defenses to keep things off balance and to keep our guys out of foul trouble.”
on any player that he is pleased with on defense
“No, I can’t single one out that I’m happy with yet. They know that. We had 45 minutes of tape yesterday, and we’ll have another 30 minutes before we start practice today. It isn't that it's an uneasy feeling. That is just part of teaching in early November. We know that we are not going to perfect. I didn’t like how we moved after we passed the basketball, offensively. And that was pretty much top to bottom. We stood and watched a lot, offensively. We were stagnant, offensively. On the other side, I thought we were way too man-oriented, instead of being help-oriented and getting into our help and recover mode. I don’t think there is really one guy where I can single him out and say ‘He’s out of the realm of playing defense the way we want it played, yet.’”
on communication and the players being quiet
“That’s something that has got to change. It doesn’t just affect the defense. It affects your offense as well. We’ve got to become a more talkative team. We have a lot of personalities like that. I can only ask so much out of certain guys, as they learn their new roles. You may be a high school individual coming in, learning what college is all about, or you’re one of these five guys who were here last year and now you’ve got new roles. You are trying your best to learn your new role. I’m hoping that talking comes as they get a little more comfortable with their new role."
on exhibition games being helpful for a coach, learning about player rotations
“This one was tough, because you’re not playing anybody over about 6-5. With Thomas and Tony, they are not going to guard 6-5 centers. That’s not going happen for probably the rest of the year. We knew that we were playing five out. We had to guard way out on the court. But, it was a team that came in here and played really hard against us. They were really well coached and put a lot of pressure on us. They drove it hard and they played man for 40 minutes. I think that really helped us. It gives us a lot of tape that is not against one another. After you get about three weeks in, and the guys are just going against one another, you show them tape and they are just sitting there thinking 'Year, I saw this three weeks ago.’ It’s Bryce and Isaac versus Dave [Brown] and Kory [Alford], or whoever they’re playing against. They get to see that so much that the teaching gets hard. Now, we have a whole week of showing them different clips and of them playing against somebody else. I think that really helps them see it, when they get to go against somebody else.”