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PAC-12 MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 9, 2018Sean MillerDeAndre AytonRawle AlkinsLas Vegas, Nevada Arizona - 78, UCLA - 67 (OT) SEAN MILLER: Well, tonight was certainly one of our best wins of the season, and it's because we played against a terrific team in UCLA. Offensively, unless you're going up against them, you don't realize how hard they are to defend. I don't know if there's a better guard that we've faced or there's a better guard in college basketball than Aaron Holiday, the season he's had, what he's meant to his team. I coached Thomas Welsh a couple summers ago in USA Basketball, and those two guys really willed that team into the NCAA Tournament. It gives our guys and our team a lot of confidence, because if you can defend UCLA, I think you have an opportunity to defend some of the best teams, offensive teams in this country, and whether it be tomorrow or next week, and that's really what we talked about. UCLA did not score in overtime. Our defense was intact, even though there were times maybe when we had the ball, we didn't execute as well. That's what March is about. Can you win when maybe something that you normally do well doesn't happen for you? These two guys both played great. Obviously DeAndre, 32-14. He may have played a little better than Rawle, even though Rawle was good. So happy and thrilled to be in the championship game and look forward to a big challenge tomorrow. Q. Seemed like you really caught fire in the second half. What did you see differently in the second half against the UCLA defense that made you play so free? DEANDRE AYTON: I mean, just taking my time in the zone. When I catch it at the high post, I just face up and just took what the defense gave me. Q. Coach, it seemed like you were playing Holiday pretty tight off the ball and were also pretty physical with him. Was it part of your game plan to try to break him down a little bit? SEAN MILLER: Not really break him down. Just guard him as a team, not one-on-one. But these two guys will tell you, Parker, he really met the challenge. There aren't many guards that can play the minutes that Parker did, 38, and defend Holiday at the level that he defended him from start to finish. Aaron maybe didn't have his typical big game, but I think that Parker did a great job, as did our team, of trying to not let him beat us. We were well aware that he came into the game scoring 68 points the last two games. If Thomas Welsh was going to bang a bunch of threes, if Wilkes was going to have a big night, maybe we don't win. But we didn't want Aaron Holiday to do to us what he's done recently. It took a lot of effort, but Parker took the challenge, and I thought our team supported him. Q. At halftime you guys were getting outrebounded. How much was that the talk in the locker room? Obviously you turned it around in the second half? SEAN MILLER: What do you think? Did we talk about rebounding at halftime? DEANDRE AYTON: Uh-huh, we had no offense -- SEAN MILLER: That was probably the only thing that we talked about. We had zero offensive rebounds. If you're our team, you can't do that. It's the only game this year that we had not one offensive rebound, and UCLA had some killer second shots in the first half. It's not often that you can turn that around. We had ten second shots in the second half. And I believe that UCLA had two, if I'm right. Meaning their offensive rebounds. So the rebounding advantage swinging our way was -- that and guarding Aaron Holiday was probably the two biggest things that helped us win. Q. You guys travel well, but talk about the tournament being here, it just seems like you guys take over. So this seems to be a tournament that your fan base has embraced. If you could touch on that? SEAN MILLER: Our fans, they're the best; one of the best in all of the country. McKale Center, if you were with us on the last weekend, I don't know if there would be an arena filled with more excitement or pageantry than what these guys experienced in the last weekend playing in McKale. On the road, we hear the U of A chant quite a bit, and no question, this tournament has become a destination spot for a lot of them. It's a fun place to come and to watch basketball. It's not just us. We have a tremendous conference. If you looked out there tonight, I mean, you're counting four, five, six NBA players on the court. You're seeing some really good basketball. The one thing about U of A fans, they're knowledgeable fans. They're not just emotional fans. They love the game, and no doubt this has become part of their spring. Q. DeAndre, it seemed like yesterday your team kind of picked the open Allonzo and do something, but it was kind of like during that, were you kind of feeling that you had to pick up from your performance yesterday? What goes through your mind when you have a game that's kind of so-so, and you have a big performance like tonight? DEANDRE AYTON: I mean, first game, I had some butterflies the first game. It was just business after that first game. The nervousness went away, and it was just business after that. Q. You're obviously talking about them like they are an NCAA Tournament team. People assume now they will get in. When they do get in, despite their seed, you talk about their offense, what else about UCLA could give issues next week no matter where they go or who they play? SEAN MILLER: I mean, Thomas Welsh is an incredible rebounder. He has a thousand rebounds in his career. They're so hard to defend because they can shoot the three-point shot at all five positions, and if you're not used to defending them, I mean, it really opens up the drives. They mix their defenses, you know, 3-2 zone, man-to-man, they're very good. We respect them a great deal. Like they've done in the past, I think you get to the tournament, you play against teams that haven't seen you before. I could certainly see them marching past that first weekend. You have a guard like Holiday, a lot of things can happen good for you. Got to ask Rawle a question. He won't be right tomorrow if you don't. Q. Can you talk about your teammate tonight? I think at one point he went 13 straight at the end of regulation and into overtime, obviously you guys were making an emphasis to get him the ball. But when he's like that, talk about not only playing with him but seeing him in those moments? RAWLE ALKINS: He's a special talent. I see it every day in practice, so it's nothing new to me. But to you guys, you know, you guys can see what we see every day. It's just another day in the office for him. But there's no doubt in my mind that he's becoming in talks for the National Player of the Year. He should be Player of the Year in the country. I don't see anyone playing better than him right now. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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