BIG TEN CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 14, 2025

Mick Cronin

Skyy Clark

Sebastian Mack

Gainbridge Fieldhouse

UCLA Bruins

Postgame Press Conference

Wisconsin - 86, UCLA - 70

MICK CRONIN: I don't have an opening statement.

Q. Guys, this isn't really the team we're used to seeing that we saw tonight. What do you think happened? Obviously, they kind of punched you in the mouth first, but from your perspective, what happened?

SKYY CLARK: I think we came out too flat. We let their two best players hit some open shots to get them comfortable, get them confident, and then it just kind of rolled over to the rest of the game.

There's not really much to say.

Q. What was your -- the 3-pointers obviously was the story. Defensively, what was happening to allow them to go get so hot?

SEBASTIAN MACK: To be honest, we let them get comfortable too early. Once you get a team like that, that can hit 3s all over the floor like that, it's hard to stop them when you start trying to pressure them and stuff.

We didn't do none of what we were supposed to do game plan-wise. We failed miserably at that. They just played comfortable, and they looked like it too.

We just looked like the team that came out flat and just stayed flat. We've just got to work on not doing the same thing and relapsing on what we did today.

Q. Skyy, you've got another game in roughly a week. How do you kind of put this aside quickly and move forward in a positive way?

SKYY CLARK: Just come in, we've got to bring our own energy. If we're not on the West Coast, the bench, the players, everybody, we've got to bring more energy. We've got to play tougher.

Q. Tough game. That's not UCLA basketball. Where do you think it went wrong, and what do you think you can do now going forward in the tournament?

MICK CRONIN: You got to give Wisconsin credit. They shot the lights out.

We all have weaknesses, and there are teams that can shoot it at five positions. Really, we don't have the personnel. We don't match up well with teams like that, and we haven't all year. When teams are like that, like when Michigan made shots like that, we don't have an athletic lineup that can just switch and really shut that down.

They're really hard -- we're going to have to beat them with offense. Like I watch certain teams play, and I know they're a bad matchup for us. I mean, you can get mad and yell. I'm just giving you -- removed from I'm -- I'm upset about, I thought effort-wise.

Really what I was upset with wasn't that. It was because I knew the matchup was going to be a problem, so I knew we'd have to be a high execution team today. To Skyy's point, they know. The message was, we can't try to win a 3-point shooting contest. So if they get hot, we can't just grab it and shoot it and try to match them. And that's what we did.

That was hammered into them from the time we knew we were playing them. We cannot do that. Case in point, we're losing at half at home when we played them, and we shot like 15 3s, three or four for 15. Second half, we shot five 3s in that game in the second half, and we were, I think, 15 for 20 from 2 and shot over 60 percent and won the game. We stopped trying to match them.

We took the bait miserably today. So they're a tough matchup for us.

Q. I think the starters combined for 30 points on 20-something percent shooting. Hard to win a game like that.

MICK CRONIN: Sure. I mean, you answered your own question.

Q. Then you shook up the lineup going into the second half.

MICK CRONIN: I'd like to give William Kyle credit. I thought he played unbelievably hard and competed. Really proud of him. It doesn't surprise me.

He hasn't had a lot of minutes lately, but that's who he is. Didn't surprise me he was going to compete that way.

Q. Did they do a better job being more physical with Aday today defensively?

MICK CRONIN: Look, I don't want -- because the problem is, when I answer a question, then people say Cronin is complaining about travel. He wants to leave UCLA, which is ridiculous. But you and I are together every week. All I do is answer your question.

I didn't say that. I just answered your question. Also, he hates to travel. I never said that, ever. I'm not leaving UCLA until they make me leave, okay? So please stop with that.

I just answer your question. Now, if I answer that question, it's going to seem like I'm making an excuse. Are they more physical with Aday? So the problem is, if I answer that, then I'm making an excuse. I'm not going to answer it. You know the answer, so you answer it, because if I answer it -- and I'm not making an excuse.

They kicked our ass. We didn't throw the ball to him really enough to make it a factor. So if I answer that, then I'm complaining -- losers blame the officials. Winners know why they win. And winners know why they lose too. So I try to teach these guys, you got your ass kicked. That's why you lost.

We took the bait and shot a whole bunch of 3s, what I was alluding to earlier, we shot 32 3s today. That's not who we are. We don't shoot it well enough for that. We didn't move the ball, so we didn't get the ball to him.

Did he get pushed? You can answer that. Every time he tried -- you can answer that because I don't need the headline in your paper saying that I complained about the damn refs when I didn't.

We got our ass kicked. That's the headline.

Q. John Tonje was a bit all over the place in the stat sheet. Can you speak to the type of player he is that he was able to affect the game?

MICK CRONIN: Can I be honest? Right now, I just got my ass kicked. I'm going to answer this quick. I voted for him for Player of the Year in the league. We had to rank them. I voted Tonje 1, Smith from Purdue 2. Very close, but I gave Tonje the nod. That's how good I think he is.

Q. Question I asked Skyy, how do you put this aside and move forward? Can you, should you just flush it away and disregard it?

MICK CRONIN: I don't really know what that means. I flush stuff away, but I don't think we're supposed to talk about that right now.

Q. Recognizing that it was not a good result versus --

MICK CRONIN: I mean, it's not the first time I lost in my career, Ben, so I'm confused. I said it's a bad matchup for us. We struggled -- our big guys struggled to guard the perimeter. You've seen us all year.

I alluded to the Michigan game, Vlad Goldin hit a couple 3s, Danny hit a few. It's not -- we don't have that type of team. So that's what it is.

But you always just -- whether you win or -- I tell you the same answer all the time, but I know you've got to ask questions. Whether you win or lose, you've got to try to get better. You've got to try to get better.

What they know is, we didn't -- we did not follow the game plan, which was -- the predictability that they were going to get hot against us was 50-50. Now, they lost 3 of their last 5 because they shot 25 percent from the 3-point line for their last regular season games. I told them they're probably going to get hot again. That's just who they are.

We cannot grab it and shoot it and try to match them, and that's what we did. That was the game. When we started doing that, the game was over. We started playing -- we started trying to be them instead of us. So that's that.