Jaime Jaquez says UCLA freshmen 'stepped up to the plate'

Jaime Jaquez is one of the veterans on UCLA’s Sweet 16-bound basketball team, but he noted freshmen “stepped up to the plate.”

Players like Amari Bailey and Adem Bona played significant minutes in the Round of 32 win over Northwestern. Bailey in particular put up 14 points in the close win, good for second in scoring on the team behind Jaquez.

Jaquez said the freshmen matured before everyone’s eyes rather quickly.

“I think I told them after the first game, after you play your first game, you’re not really a freshman anymore,” Jaquez said. “We expect you to step up. There’s a reason coach recruited you. Coach takes pride in the players he recruits to this program. You can see that in the freshmen he’s brought in. They’re so big for us. We wouldn’t be in this position without them. I don’t think they’re freshmen anymore. They stepped up to the plate.”

Even head coach Mick Cronin said he wanted to get the UCLA freshmen more shots.

“What did Amari have? 14. I was hoping for 18,” Cronin said. “But it’s my fault he didn’t get enough shots. Still working on figuring that one out. We tried to set a double for Dave, they ran over a guy, called the foul on us. I got to see the film on that one.

“I would always say you want talent and experience, but I’ll take talent. Amari has tremendous, tremendous talent. The more he plays, the more comfortable he gets, the better he gets. He’s just as good on the defensive end as he is on the offensive end.”

Mick Cronin on UCLA defeating Northwestern

The head coach was adamant about UCLA, freshmen or veterans, finding a way.

“Well, look, I was fortunate, I worked for two of the best ever to walk the college sidelines,” Cronin said. “My dad was a Hall of Fame high school coach. I was trained on how to win and how to coach winning basketball. You got to defend and take care of the ball and play smart. Obviously you got to have players. Force another team to try to make shots to beat you. Being able to make adjustments and your players follow the adjustment. All that stuff is important.

“Chris was hurting us with the iso, I told these two to start trapping. We immediately got a steal. Like I said, man, when I got the job, people started asking about style of play. W-I-N. We got to teach guys how to win. There’s a lot of ways to win. I would tell you our transition early is what got us the lead. I thought that was big because they’re such a good halfcourt defensive team.

“It’s not like we had a lot of practice to get ready for that. I was able to talk to the guys about when we get a stop, we’re flying down for layups because we don’t want to get into a game in the 50s. We just try to teach guys how to play winning basketball. You got to be able to play situational winning basketball because situations change. You got to play smart.”

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UCLA takes on Gonzaga in the Sweet 16 Thursday.