Opening Statement
“I am happy for the win. I thought we played well in spurts, shot 51% from the field and 62% in the second half. I thought we did better in the second half moving the ball, not to say it was bad in the first half but I thought we missed some threes in the first half (and) some guys got a little hesitant. I thought them making threes in the first half kind of bogged us down and spread the game out in the second half pressing a little bit. I thought it gave our guys a little bit more energy (and) took a little bit of time off the clock on their end. Now we just have to do a better job of taking care of the basketball and being strong with the basketball.”
On the first half
“I think what happened, again I have to go back and watch film, but I thought that we had some looks. I think Jabari (Bird) had two or three good looks against that zone, but you have to make shots. You still have to post up strong. But on the plus side I thought our guys did a great job of having a conscious effort of trying to pound the ball inside. Now again, sometimes I think it was forced to get the ball inside, really more in the first half than the second half. We have to do a better job of moving the ball then attack, but I thought it was a better job in the second half.”
On if the team shot too many 3's
“Again I have to go back and watch film, but I don't think there is a such thing as too many threes. Some guys probably shot an uncharacteristic three as opposed to shooting too many threes. I thought Jabari's looks, when he shot when I thought he was open, but I thought most of Jabari's looks were good looks.”
On Jaylen Brown's performance
“I think it was great for him. The one thing about him is he plays with a lot of energy and a lot of passion. He's attacking. He's making plays. He's the guy that's used to having the ball in his hands, and we need to put him in a position to score the ball. He's a very willing passer, and that's another great thing about him. I just talked to him about staying aggressive, and his aggressive is really shooting the ball but also attacking and to make plays for other guys”
California Junior Jabari Bird
On the game
“We go to practice and we do fine. We go to games and we think too much. We get stagnant. We need to get some flow to our offense. We need to play with some swag and shoot some better shots. We need to play with some flash, flash makes better plays in the zone. We get the ball in the middle too often; we need to play from the top.”
On team chemistry
“We've been playing together a lot. This is the ninth game of the season, we've had exhibition games and we went to Australia together. I feel like we have the chemistry. We just have to stop thinking so much out there, including myself. There's no need to stress out there. We just need to play basketball.”
On turnovers
“We just have to lock in as a team. Nineteen turnovers against anybody is horrible, especially a team like this. We have to give them credit, they played on the defensive end. A lot of it was us just being careless with the ball, not being strong, and we have to fix that.”
California Freshman Ivan Rabb
On the game
“Coach keeps telling us we have to find a way to build on these leads. We came out in the second half with better movement, made some shots, and we started pressing. But when we got that lead, we broke down and had more turnovers. Then, the lead dwindled down. I think we just have to roll up and take care of the ball. When we get the lead, we just have to do what we can to keep that lead.”
On the second half
“We didn't take care of the ball at all- including myself. We weren't making strong moves with the basket, relaying the ball to guys who we knew could shoot the ball, or making shots. There's no reason for us to be that close with this team at halftime. They did a great job, but at the end of the day, I think we should have done a better job of handling this team.”
Incarnate Word Head Coach Ken Burmeister
Opening Statement
“It was going back and forth around halftime. (Jabari) Bird hit the 3-pointer to go into the half, and then at the start of the half, (Cal) had a little dunk contest and made free throws. We really lost in that four-minute period right after halftime. They are a very good team, and by the time they get experience playing with each other, they will be very tough to beat. Cal has a lot of talent.”
On what the team will learn from this game
“You've got to play teams like this. It's a challenge, and we're building a program and brand for the university, so you have to do what you have to do. Anytime you play a Pac-12 school and it's even at half and its going back and forth, we can see where we lost the game - missing tough free-throws and them taking advantage of those opportunities. They had a lot of great runoffs that turned the game around.”
