UCLA men's basketball coach Mick Cronin spoke with the media ahead of Wednesday morning's practice se sion at the Mo Ostin Basketball Center. Cronin talked about the importance of Jaylen Clark's defense, how rare it is to recruit a player with his motor, what went wrong on Lias Andersson Men Jersey the boards against Sacramento State, how he expects the freshman to contribute on defense moving forward, David Singleton's shooting ability and the statuses of Mac Etienne and Will McClendon.Jaylen Clark first player in NBA, WNBA, NCAAM or NCAAW to put up the stat line he did in 20 years?I have two responses to that No. 1, whoever did that really needs to get a hobby if they spent all that time researching that, theyve really got to get outside, I mean I understand it was raining yesterday but yeah, theres just too many other things to do in life. Secondly, guys like Jaylen Clark, you have to have to win, guys that like I said the other night after the game that play defense, theyre not on defense, and when you evaluate, I know he didnt have 10 points when I went to see him play for coach Kleckner at Etiwanda and offered him a scholarshiphe did not have 10 points in the game, but he plays every play every of the game. Youve got to get guys who play without the ball--they go after the ball, they rotate defensively, they sprint down the floor, the little trick in our game in evaluation is watching what guys do when they dont have the ball and he competes when he doesnt have the ball. Its a skill, it really is a skill. Most people talk about skills in our game, its with the ball. But listenings a skill and playing without the ball and its not just moving without it on offense to get open. I mean, he plays the game when he doesnt have the ball with tremendous competitive spirit and intensity.How rare is it to find a guy who has that kind of intrinsic motivation to do that on the defensive end when you're out evaluating?I dont know if its rareits not common. Its not common. Our game is, I gue Walt Tkaczuk Men Jersey s, I dont want to say plagued, but the biggest problem with our game is the stat sheet and when 8-year-olds and 10-year-olds play basketball and they go home, everybody asks them how many points they had, so they tend to think that thats the only part of the game. Jaylens moms from Cleveland and his dads from Newark, two of the toughest, hardest-working towns in America, so Ive got to give them a lot of credit. I think a lot of that comes from the DNA of his family.How has Jaylen improved leading the break and making decisions with the ball?Well, I would say his best offensive skill, even the first time I saw him, has always been his pa sing, hes definitely improved as a scorer. Pa sing has always been his best skill.Anything new when you looked at the film?There always is. We all knew the rebounding wasnt the greatest, some areas where weve got to improve but its early, you know everybody is trying to clean stuff up right now but weve got to clean up our boxing out, especially with Long Beach State coming in, theyre a great offensive rebounding team, very athletic team, they play hard, so thats an area where I think theyre strong and were not, so that would probably be my biggest focus.When your defense is working the way you want, what does that look like?Well see. The other team cant score. You're talking about defense? The other team cant score. So I think Amari, because hes a tremendous elite athlete and he also has the competitive Jacob Trouba Kids Jersey side of it, he has a chance to be a devastating defender at our level because again, I talk about guys who can do things that other guys cant do. Because of his athleticism combined with his toughne s, he can get steals or block a shothe can recover in ways that other guys cant recover because of his athleticism and he has size, so Dylan Andrews is just tremendous on the ball defensively and then when you add Adem Bona, a devastating shot-blocker, it makes our defense that much better.Adem good to go on Friday?Scroll to ContinueYes.See defensive improvement from exhibition to season opener?Oh yeah. Yeah, I think we had a chance to hold a team to 50. You hold a Division I team to 50 or le s then youre doing something right, you force 21 turnovers. Youve got to understand, David Patricks a really, really Kaapo Kakko Men Jersey good coach, he knows what hes doing. His teams have always executed and all the guys, often in his case have Australian or international backgrounds, theyre pretty adept at their offensive execution stuff, so I was happy with that. You know, what I was really happy with was we made in-game adjustments. Look, to be really good you have to have Plan A going in and you have to make some adjustments and our guys, when we made adjustments to the things they were doing, we got betteryouve heard me talk about this, your defense has to get better as the game goes on because at winning time is when we got stops, so I thought we got better as the game went on defensively and thats something that I look for, our ability to make those adjustments.Did David Singleton's release quicken in the offseason?Nah, thats overrated and people write about things like that, its comical. I could care how fast his release is; I care if the ball goes in. Look, Reggie Miller played here, Id like to get him down here, you know its tough to get Reggie out of Malibu and hes a big shotprobably the best analyst on TNT in-game but he would tell you that shooting is about getting your footwork and what happens before you catch the ball. The guy was legendary in his pregame routines and growing up in Cincinnati being so close to Indianapolis and basketball people and his run with the Pacers and the stories about his preparation before a game, so having read all that stuff as a younger coach when I was getting started, its all about preparation, its not about how fast you release the ball. Everything that today, Steph Curry, its all about shot preparation. I watched last night the replay of their win the other night when he had 47, his footwork before he catches the ball is why hes so goodand thats what Ive been working with David on and I shouldnt say this because he never struggles but when he does mi s shots, he tends to not have good pre-shot footwork; when he has his footwork, its like youd be surprised if he mi ses.Heard about his shoe collection?Uh, yeah. Yeah. I always say, Look, Dave, you cant hide money. You know, people who are going to have shoe collections must have money. Thats what I tell guyspeople who have shoe collections must have a Chris Bigras Kids Jersey lot of money.157 pairs?See, the difference between Dave and I, I compare that to how much I can se