Xavier-UCLA: postgame II | What's Bruin

In the postgame interview session after UCLA’s 76-57 win over Xavier, Bruin players were asked about their feelings going to a third Final Four in succession:

Josh Shipp started off, noting, "We came close twice. It definitely left a sour taste in our mouth. We definitely have unfinished business and it would be great if we could accomplish our goal; this is what we worked for all year, and, hopefully, we can do that."

Forward Luc Richard Mbah A Moute said, "We put ourselves in a good situation, playing hard all year, winning the Pac-10, getting a No. 1 seed and now [advancing] to the Final Four for the third time. Obviously, the last two times we’ve been there, we were not pleased with the outcome. So, hopefully, we’re going to ... have a different outcome."

Junior guard Darren Collison got the last word, saying, "This one feels good, to make a third Final Four appearance. But we’ve been here before. That feeling coming back after our loss to Florida didn’t feel too good. I was just telling Luc, the whole season was just erased from last year. So we don’t want to ever experience that any more. We want to go back this time, we want to be focused. Definitely this win feels good, but we’re not satisfied."

Other highlights:

>> Collison added a tribute later in the session to Bruin Coach Ben Howland:

"We don’t make it to the Final Four three straight times for no reason. Obviously, there’s a lot that coaching has to do with it. You guys see us having a good time out there, playing to win, but you guys don’t see us behind the doors, how much preparation Coach Howland puts into this. He’s constantly on our case; his job is to make us better. Sometimes we don’t like it, but it’s for our own good and we understand that at the end of the day because when he’s speaking to us, he’s speaking for a reason. We don’t make it to three straight Final Four appearances without him.

"He’s been a great coach and he’s been striving [for] us to be the best players we can possibly be, and it’s not going to stop from here. I’m pretty sure it’s going to continue on in the future because of how he is. And the thing I like about him, he’s so competitive; he’s like one of us. There are some coaches out there who are worried about coaching, but you can look at him as a player as well because it’s almost like he’s out there with us on the court."

>> Bruin freshman center Kevin Love was asked about the impact he’s made as the "difference" this year, but he wasn’t too happy with the implication that he’s the reason UCLA is going to San Antonio:

"I don’t know if that’s necessarily the case. Coach did a great job the past two years as well; the guys have been [there] already. I’m just trying to get it where I fit in and do as best as I possibly can. I know that Coach Howland and the rest of the coaching staff is going to put me in the best position to succeed and I just have got to be coachable and go to the right spot. Also, you have to be a little bit lucky too and get the right breaks and get the job done."

Asked about how UCLA got its offensive working so well, he said, "If we’re going to touch on the offense, it all started on defense. We had the lead at half by about nine points; they cut it to five early and we just kept getting stops on defense. Everyone in the starting five and on our bench, we stepped up and hit big shots and that’s what really controlled the game for us. We used the clock to our advantage when we got up by 20 points, they cut it to 12 or 14, but we just [kept] knocking down our free throws and hitting big shots. At the end of the day, we’re going to the Final Four and we got a big ‘W.’ "

And, of course, Love was asked about the chants of "One More Year" from Bruin fans as the team cut down the nets: "I’m just having fun right now playing UCLA basketball, playing under Coach Howland with all my teammates. It feels great and they could have been mentioning it to all these guys here; it wasn’t just directed at me, so it feels great, but we got business to take care of next week and I’m not even thinking about the next level right now because I’m living in the now; I’m living in the present so we can win these games next weekend."

>> Mbah A Moute was asked about his tender ankle and said he felt good: "Definitely today I didn’t have any pain or anything like that. My ankle felt fine; actually yesterday it felt great. Just getting back into it, just getting back to playing again, that helped me a lot, and today I just wanted to come out and play better defense and help my team win."

>> Russell Westbrook, the Pac-10's Defensive Player of the Year, was asked what makes the UCLA defense so good and commented, "We’re playing great, with great togetherness. Our team is just great on the court and off the court, and it really shows when it gets down to crunch time; we all have trust in each other. It’s real different from last year.

"We’re a defensive team. That’s what we do to start off the game. Our team did a great job of that, guarding everybody, rotating real well, getting out in transition. It was real good for us today."