Johnny Dawkins, UCF players reflect on NCAA Tournament loss to UCLA

UCF head coach Johnny Dawkins, Riley Kugel and Jordan Burks met with the media Friday night following the Knights’ 75-71 loss to UCLA in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Here’s everything they had to say:

UCF coach Johnny Dawkins

Opening statement:

“Well, it was a great game. As it is in March, the games are going to be challenging. UCLA is a very talented, well-coached team.

“I thought they did a good job, especially in the first half, of establishing their tempo. We had to respond, and I give our guys credit. I thought they did respond as the game went on. As we settled in, we started taking care of the ball more, and that allowed us to get a little more rhythm offensively for ourselves.

“But hats off to UCLA. They played a really good basketball game, and they were deserving of winning. I thought our guys did a really good job of fighting and putting ourselves in position to maybe come back, but at the end of the day, they made the plays they needed to make. That’s what March Madness is about, and we have to learn from this going forward.”

Q: In the first half, you had 11 turnovers. Defensively, what was UCLA doing to create some havoc, and how did you adjust as the night went on?

“That was a good word — havoc. They did. They disrupted some of the things we wanted to do offensively. They were very active. They got a lot of deflections, and that led them out in transition, especially in the first half.

“I think we had 11 turnovers, and I think they had 14 points off our turnovers in the first half. That’s a huge number. That definitely contributed to the deficit we had at halftime. So we really wanted to settle in during the second half and take care of the ball a little better, which I thought we did, and that helped.

“But they did set a really good tone in the first half by turning us over, getting out and getting easy baskets in transition.”

Q: What do you think this team will be known for after this season?

“I think they’ve left their legacy. Obviously, if you take a team to the NCAA Tournament, you’ve left your legacy. They’re a team that will have left the foundation for what we want to build on.

“They’ve left the foundation for what we want to grow our program from this point on. For the players who return — you never know in our world, so I can’t say that with assurance anymore — they’ve experienced this now, and they understand what it took along this journey to put us in this position.

“With that type of experience, the foundation is being laid right now for our program, and those guys will always be known for that. When you think of the foundation being laid for us in the Big 12, you’ll think of guys like Themus Fulks, Jamichael Stillwell, Devan Cambridge, Riley Kugel, our seniors, George Beale, all of our upperclassmen who were instrumental in us doing this, because we couldn’t do any of this without those guys — their maturity and their daily approach to helping us get better.”

Q: You mentioned there’s no guarantee about the roster returning and all that, but as a coach, how do you use a loss in the NCAA Tournament as motivation for next season?

“As we just said, it’s a bitter feeling. Obviously, in the spring and summer, there are things you’re going to reflect on during the season, and you’re going to look back at the NCAA Tournament and ask, ‘Okay, what could we have done better? How can we continue to improve? How can we move the program forward?’

“Those are things we’re going to study as a staff and with the personnel we’ll have as we try to move forward. But it’s motivation. These guys are all competitors.

“The guys we had in that locker room this year were very competitive, and they were motivated by a lot of things. They were motivated by the things they mentioned earlier about no one believing we could be here but ourselves. That’s all it took — our guys believing and our staff believing — and we were able to accomplish something pretty special.

“That’s the approach we’re going to take. The foundation is laid, and now how do we move forward? How do we get better? We don’t want to stay the same. How do we improve? How do we move forward together? That’s what we’re going to try to do.”

Q: Terry mentioned that he’s spoken to your representation. What does your future look like going into the last year of your contract? How much do you want to get that out of the way and settled during the offseason?

“You guys know I love UCF. I’ve been here for over a decade. It’s been my home, my second home basically.

“Of course, I don’t handle those things, because all I was thinking about was winning this game right here today. I haven’t had a chance to really think about any of those things other than that you guys know I love UCF and I love Orlando. Our community has been great to me my entire time there. I have nothing but fondness for the area.

“We’ll see what happens, but the bottom line is right now I’m still getting over a tough game, a hard-fought loss that we just had. Those things will take care of themselves, I’m sure.”

Q: You talked about building this team with so many transfers. How difficult was that process, and did they exceed your expectations? Clearly they exceeded the media’s projections in the preseason, since you were not picked very high in the Big 12 at all.

“No, they didn’t exceed my expectations, to be quite frank. I think they kind of alluded to it subtly, but they knew what our goals were, and we didn’t achieve them. But along the way, we did some special things, and that’s what’s so beautiful about the season.

“Did we achieve our ultimate goal? We did not. But we did achieve some things along the way, like getting an at-large bid and being the first team in UCF history since entering the Big 12 to play in March Madness.

“Those are things that we achieved on the way as we were trying to fulfill the goals we had in front of us. So I’m really happy for our guys in that regard. But no, my expectations for our team were higher than I think most people’s were.”

Riley Kugel and Jordan Burks Press Conference Transcript

Q: Riley and Jordan, what do you want this team to be remembered for?

Riley Kugel:
“I would say a team that battled through ups and downs, that persevered no matter what critics said, what the media said or what the preseason polls said. It was 13 individuals who came together with one goal.

“We came up short, but to still come this far — just to be able to buy in and lock into what the coaches were telling us, what Coach Dawkins was telling us throughout the whole year, and just staying together — I think you have to respect that.”

Jordan Burks:
“To kind of piggyback off what he said, we’re competitors. I wouldn’t say underdogs, because we belong here. Like he said, we just came up short.

“But I feel like we had a really good group, and we made a platform for the years to come to show what it takes and what we still need to do more of.”

Q: Jordan, you’ve taken a pretty big leap this year, especially as a scorer compared to last season. What has UCF and playing under Coach Dawkins helped you with in your development?

Jordan Burks:
“The whole staff, Coach Dawkins, they pour into you off the court and on the court. It doesn’t really matter. They molded me into a nice young man.

“I feel like they gave me a chance, and I just took the opportunity and capitalized on it as much as I possibly could. My teammates helped me with my confidence — just everything. The program and the coaching staff are terrific. I’m blessed and thankful for sure.”

Q: Riley and Jordan, talk about the fan support tonight. The fans were amazing.

Jordan Burks:
“Yeah, Coach brought that to our attention in the locker room just a couple minutes ago. They saw how hard we were fighting, and they got into the game. They were so enthused.

“We just came up short, but the fans have been amazing the whole year. I’m thankful for them.”

Riley Kugel:
“Yeah, like you said, there were times when the whole gym was rocking. To bring that joy and that excitement to the stadium, to the arena, it meant a lot to us.

“It definitely boosted us, and we fed off their energy.”

Q: For Jordan and Riley, you’re both pretty pure shooters. As a team, you’ve had some struggles from three-point range over the last few games. What was it about today that maybe allowed things to start clicking, especially in the second half?

Jordan Burks:
“Honestly, Coach Dawkins always tells us to shoot with confidence. We work on it every day. Some nights it’s going to go in, some nights it’s not.

“Whatever the defense gives you, take it. He’s said that the whole year.”

Riley Kugel:
“Yeah, I mean, we’re a three-point shooting team. It’s kind of hard to stop us when we’re making shots.

“People have been asking the same question over the past few games, but we’ve had the same response. If you ask him, he’s going to say it doesn’t really matter. We’re going to come in next game and we might hit 10 threes.

“So just knowing it’s a confidence thing, we weren’t really too worried about it, knowing we had another game to play.”