California Head Coach Cuonzo Martin

Opening Statement
"I thought both teams played hard. I thought in the first half, with the way Washington defends -- lots of switching and different looks from the post, denying the wings -- you have to be able to make one-on-one plays, which is out of character for some of our guys. But we put them in those positions in practice, and I thought we really were able to settle in during the second half. You can watch it on film, but once you see the length and athleticism in person, they force you to make plays. They don't let you run your set plays, but I think our guys did a good job settling in during the second half."

On final four minutes
"I went with Ivan because we had enough time. He only had two fouls, so we felt like we could roll with him. And with using Ivan, we felt like we could go with four perimeter guys, really opening it up for Ivan and now your bigs had to come out and guard those perimeter guys and let up on Ivan."

On defensive play versus Markelle Fultz
"He's a talented guy. We recruited him. He's a great kid and one of those kids you root for if you know him. We just felt like we should do everything in our power to hold him 10 points under his average, and that was our focus. We talked to our guards about this, and I think between Dontae, Charlie, Ivan and Stephen, they did a great job of blanking him. Our bigs had to corral him and do their job, because one guy just can't stand in front of him. He's too big of a guy. Even though he scores, he's a great passer and is really a great basketball player who can make plays. I think tonight we had enough pressure to challenge all his shots and make sure he was uncomfortable and not allowing him to make wide-open shots."

Senior Forward Jabari Bird  

On what the importance of shooting percentage versus winning the game
 
"At the end of the day, in the moment, as long as we win, I'm happy. The next day we will look at film and see where we can do better but as of right now, the W is the biggest thing for me."
 
On what changed between the first and second half
 
"Nothing really as far as play calls. I was just trying to find a spot to get good looks and my team did a great job of finding me. My mindset was the same in the second half, I just made more shots."
 
On the strategy to contain Washington's Markelle Fultz
 
"(The strategy was to) make sure he sees all five guys at all times, especially when he's in transition. When you get back on defense, turn around and make sure he sees you. Stephen did a great job. Don and Charlie made it tough for him all night. I think by the end of the game it wore him."
 

Sophomore Forward Ivan Rabb

 
On putting the game away in the final four minutes                                                            
 
"Stephen Domingo stepped up guarding the ball, mostly from point guard. He also switched off a bunch of guys and gave us energy. Other people made plays on defense and he also made those free throws."
 
On Stephen Domingo's making the free throws
 
"I know how hard Domingo works so I never doubt him on free throws. He hasn't been playing as much so he put his head down and has been working really hard while staying positive. I think that positivity helped him so when he got in the game he just gave us everything he had."
 
 
On Washington's fronting and one-on-one versus double-teaming
 
"I don't feel like they played me one-on-one, I feel like they did a good job fronting the ball and at that point we had to reserve it and swing it to the other base. I feel like I didn't have enough energy until the end. In the second half I just decided to pick it up and it worked out."
 
On Cal's defense keeping them in games
 
"I think we do a good job of stringing consecutive stops. Coach has been on us about playing defense like that the entire game. It's tough when you go on spurts because a lot of times, you give up an easy basket and look around and say 'Let's pick it up,' but when we're finally on the same page, we're one of the best defensive teams in the country. At this point in the season we just need to find a way to do that the whole game or very close to the whole game because it makes it tough on the opposing teams."
 

Washington Head Coach Lorenzo Romar

 
Opening statement
 
"The Cal team played pretty much exactly how we told our guys that they were going to play. They were going to be physical, they were going to protect the rim, they were going to make it difficult for us to score, which they did. We shot the ball too early at times and didn't move them as we should have. They killed us on the glass. Our inability to make the free throws and giving them second chance points probably was the difference in the game. Ivan Rabb was terrific. He had four points in the first half and found a way to put his imprint on the game again just like he did in their last game against USC."
 
On if Washington played good defensive position
 
"Yeah. Well they got us a lot of times off penetration, and we come over to help, and we're out of position. A lot of it had to do is we played small and they just reached over the top of us which is something else we talked about. It was definitely in my opinion the difference."
 
On having to going away from a small line-up
 
"Again, we weren't small a lot of the game. I think Matthew Atewe gave us some very good minutes. We played with him and Noah (Dickerson) in at the same time. When they were in together, I think sometimes penetration got us. We get a stop and have the ball in our hand and not quite come up with the basketball and they would score it. But I thought our guys fought. I thought we competed, which is what we want."
 
On Cal's defensive efforts and season low 59 points
 
"Cal had a lot to do with it. We were not patient enough to attack that type of defense tonight. You have to be patient. Swing the ball from side to side -- well they're just waiting for you. You're not making the defense move. You're not making the defense shift, so they had a lot to do with us not only scoring 59 points, and only shooting 35 percent  from the field. They had a lot to do with that."