The Bruins’ young center talked about how his sharpshooter teammate can get on the younger players but also get everyone hyped.
UCLA men’s basketball big man Adem Bona spoke with reporters ahead of Wednesday morning’s practice at the Mo Ostin Basketball Center. Bona talked about improving as a rebounder against USC, what associate head coach Darren Savino has done to help him develop, winning back-to-back Pac-12 Freshman of the Week awards and his relationship with David Singleton.
Career high 10 rebounds against USC – what went into that and how do you keep that number where it is.
Um, one, I would say it’s the excitement playing our biggest rival. And I was really excited for the game and I was ready to pull everything out there to do everything possible. Two, I think it’s more so paying attention to details and most of the time, I’m going for the ball every single time, and I think that’s (???).
What are some of the details that make a difference?
I would say definitely going up with your hands and you have to grab with with two hands, stay strong and bring it down to your chin. Yeah, so those are the details.
That’s what coach just said
That’s what the coaches try to tell me, yeah.
How has coach Savino helped you?
Um, I would say he has helped me a lot – not just coach Savino, every single coach – but Savino is like more into the bigs. He tells me, he helps me get in the right positions, what’s going to help me during the game and he tries to help me raise my physical ability to put me in the best situations to help me get better.
Got two Pac-12 Freshman of the Weeks, Amari’s gotten two, Dylan’s gotten one – you guys have a competition going to see who’s gonna get the most now?
Um, we don’t have a competition, but I would love it to be a competition. I like competition, (???). It feels amazing getting it back-to-back, it’s something that I’ve always wanted, you know? It’s an amazing feeling to go back-to-back.
What did Singleton say when he pulled you aside against WSU? How do you appreciate seeing leadership like that?
First, I appreciate Dave a lot. I have a lot of – I appreciate everyone on the team, the leadership group that played in this squad, in the locker room and on the court. I think Dave was trying to keep me out of foul trouble, doesn’t want the ref to call a foul on me or a tech, so he was like, ‘We don’t need a tech right now, that’s the last thing we need, we don’t need a suspension, we need you to play the next game.’ So he was just trying to keep me out of trouble.
What does Dave usually say in the hype huddle before games? Does that get you excited?
He just reminds us of what team we’re playing for, he reminds us we play for UCLA and he just constantly reminds us of, like, what our goal is, what we’re trying to get to at the end of the year. And I believe everyone on the team has the same goal, so we just get hyped off our goals and get excited and kick ass.
Does he do a good job getting you hyped?
Yeah, I think Dave – I think Dave is the perfect hype man and he’s a really good leader and also gets the team excited, yeah.
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