Alex Oriakhi knew it was coming.

When Kemba Walker was asked Friday about what he remembered most about UConn's prior meeting with Cincinnati on Feb. 27 in the Queen City, he dead-panned: "What sticks out to me is Alex played horrible. That really sticks out to me. And Jeremy (Lamb) played great."

Everyone laughed, though Walker -- with Lamb to his immediate right and Oriakhi to his far right -- was somewhat serious. Or, at least, he wasn't wrong: Oriakhi had just three points and three rebounds in that game, one of his worst outputs of the season.

Here, we have Oriakhi reacting to Kemba's words -- and also "defending" himself for "stealing" a rebound Thursday night that would have put Kemba closer to a triple-double:



And here, we have Walker talking about Oriakhi's poor Cincy game -- but also noting that the biggest difference between UConn on Feb. 27 and UConn now has been Oriakhi's strong play: