Saturday, March 8, 2014

Kevin Ollie: "We Play Like This, We've Got Two Games and Everybody Can Go on Spring Break"

Kevin Ollie minced no words after UConn's ugly, 81-48 loss at Louisville on Saturday -- the Huskies' worst loss in 22 years.


Fortunately for UConn, it doesn't have to worry about Louisville in the future, as the Cards are off to the ACC next year. Without question, Louisville is a horrible matchup for the Huskies and has been for a few years now.

Some more of what Ollie and UConn players had to say:

(is Louisville an elite team?)

“I don’t know if we’re elite, so how can you tell? How we played, I don’t know. But they’re a good team.”

(on lack of effort)

“When we’ve got (Montrezl) Harrell dunking backwards, hanging on the rim. We’ve got Hancock shooting open 3’s. Yeah, lack of effort. Lack of effort.”

(can Huskies bounce back?)

“I don’t know. I’m gonna look at the tape. We’ve been playing good basketball. We’ve got faith in ourselves. We’re at the bottom right now. That’s the worst we can ever play. But guess what? Just as bad as we played, we can turn it around. I’m not giving up on the season. But at this right moment, we didn’t play together. But I told them, if we play like this, we’ve got two games (left) and everybody can go to spring break.”

RYAN BOATRIGHT:

“It’s one of those games, man. It was just an ugly game from the start. We didn’t play well in any aspects of the game, from me to Bazz to the walk-ons. It was just a long night, man.”

“I don’t feel like it’s a bad matchup. I just feel like they come out and they’re the aggressor, they punch us in the mouth from the beginning, and we’re always trying to fight back. We’re always trying to fight uphill instead of getting them first and going downhill. We’ve just got to get back to the basics. We’re not rebounding, me and Bazz shot the ball terribly, we had 12 turnovers between the two of us. I can’t speak for Bazz, but I’m gonna speak up for myself and take that one to the chin, because we could have played a lot better.”

“We’re on the same page, it’s just a bad night, man. Terrible shooting night. Me and Bazz shot the ball terribly, we missed a lot of free throws. We’ve just got to figure out how to match up with ‘Trez. He’s a problem down low. We’ve got to learn from this.”

DeANDRE DANIELS:

“From the beginning, they punched us in the face and we didn’t punch back. They outplayed us, outhustled us. Once again, we couldn’t make shots. We needed to get stops on defense, and we didn’t do that tonight.”

(on whether the Huskies are on the same page?)

“It’s over with. We’ve just got to keep moving forward. We’ve got two games left, basically. We’ve got to come back in practice and bounce back, forget about this game and just keep moving forward and get ready for the conference tournament.”

(on Montrezl Harrell, who finished with 20 points, 11 rebounds and six dunks -- including one backwards dunk and a powerful putback slam)

“I felt like we gave him some easy rebounds. He also had a lot of easy fast-break dunks. I feel like it’s all five, we’ve all got to box him out and rebound.”

SHABAZZ NAPIER:

“We just didn’t keep our composure. It resulted in us being embarrassed out there.”

(everyone on the same page?)

“We’re just not making shots. That’s going to affect us on the defensive end. We don’t make shots, Louisville gets the ball in transition, they’re hard to stop.”

“They played zone, that’s basically it. They’re not playing us man for a reason. They continue to play us zone, because we’re not scoring the ball against it.”

“It’s a tough matchup because they play zone. That’s the biggest thing, we always have trouble playing (teams) that play zone. And they understand that. Connecticut’s guard-oriented, and if you can stop the guards and make the forwards and centers be the reason why you lost, you’re going to have an easier battle with (us). It’s just the zone, that’s the biggest thing.”

(on Harrell)

“He’s a man. Him and Van Treese played like men today.”

“I got a couple of scratches on my arm. Refs just don’t believe you get fouled. I mean, it’s a part of the game. Sometimes the calls go your way, sometimes they don’t.”


“We’ve just got to learn from it. It sucks, but you’ve got to learn from it. You’ve got to watch tape. It sucks, but you’ve got to learn from every mistake you made. Right now, it’s a two-game season. If you lose, you’re out.”

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