Wasn't able to get to the New York Athletic Club Wednesday, where Kevin Ollie and Geno Auriemma each were presented with their Winged Foot Awards as national championship coaches. But Jim Fuller, the Register's UConn women's beat writer, was there, and here's what he got from Ollie:

ON GRADUATION
It was a moment that they will never be able to get back. To see Shabazz get called up at the end and get the standing ovation, I am kind of an emotional guy when it comes to those things and I even had to shed a tear on that one.

TALKS WITH WARDE MANUEL
It is progressing. We are talking, hopefully we can get together once things quiet down and we will have a nice talk, hopefully get everything situated.

I love this university. I am not looking for another job, of course you listen to other things. I have two ears so I am going to listen. I am not going out there soliciting any other job, I want to be here at the university of Connecticut.

We had a lot of uncertainty 18 months ago. I don't need to go through all of that, it has been well documented and chronicled of the different things we had to come through and our kids. We established a mindset through it all, they gave us an oppprtunity to call ourselves national champions.

ON HEARING HIS NAME LINKED WITH NBA JOBS


It is positive and negative too. Other coaches are (saying) oh he is going to the NBA, it is how you look at what other people are going. We are going to keep doing the different things that got us here, make sure we value the positive things that are going on that is the work ethic, that is the professionalism and I am hopeful that we can continue to get better every day

ON RAKIM LUBIN
The other night he is up to 270 and I said you have to get down a little bit, we don;t want to be playing at 270/280 but he is going to be a great building block for us in the future. Just a great rebouder, big in every way. he has a great personality too so he is going to fit right in our locker room and he is going to be a guy who is going to bring a lot fo leadership and muscle. He is different from what we had last year but what we had last year helped us win a national championship so we are going to go with that all day.

RECEIVING WINGED FOOT AWARD
It is very prestigious. I came here and spoke with Coach Calhoun in 2004, it was a great time. I never imagined getting this prestigious award and I appreciate this opportunity the university gave me to represent them and hopefully I am paying them back.

ON PENTAGON VISIT
That was one of the best days of my life. It was great to spend time with President Obama and see the situation room, make sure I didn't say the wrong thing. I know the intel was all in there, they had speakers everywhere but it was just a great time, i spent time with Geno, I spent time with other colleagues and that leadership seminar at Pentagon and see the military, what they do each and every day and for us to give something back to them was great. Hopefully we can formulate a partnership going forward
we can have a day to recognize them, their accomplishments and work hand in hand with them in our community.

DID PRESIDENT MENTION HE BLEW UP HIS NCAA BRACKET
Yes he did, Izzo said it was my faulty but I will take that, I will take the blame.