Kevin Ollie not blaming the refs. Amida Brimah? Well ...

Blame the refs? Nah, that's a loser's lament. There were a few bad calls, and no doubt the foul troubles of Amida Brimah (and Phil Nolan, and Kentan Facey) hurt UConn in its 66-56 loss to Duke on Thursday. It also led to a massive free throw discrepancy: Duke was 25-for-34 from the stripe, UConn a mere 7-for-13.

Kenyan Facey played a terrific game. Perhaps the best of his career.

Kevin Ollie wasn't about to blame the refs:



Amida Brimah wasn't, either. Well, sorta.

“I’m not gonna use that as an excuse, but it definitely took me out of my game," he said. "But what can you say? It happened.”

“I was good. I thought they made some bad calls, and that affected my game.”

“I’m not gonna blame this game on the refs, but the refs made a couple of bad calls.”

(on Jahlil Okafor)

“He’s a good player, but I thought we did what we had to do against him.”

Asked if he was impressed by Okafor's ability to make one-handed, over-the-top passes against double teams, Brimah replied: “Everybody can do that when you get double-teamed.”

Meanwhile, here's a little Coach K postgame: