Ryan Boatright nearly loses a tooth. UConn loses another game, but finds a new superstar

Lotta stuff to process from Thursday's game. Ryan Boatright didn't feel like talking to reporters afterward (no problem with it, he's earned a break), but his mother, Tanesha, reported that he had a loose tooth and will likely have to see a dentist.

Meanwhile, Daniel Hamilton may have grown and matured into a superstar on Thursday night, even in a losing cause.

Let's have Kevin Ollie, Daniel Hamilton and Amida Brimah tell you about the 75-72 loss to Memphis:

OLLIE:

(on UConn's comeback, Hamilton and the fracas that left Boatright bloodied)



(on Boatright's seven points on 2-for-6 shooting)

“They were playing a box-and-one on him. If he’s gonna take bad shots all night, I don’t want him to do that. They weren’t focuing on Daniel, and Daniel played a tremendous game. And Amida came in and played tremendous. They had three guys on Ryan most of the night. We don’t want him forcing shots. We’ve got to get him out on the fast break.”

“Phil came in and did an absolutely wonderful job on Nichols and made every catch for him difficult. That’s what we need, guys stepping in.”

(on Hamilton)

“He had a tremendous game, almost a triple-double, had some rebounds, had some bad turnovers, though. He got in that four-hole, he was aggressive, he was shooting, still had great vision with seven assists. We want him to keep playing like that, and hopefully Boat can come back and play his type of game.”

(on Hamilton's missed trey at the buzzer)

“We got a good look. We wanted to do a pick-and-pop. That’s what we drew out in the timeout. He got a decent look, he was the hot man. He squared up, I thought it looked good, it just came off the left side of the rim. But it’s exactly what we drew up, we just wanted to pick and pop with Daniel. He missed the shot, but that didn’t cost us the game.”

“My guys fought. We’re gonna keep fighting ‘til the end, ‘til they tell us our season’s over.”

(on Boatright's technical foul with 9:20 left to play)

“Boatright raised his hands up, and the ref said he showed them up. That’s their explanation.”

(more on Hamilton)

"We’ve all seen Daniel do things like this -- not to this capacity yet in his career -- but he’s a wonderful player. I just like how he gets to the boards. He’s about 185 (pounds), and he’s leading the conference in rebounding. Hopefully this is a confidence-builder for him. Hopefully Ryan can come back and play a great game. Hopefully this takes a little pressure off Ryan.”

HAMILTON:

“I was just looking to attack off the bounce. That’s what we’ve been working on in practice. Sometimes, we have the tendency just to hold the ball and not get ball movement. So, as soon the ball got passed to me, I just tried to attack off the bounce and make plays. Not only for myself, but for my teammates.”

“I got a pretty good look, but not the one I wanted to get. Next time, I’ll be able to knock it down.”

“I didn’t get a clean enough look. I wish I had gotten a better look at it.”

“I think I matured, taking that next step with Ryan being out in the first half. I just felt like somebody else had to step up. I felt like it was time to step up.”

BRIMAH:

(on the Boatright incident)

“We saw him bleeding. We just can’t let any team punch us and we don’t punch back. We always have to punch first, so I told the team to pick up the intensity.”

“All I saw was he was in the corner and I decided to try to get him out of there.”

“We’ve just got to get better each and every game. When we played SMU, we didn’t play together as a team. We started well and we started playing individual basketball. We’ve got to play like we did in the second half of this game. If we do that, we’ll be a good team.”

(on Hamilton)

“He’s just got to start with the same intensity that he plays with at the end of the game. That’s what it is. He’s got to make sure he’s got energy, and not get down on himself every time he makes a mistake.”

“We’ll be good. We’ve just got to stay together and keep playing like we did in the second half.”