UConn 100, UMass-Lowell 62: Kevin Ollie’s Take

Some highlights from Kevin Ollie’s post-game remarks, following UConn’s victory over UMass-Lowell at the XL Center:

                                                                        ************

“We played better. We were more relaxed out there. Guys played with intensity and effort and it wasn’t like last game, AIC, when we went in 12-minute stints. I thought we sustained our effort a lot more.

… [Ryan] Boatright was great in the beginning of the game, stabilizing us when Shabazz [Napier] got in foul trouble. DeAndre [Daniels] was great. Omar [Calhoun], once again got an easy 20 for us. So, we’re going to need our guards to step up.

“Omar wants to shoot. Doesn’t matter if he makes or misses, he wants the next shot.”

Overall, we did a great job attacking the basket and getting to the rim and making them foul us and putting the ref in the position where he had to call the foul. We didn’t settle on the perimeter. … Our physicality is going to come from our effort.”

“… I’m looking for [Daniels] to rebound like that….We need him to be all over the glass. We still need to box out a little bit more, and we’re going to be stressing that in practice, but I thought he did a hell of a job attacking the basketball, going and getting the ball in traffic, and sometimes out of his area. He dedicated himself all summer, and when he came back [later in the summer] he continued to dedicate himself.”

“We definitely wanted to shoot [free throws] better. I like us getting to the free throw line. That’s the first thing – we wanted to get to the free throw line. We wanted to establish that, getting inside the paint, settling the game down. We definitely want to shoot a better percentage from the free throw line, but that will come. I think we’ve got a good free throw shooting team.

“I thank Greg [Herenda] for doing [employing defensive pressure]. He did an excellent job by putting us where we could work on our zone, where we could work on pressure. Just different aspects of the game that we didn’t see against AIC…. I thought our guys handled the pressure pretty well, especially our guards, with Boatright having just two turnovers. That’s what we need. We need him to have a three to one ratio. We need him to take care of the ball if we’re going to be efficient on the offensive end….If we’re not turning the ball over and we’re not taking ill-advised shots, it helps us to get defensive balance.”

“First of all, I’m looking forward [to going to Germany] to honor our troops, that’s what it’s all about. They do a great job for us, doing all the things they do so we can have our freedoms over here. That’s going to be a great experience for our guys. And going over there to the children’s hospital and things like that – that’s why you’re in this role, to be a blessing to someone.”