UConn 88, Fordham 73: Kevin Ollie’s Take

HARTFORD – Here are some highlights of Kevin Ollie’s post-game remarks:

“It was a tale of two halves.  I was really impressed by the way we moved the ball in the first half.  I think it was 16-2 assists to turnovers.  And then we came out and we played the scoreboard.  We let them get back in the game, and gave up layup after layup after layup.”

“We were on our way to a nice victory, and they made it interesting.”

“Fortunately, we came out with the win.  Fortunately, we came out and played very aggressively and played hard and shared the basketball in the first half.  I will take the win. ”

“We played the scoreboard and we relaxed instead of just going full speed at them and continuing to do what we did that made us have that run in the first half.  We stopped playing basketball, stopped sharing the basketball, stopped rebounding and stopped doing the different things that got us the lead. ”

“We were shooting the ball particularly well, we were getting in gaps, we were making them shift from side to side, we were moving the basketball.  It was beautiful to watch.”

“[Rebounding]  was a problem again….In the second half, they dominated us on the backboards.  But we did some things to mask it, live we’ve been doing – 15 steals, we made them commit 21 turnovers – but I wasn’t happy with our second half performance. ”

“Sixteen assists and two turnovers in the first half, I’ll take that every day of the week.”

“[Rebounding] is still a work in progress.  We’re going to keep trying to find somebody.  They’re going to keep playing.  We can’t go out and get Patrick Ewing.  He’s not around.  We’re going to have to go with the guys we got, keep believing in them, keep coaching them and keep demanding the different things we’re demanding.  There’s nobody coming up.  Nobody transferring here the second half of the season….Hopefully, they believe in themselves and, hopefully, one or two of them step up and start rebounding the ball and start playing aggressively like we know they’re capable of doing.”

“It’s got to change. I’m a big probability guy, it’s got to change. We can’t wait for the ball to come to us, we have to go get the ball – there are a lot of rebounds out there with our name  on it.”

“[Boatright] is playing good basketball.  He’s getting the ball in his spots.  He’s shooting the ball particularly well.  He’s been doing a lot of extra shooting.  We want him to catch the ball and not hold it too much, and dribble, dribble, dribble.  We want him to shoot or catch, get out on the break and continue to do the different things he’s been doing.”