The UConn men had been playing well of late, stringing together wins in five of their previous six games until finding their way to the center of the country Tuesday night to play at Tulsa.
Amazingly Tulsa was able to get over the shock of actually being in the same conference as the defending national champions and enjoyed a rather comfortable win.
The Huskies tried to rally late, but it wasn’t enough as the Golden Hurricane held on down the stretch and won going away.
Reaction
- Here is what coach Kevin Ollie had to say after the game:
“It’s easy to play hard when you’re down by 15. There’s no pressure then. We need that same effort from the start. We’ve got to play hard, consistent basketball for 40 minutes.”
“It’s the same story as other games, we started off slow. I credit Tulsa, they came out and played and I thought they played hungrier than us. They beat us in every facet of the game. They beat us in their toughness, they had guys who came out and played and we didn’t take the challenge. We are going to have to start taking the challenge better, and it starts with our first five minutes. It seems that we get behind and cannot score. We are not playing together as a group. That is my job, to find some guys who are going to come out and play with some energy and play together, and I will do that.”
“I am going to sit back and watch the tape, I have not assessed it yet, but there will be some changes. I keep coming out and seeing the same thing, so we need to do something else. I don’t know who the change is going to be. I have to first watch the tape. There may not even be lineup changes; I am going to figure that out with my coaching staff and we are going to go forward.”
“We cannot rely on Amida all the time. I thought our guards did not do a good job controlling the dribble tonight. Tulsa was running a simple three-down play that we run, too. Woodard was coming off and getting wide-open threes. Our defensive play was not up to our standards. I credit them for making us move our feet, and we just did not respond tonight the way that we have responded on our defensive end. That has been one of our staples because we haven’t been shooting the ball particularly well in the game. One thing I can say is that tonight we just did not play defense and Tulsa came out with a good game. Their guys played with more energy, more fight, than us. We cannot have lackluster games like that; we are not talented enough to do it. We have to play at a level five and I thought that tonight was a level three at best.”
Worth noting
- Tulsa increased its winning streak to six in a row and improved its record to 4-0 in American Athletic Conference play, and its home record to 7-2.
- UConn’s loss was its first loss this season on an opponent’s home court. The Huskies were 2-0 on the road entering Tuesday’s game.
- Tulsa held UConn to a .431 field goal percentage. It was the 15th time in 16 games, and the 11th straight time TU has held its opponent under 50 percent from the field.
Play of the game
