This isn’t the fan base you want to slight, Coach...
Outside of a handful of coaches, post-game press conference rarely yield many interesting quotes. Jim Boeheim is an exception, not a rule there. So ignoring what happens post-game is the norm for many schools.
However, after Tuesday’s 72-63 defeat at the hands of the Syracuse Orange, UConn Huskies coach Kevin Ollie did share an opinion worth of an eyebrow raise:
"Two freshmen beat us. They're really two good freshmen, but they'e not that good. We can't allow those two freshmen to take over the game, and that's exactly what they did." Kevin Ollie on Brissett and Moyer
— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) December 6, 2017
“They’re not that good.”
Now, going into yesterday’s action, that case could certainly be made for Matthew Moyer, who’d been averaging very few points in minimal minutes.
But for Oshae Brissett, a player averaging nearly a double-double and serving as one of SU’s top offensive weapons, its’ tough to see where Ollie’s getting that opinion. No, he’s not an All-American. And we’ve seen freshmen at Syracuse put up bigger numbers. But Brissett has proven himself to be a pretty good player so far this season. And he’s certainly better than any freshman that suited up for UConn last night.
Perhaps Coach should’ve read the scouting report a bit more prior to last night’s matchup. Brissett ended up with 16 points and 10 rebounds against the Huskies. Moyer, the surprise of the two, collected 18 points and eight rebounds -- including this thunderous dunk:
Just got home from the Garden and wanted to check if Matt Moyer killed a guy and, yup, deathblow. https://t.co/N8fmvpLddG
— Hoya Suxa (@HoyaSuxa) December 6, 2017
Certainly “They’re not that good” tees are already being printed for sale on Marshall Street...
For Ollie, it’s unlikely anything was truly meant by the comment. He probably should’ve clarified that his “that” was more of a “THAT,” and then explained they were not All-Americans and you can’t let critical role players take over a game. Delivering a message like that is fair after a loss, and this wouldn’t have been noticed by anyone.
Instead, he’s been dragged since the quote went up, by quite a few Orange fans, other basketball observers and even Tyler Lydon, who exclaimed in a since-deleted tweet: “Smh... those two freshman are nice and handed y’all an L... go back to Connecticut and watch the film.”
Syracuse and their “not that good” freshmen will be back in action on Saturday vs. Colgate.
