STORRS, Conn. – After a one-year absence from postseason play – both in the conference and the NCAA tournament – the Connecticut Huskies make their return Thursday in the quarterfinals of the American Athletic Conference championship in Memphis.
The Huskies are the No. 4 seed and will play No. 5 Memphis Thursday at 9 p.m.
“It feels good,” guard Shabazz Napier said Monday. “It feels like this is where we’re meant to be. It was kind of weird not being on the postseason last year. Now it feels like we have a great opportunity and we have to make the most of it. Anybody can be given an opportunity but a lot of people don’t take the best of it. We’ve got to do that.”
UConn won both regular season meetings with the Tigers.
“It’s always tough beating a team three times in a row,” Napier said. “It doesn’t make it easy for us. But the season is over, we’re starting the postseason and we’re both 0-0. They’re a whole different team than we played them. They’ve tangled with Louisville and SMU, that we could not beat. If we want to get where we want to go, we have to play them with respect.”
And Memphis will have the advantage of playing on its home court.
“To get where you want to go in basketball, or life, you’ve got to face giants,” Napier said. “This is one of those giants. Memphis is going to have a crazy crowd like they always do. They’ve got a great coach and great guards. We’ve got to understand this one of the biggest giants we’ve got to face this year. When you fight a giant and you win, you feel so much better. You feel uplifted. We all want that feeling.”
UConn coach Kevin Ollie will be counting on his seniors, Napier, Niels Giffey and Tyler Olander, who were freshmen when the Huskies won the national championship in 2011. The postseason is a different experience and those three will have the role of guiding the players who haven’t been there before.
Here’s what Ollie told the media after practice at Gampel Pavilion Monday afternoon.
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