After its latest damaging loss, UConn faces a long, hard road to qualify for the NCAA tournament.

Good thing the American Athletic Conference tournament is in Hartford.

At 9-7 overall, the Huskies are in trouble.

They lacked the necessary toughness - mentally and physically -- to win at Stanford on Saturday, falling 72-59.

They got pushed around inside, losing the rebounding battle a whopping 48-24.

It was a dismal two-game road trip that started with a loss at Tulsa.

Here's some post-game reaction that was posted on the Stanford basketball website:

-- Coach Kevin Ollie:

"On the offensive end, we got some easy looks but couldn't convert. Credit to them - they had 18 offensive rebounds. This was just unacceptable from a UConn team. It's an embarrassment. We'll have to fix it, rectify it and get better by next game.”

"They got nine second-chance points on offensive rebounds. We've got to clean up our defensive backboards. To get out-rebounded by 24 -- that just comes down to toughness, and we're not committed to hitting somebody right now.

"We had a lot of turnovers, lot of indecision, a lot of floated passes, and they were taking them -- we were just not doing the smart thing from our guards and some of our bigs. We've got to go back to the drawing boards and work on some things, and hopefully we can play a better, cleaner game."

"We knew coming in it was going to be a dogfight, but not in my wildest dreams did I think we would get outrebounded by 24. That's something we have to correct, and in a hurry. They beat us up on the backboards and didn't allow us to get out in our offense and push the ball as we are usually capable of doing."

"We have to hit first, and commit to hit, and we didn't do it tonight. I'm going to make changes and keep making changes until I find the team that wants to play that type of basketball. No UConn team ought to be embarrassed like that."

-- Sophomore Amida Brimah:

   "We played kind of timid today -- they beat us on the boards. We've got to play better than that. I needed to do my work earlier (against Nastic), I guess.”

-- Sophomore Rodney Purvis:

   "There's always room for being more aggressive. We needed to be more aggressive not only on offense but mainly on defense and getting the rebounds. We were getting killed on the rebounds, it wasn't even close. We’ve got to want to hit somebody. The coach said for us to be physical and knock people down to get the rebound, but we didn't do that."

   "They just wanted it more. They just wanted the ball more. Any 50-50 ball, they were getting it. That's all on us. The coach can't draw up any plays to fix that -- that effort and energy has to come from within the players. We need to play the guys who are bringing the energy and who want to hit somebody."

-- Stanford coach Johnny Dawkins:

   “We’ve talked about [rebounding] being a very important part of the game. We challenged them before the game and said that if we’re going to have a chance to be successful, we’re going to have to board. They sent a lot of guys to the glass. They’ve very active, they’re long. And if we weren’t going to meet their activity, then that would really hurt us in the game. And we took it to heart. It was definitely a game where we really did execute the game plan as good as we could.”

-- Stanford senior Chasson Randle, who had a game-high 23 points:

   "We played them really tough both last year and this year. We understand that they’re a great program, and to be recognized as an elite program, you have to be those teams.”

-- Stanford junior Rosco Allen:

   "They still are the national champions from last year. That’s a big thing. We just have to come out and fight against this team. We knew it was going to be a fight. They were coming off of a couple of tough losses but we had to be ready for them and their high energy.”

-- A few other things from the game:

   UConn's starting frontcourt of Kentan Facey, Daniel Hamilton and Brimah combined for only 16 points and seven rebounds. Foul trouble help limit Brimah to just nine minutes.

  Reserve big man Phil Nolan continues to struggle. He didn't have a rebound in 17 minutes. That's hard to do. This is a same guy who started the national championship game.

  Leading scorer Ryan Boatright is crumbling under constant defensive heat. He finished with seven points on 3-for-12 shooting. It's the fourth time this season he's failed to hit double figures, and UConn has lost all four games.

  The Huskies made a season-high 10 3-pointers out of 20 attempts. Omar Calhoun and Sam Cassell Jr. accounted for six of those baskets.

  It was a good offensive game for Cassell, who finished with nine points. He had scored a combined 12 points in the previous nine games. 

  Olle made one change in the lineup, replacing Purvis with Calhoun, who made his first start since early last season. They led UConn in scoring, as Purvis had a team-best 14 points and Calhoun had 11.

   UConn didn't have an offensive rebound until the second half and finished with just four overall, its second lowest total of the sesaon.

  Stanford had 18 offensive rebounds, but managed only nine second chance points.

  UConn has some winnable home games ahead, hosting Central Florida Thursday and South Florida on Sunday.