March 23, 2004

On the play of Middle Tennessee State…
“If Middle Tennessee State came up here to earn respect, they certainly did that. Not just on the court, but the entire time they were here, I thought they were terrific. They were a classy team and they fought hard.”

On the play of Irish junior forward Jacqueline Batteast…
“I thought she was outstanding. I thought she proved today why she is one of the top five players in the country. We are so happy that she had a great game today to help the team get back to the Sweet 16.”

“Good players make great coaches, and what Jacqueline really allows us to do is make substitutions. We could put in some different people, and it makes it easier for everyone else. There’s less pressure, there’s more energy, and everybody gets excited.”

On the team reaching the Sweet 16…
“It’s exciting, and I think it’s great for the conference. We would like to get as many teams as possible out there. We were hoping that Virginia Tech would join us in Hartford, but it looks like we’ll be playing Penn State. We’ve had a great year in the conference, and I think we’re starting to peak right now. Our defense is playing really well and our offense is starting to improve.”

On Notre Dame’s advantage inside…
“In the first couple of timeouts we called, all we talked about was throwing the ball in the post. We did turn the ball over quite a bit trying to do that, but we did a bit better in the second half by using more ball fakes. Overall, I felt our strength was inside and that’s where we really wanted to go.”