Jan. 17, 2015

Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery

Notre Dame Head Coach Mike Brey

Opening Statement…
“I am proud of my team! They are really hard to guard, and I thought we won the game because we were consistent defensively. In the first half we were horrible on the offensive end, but we defended well enough to only be down one when it felt like we should be down by 15. In the second half we did a fabulous job on [Angel] Rodriguez, Demetrius [Jackson] mostly, but we switched some other stuff too. We did find that offensive rhythm with that smaller lineup, which helped us on both ends because we could switch everything defensively and not be distorted on ball screens, which they run all the time and then it really spreads the floor out for drives and kicks to shooters. It was a hard fought win, its great to be 5-1 in the league.”

On working with a smaller lineup…
“In the last two possessions here, against Virginia and Georgia Tech, in the first half, we went small. We subbed and used our time out and V.J. (Beachem) hit a three both times. We do that for special situations, so why don’t we try that? Your first reaction is we won’t be able to guard or rebound, but heck, we can’t rebound anyways. Why don’t we just play small and have some more firepower on the floor. So we got that group some more reps yesterday and darn if we didn’t need them today. The smaller lineup really spreads the floor and we were getting cleaner looks because we were getting drives from Jerian (Grant) and D (Demetrius Jackson) and kicking out to guys for really clean looks.”

On his team’s sense of urgency when down 12 points…
“We were down against Georgia Tech and were down against these guys. There’s really not panic or worry or discouragement. They really have a strong belief that they will find a way to win. They show signs of being a special team.

On Miami’s team…
“They are a great road team. I think that they were 5-1 at neutral sites on the road before today. They have a road swagger about them. That’s why I think it’s a real good win for us.”

On the Miami’s reaction to Notre Dame’s smaller lineup…
“I think they started the game differently. They started (Davon) Reed, whose a smaller guy. Everyone has down shifted to us. They really did in the last 10 minutes. They went back to the big fellow (Tonye Jekiri) for a little bit, he made a layup and then he missed one and they said `The heck with it’ and got him out. Then it was 10 guards on the floor driving and kicking and shooting.”

On Tom Hawkins…
“He spoke to our guys yesterday and for 15 minutes they didn’t take their eyes off him. What a class act. He put some pressure on me near the end of the talk, he says, “Hey you got to win one for the Hawk.” He was a trailblazer for us and for our guys to hear some of the stories of when he played here was amazing. Never has there been or will there be a more unanimous guy to go up there.”

On Bonzie Colson…
“I love him. He’s still trying to get a feel for playing with our guys offensively. He has instincts and he fights. It’s a heck of a tall order to start him and then he’s guarding ball screens the whole night. That probably wasn’t the best for him either and that’s why we got away from it. He is a key guy for us moving forward.”

Notre Dame Player Quotes

Steve Vasturia – Sophomore – Guard

On the new lineup tonight…
“We were able to create a lot of mismatches. Everybody can run the floor and everybody can shoot, and we can really get out and transition, which I think we showed more in the second half.”

On the team’s attitude starting the second half…
“We knew [Coach Brey] trusted us and we knew we had to step it up in the second half. At halftime, when we were down, we had to lock in, and that’s what we did tonight and it worked well for us.”

On containing Miami guard Angel Rodriguez…
“He’s been pressuring the ball and getting steals all year, but I think we really frustrated him today. It was a team effort: we switched a lot, and forced him to make some tough shots.

On hitting a shooting stride in the second half…
“I think it was just a matter of time. Once we start shooting the ball, we’re not going to be that cold for long. With our lineup, everyone could shoot and guys were getting in the lane. We knew we would start knocking them down.”

“Miami definitely had to adjust given the way we were attacking them. We knew once we started flowing offensively, we were going to get good looks.

Demetrius Jackson – Sophomore – Guard

On the return of teammate Zach Auguste…
“It means so much just to be together. Zach brings a lot to our team–he is a key piece to our team–and we definitely need him out there. Having him back, even on the bench, really helped us out.”

On the team’s rebounding successes…
“It was a team effort. We were all boxing out, and doing the little things right. Pat [Connaughton] would go up and grab a rebound, and then the guards would come and help him out. When the opportunity’s there, you have to be aggressive and go for it.”

On what was said in the huddle when the team was down by 12…
“We talked amongst ourselves and realized we had to pick it up. It usually takes us one play to spark us, and once we got that play, the crowd got into it, which definitely helped us out tonight.”

On the team’s progress so far this season…
“We’ve made big steps from last year, but we have a lot more improvements to make and we can get so much better. We’re going to keep working hard on the fundamentals and prepare for Virginia Tech.”

Jerian Grant – Senior – Guard

On his performance…
“I felt like I had been in a bit of a slump, so to have a game like this means a lot for me going forward. And for the team, this is a big game: Miami just came off of a huge win against Duke, so being down by so much and coming back this was a great win.”

On the team’s performance using the new lineup…
“Offensively, nobody is going to be able to guard us with five shooters out there. Defensively, we really locked in.”

On the team’s game plan to shut down Miami guard Angel Rodriguez…
“We were trying to keep him from getting to the basket. I think we did that pretty well, and forced him to make some tough shots. You have to take the match-ups personally, and Demetrius [Jackson] did a really great job of that today.”

On the spark that got the team going…
“We were missing great looks, but it was important to dig in on defense. Once we got a few stops in a row, shots started falling, and we were on a roll from there.”

On what Tommy Hawkins said in the locker room before the game…
“He wanted us to rebound. He said he wanted someone to break his rebound record, which got the guys laughing. But to have a great like that in the house tonight was exciting for us.”

Pat Connaughton – Senior – Guard

On coming back from a double-digit deficit…
“I think it says a lot about the maturity and the toughness of this team. We have been trying to preach maturity and toughness all year and build our team off of that, really focusing ourselves from the defensive end up, and I think we did that very well. We did not get discouraged when we were down, we actually got mad–mad in a good way, in a way where we could call each other out and say `Look, in order to get back we need to do this thing together as one, all five of us and all 13 of us as a whole.’ Once we were able to do that we started a trend and allowed ourselves to get the ball rolling in the other direction, which was tough to stop.”

On the team’s improved 3-point shooting in the second half…
“A lot of the shots that we missed in the first half were open threes that we just did not make. There were a few that were contested or a little quick in the shot clock and we just wanted to eliminate those ones. If we are driving in the lane and finding open shooters that can shoot, we will be fine–no matter what the shooting percentage was in the first half, if we keep taking good, open shots we know they will start to fall at some point in time.”

On playing extra hard for Tommy Hawkins…
“He was talking yesterday about how high he could jump and how many rebounds he got, and I wanted to show him that he is not the only 6’4 guy that can jump out of the gym.”

V.J. Beachem – Sophomore – Forward

On his increased confidence…
“I just know that my teammates trust me, Coach Brey trusts me, so I feel like I have more control over my game. If I have an inch to take a jump shot, I know I can take it and knock it down. Last year if I missed a few I might be more hesitant, but this year, from hours in the gym and the trust that these guys have in me, I now know I can just rise up and shoot another.”

On what talking to Tommy Hawkins meant to the team…
“He told us to do it for the “Hawk,” and we tried to come out and play hard. We got off to a slow start, but our guys came out ready in the second half and we pulled one out. He was definitely motivational, he gave us a lot of wisdom, and to have somebody like that around us was important for us.”

On the team’s 5-1 record in the ACC…
“It is very big for us–we know that we have a lot of work left to do–but we are off to a great start in the ACC and just want to keep it going.”

Miami Head Coach Jim Larranaga

Opening Statement:
“I thought that was a great college basketball game, two teams playing at a very high level. Both teams were really good at finding the open man and making threes. I thought we did a very good job on them defensively in the first half, but in the second half, they hit that hot streak where (V.J.) Beachem made a couple of threes and then everybody was making threes, like (Steve) Vasturia and then (Jerian) Grant made that one off the bounce which was ridiculous. When your team is feeling it like that, and in such a good rhythm offensively, we tried to disrupt it and we just couldn’t. I thought we played well. We scored the ball pretty well, shared the ball pretty well, made some threes ourselves, we were 9-22 from three, but it just wasn’t quite enough.”

On Notre Dame shooting 2-13 from “3” in the first half…
“As a coach, you like to take credit for that, but with the way those kids shot it, I don’t think our defense changed. I think they started finding the open man a little bit better in rhythm. Sometimes when you find something that’s working and you go back to it regularly, the players understand they’re doing it well and they gain confidence. A lot of times three-point shooting can be contagious: one guy makes a couple in a row, then the next guy makes one, and then everybody thinks “today’s my day, I’m going to really shoot well.” But to be honest, they were 9-28. That’s really not bad defense for us against a team like that. It wasn’t that our defense was so bad, it’s that on their two-point shooting, they didn’t miss. When they got the ball inside our defense, they hit jump-hooks, they hit some layups, they hit some pull-ups, but with a few minutes to go it was a one-possession game and we had our chances.”

On Notre Dame’s five-guard set…
“We told our players that this is a very different game. The last game we played against Duke and they have a big guy that they go to all the time. This is not that kind of a game. We already made a change in our starting lineup to try to match their guard play, but Tonye Jekiri is such a big part of our team with his defensive rebounding. He had 13 boards today, with nine at the half, and he’s a good defender so we thought he might be able to guard one of their guys, but when a guy is just feeling it, none of our guys could stop it. We knew they were going to play the five guards, we knew we would have to defend that, we planned on playing smaller, and we did. I think it worked in the first half, but wasn’t quite as effective in the second half.”

On Notre Dame’s improvement from last season…
“I think Coach Brey and his staff have done a great job of finding a way to play that takes advantage of all of their skills. Jerian Grant is a great addition; he didn’t play against us last year. You have a guy who is a high-octane player, who goes to the basket, makes some acrobatic layups, makes threes, and is very good defensively. They’re a very hard team to guard when they’re shooting the ball well, and they shoot the ball well every game. That’s why they’re leading the country in field-goal percentage.”

Miami Player Quotes

Sheldon McClellan – Redshirt Junior – Guard

On the team’s play…
“I think we played well. We played a well-balanced game. We just never responded to the second-half run they had with the threes and the twos. At one point it felt like they couldn’t miss. I think we played well as a team. We just have to tweak some things in practice.”

On the mindset coming off of the win at Duke…
“Just continue to play well. We weren’t thinking about the Duke game, it was over. It was a great win but it was over. Notre Dame played great. Have to give them credit for making shots at the right time.”

On Notre Dame’s run in the second half…
“I think we got too packed in the lane. They’re a great shooting team and you always have to have a hand up. We didn’t do that so they made us pay.”

On the biggest thing moving forward…
“Just closing out on three-point shooting teams. Obviously, no one shoots the ball like Notre Dame. We played a well-rounded game. We have to get back in the gym and work harder.”