Feb. 17, 2015

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Notre Dame Head Coach Mike Brey

Opening statement:
“Wake is tough to deal with because they are really talented offensively and I felt we were going to have to score to escape, but certainly the difference was the start of the second half. We defended and we got into a good segment of defending and got out into good transition and we got some breathing room. I thought a lot of guys really contributed. We were excited to play, because we really hadn’t played in a while. We got a few more coming at us in a short window again.”

On his halftime speech…
“We finished the half on a pretty good rhythm and we started the second half on a pretty good rhythm. We defended. Then I think our concentration lapsed a little bit and they made a run. I’m thrilled with what we did from the foul line. We really spent a lot of time at the line, getting reps at practices in the last week. I think we should be a better free throw shooting team than we have been this year and I hope this jumpstarts us from the line.”

On stopping Wake Forest in the second half…
“I think we helped a little more and came down a little more and jammed them up. You just got to be careful against these guys because you have to remember that they are two points and if you help too much and they start making a couple of threes and 44 (Konstantinos Mitoglou) gets going, then they might score 85. I felt we may score and we were going to need to score 80 points to win.”

On Austin Torres
“He has a great attitude. He was really involved and then he wasn’t really involved because Bonzie [Colson] took that spot. That is where I think he has grown so much and he knows we need him and he has been excellent in practice. I thought tonight, given that our energy level wasn’t the best all the time, that he is an energy guy, especially in this building and I thought he gave us great stuff. I like the rotation of those guys. We have a kind of three-headed monster with Zach [Auguste], Bonzie [Colson] and him. You run them through there and see what happens.”

On V.J. Beachem
“It was good to see him get back in a rhythm tonight. That’s one of the things we really attacked. We watched some film with him the other day. He had a little bit of swagger up until the last week and we wanted to get that back. I thought tonight he got back part of it. We need him coming in off the bench.”

On defense…
“When you have a smaller lineup, you are quicker to loose balls. I thought we got to a lot of those loose ones. The 50/50 balls we definitely got those tonight.”

On free throw shooting…
“We spent more time in practice taking reps. We would shoot five in a row. I practiced in the Pit more because I have more baskets and I can fit two to a bucket and I can get more reps. We did that Friday, Saturday, Sunday and we kept the team average and we were shooting about 80 (percent) in practices those days. Then we did some games situations where someone in a white shirt has to make a free throw and then we have to guard to win. It’s one of those things you have to emphasize more and I am thrilled to see the results and we should be shooting that thing at a better clip from the line. It’s a really good weapon for us.”


Jerian Grant – Senior – Guard

On maintaining focus after a week off…
“We focus on not having a let down, it is extremely important to us because we are still chasing an ACC regular-season title, so we cannot have any letdowns from here on out. We want to play all-out every game.”

On having success in the second halves of games…
“We go into halftime and we really talk about the game and what we can get better at. Everybody gets a voice and I think that carries over into the second half with our play.”

On Pat Connaughton’s toughness playing through an illness…
“I did not have any doubt that he was going to be out there. He is extremely tough and it means a lot for him, going through what he is going through, to be out there with the team. He is one of the leaders in the ACC in rebounding at 6’5,” so that shows how tough he is. He really just wants to be out there and not miss a game during this special season that we are having.”

On playing with great shooters on the court…
“It is great for me to see–guys are ready, guys are working on their games, and we have a lot of shooters because they work on it. They keep their hands ready when they are spotting up to shoot, and that gives me confidence to be able to pass them the ball when I have a drive to the lane that I can kick out.”

Steve Vasturia – Sophomore – Guard

On playing with Jerian Grant
“He is great at just getting into the lane and if you are open he will find you. We just try to space out for him and we know he will make the right decision, which he has been doing every game.”

On winning consistently at home…
“It was important to come out today and play well, especially since we have not been out on the court in almost a week. We wanted to come out here and play with a lot of energy–we were excited to get another game under our belt in the ACC–and it was important to get a win.”

On the team’s biggest strengths this season…
“I think our unselfishness has allowed us to succeed most of all. We have a lot of guys out there who can score, and everybody can pass, so our willingness to play to win the game and not worry about personal statistics–along with locking in defensively–has really helped us.”

On Pat Connaughton’s toughness fighting through an illness…
“We all know that he is a real tough kid–he is our captain and we all know he is going to play through anything. He has had a heck of a four years here, we knew that he was going to give us everything he had, and he was still pretty good today. We were happy to have him out there.”

Bonzie Colson – Freshman – Forward

On his pick and roll…
“That’s something I’ve been working on a lot in practice. You know Jerian (Grant) has been screening me, I mean I’ve been screening Jerian. I’ve just been rolling and he’s been dishing off to me and I mean I’ve been scoring…He’s a great passer, but us bigs, we know we just have to keep rolling. If we roll, he’s going to find us for easy layups.”

On why he left the game for a bit…
“My contact got knocked out by V.J. (Beachem). You know we both went up for the put-back and it came out. You know this contact life is new for me. I had to go back in the locker room and put it in, but it took me like two seconds.”

On the bench giving a boost to the team…
“It definitely is a great feeling. You know everybody has to just be ready to play. You know (Austin) Torres came in and I, and you know V.J. (Beachem) came out here and we just tried to get up the team energy and do whatever we can do to win.”

On the first 20 minutes not doing so well…
“We knew it was going to be a tough game. That’s something that we had discussed in practice; Coach talked about it, so we knew it would be a type of game we’d have to guard our possession. And we just talked about in the second half, coming out strong and we opened up the game.”

On going home this weekend to play Boston College…
“We got this game down on the books, so now we got to focus on the next game. BC is also a pretty good team and we got to play hard against them too. It’s going to be a great feeling, me, Zach (Auguste) and Pat (Connaughton) going back home and seeing our families, but yeah it’s definitely a special game for us and we need to get this win.”

V.J. Beachem – Sophomore – Forward

On getting the pass from Jerian Grant over the other boys…
“Yeah sometimes, like you said, you don’t even know it’s going to come, but you know you got to be ready and he’ll hit you in the instant that you’re not ready, but you got to be ready to fire. He is right on time and always on the money.”

On Pat Connaughton’s health…
“He’s doing good. I think he’s feeling a lot better than he was this weekend and earlier this week.”

On working on free throws…
“A lot of free throw shooting for one [happens in practice] and shooting free throws when we’re tired. We will go hard on the drill, then shoot the free throws and that really helped us out tonight. We haven’t really shot free throws as much, but when we do shoot them, we usually shoot them at the end of practice when you got the fatigue on you, but lately we’ve been shooting them while we’re breathing hard, just really simulating the game. Everybody has to shoot five and shoot five again.”

On how they’ve played overall after break…
“I think we played well. There were definitely times when we had to get the rust off and times I think, when guys were tired, but overall I think it was a great win for us and to bounce back after a week off, and to be efficient offensively was very good for us. It was a very bounce back game for me.”


Wake Forest Head Coach Danny Manning

Opening Statement:
“Tonight Notre Dame came out and really established their will in the second half with their ball movement, getting into the paint, and kicking it out to their shooters. We started out the game defensively in decent shape; they were 1-10 at one point and then finished the half 12-24, and six of those were layups. We have to do a much better job of staying in front of the basketball. We knew going into the game that they were a very good shooting team. They do a very good job of dribble penetration, getting into the paint, and kicking it out to their shooters. Mike [Brey] has them playing at a very high clip right now and we didn’t make enough plays to win the game.”

On what changed in the second half…
“They made shots and they got into the paint. They made six three-pointers in the second half, but more so than that, I think they hurt us with points off turnovers. That was one of the glaring categories on the stat sheet. We have to do a much better job of taking care of the basketball.”

On what needs to change moving forward…
“We need to continue to play better. We’ve been in ball games all conference season long where we’ve had an opportunity to close the door on some people and we haven’t been able to do it. We just have to continue to go out there and do what we need to do in order to be successful. Defensively, that is to do a better job of staying in front of the basketball, I think we’ve rebounded the ball well enough, we have to do a better job of scoring fast-break points. I think that’s a category we need to win and to be dominant every game to give ourselves a chance to be successful.”

On the team’s mentality after two close losses to top-10 teams…
“There’s some disappointment. But the disappointment needs to be enough to create different results. Every day in practice we need to remember the feeling that we have now and try to make sure that we don’t let that happen again, in terms of going into each game with that right mindset.”

On Jerian Grant’s play…
“I think you guys take him for granted because that dude makes tough shots. He makes step-back jumpshots going left that are contested on a regular basis. Not too many people do that. He’s a good player. Whenever he’s shooting the ball like that and distributing the ball as well, and then defensively, he gets his hands on five steals, so he’s a complete all-around player. He has to be one of the leading candidates for player of the year in the league.”


Wake Forest Player Quotes

Codi Miller-McIntyre – Junior – Guard

On what worked for them in the first half…
“We were getting the ball in the paint. Devin [Thomas] did a really good job in the first half of finishing around the basket, and we did a good job of finding him. But we also allowed them to score 43 points in the first half, and 45 in the second half. We were just trading baskets, which is what happens in a tight game but we needed to get stops in the second half.”

On what slowed them down…
“I think we all could have gotten to the basket a little bit more in the second half, including myself. Sometimes we settle, for quick, early jump shots, instead of making them work on defense. I think that was the biggest thing, we should have been a little bit more patient on offense and picked up the intensity a little bit more on defense.”

On what makes Jerian Grant tough to play against…
“He’s a good player. He’s a competitor…”

On how they rallied in the second half…
“It seems like a trend with us going down 15 or so early in the second half. Our defensive intensity did pick up for a stretch so when we did get stops and convert on those stops we got back into it. But good teams play defense the entire time, and that’s one thing we have to start doing, the entire 40 minutes, instead of 25 or 30 minutes.”