Dec. 3, 2014

Recap | Box Score | Notes | USATSI Gallery

Notre Dame Head Coach Mike Brey

Opening Statement…
“I’ve experienced a lot of exciting nights in that building there, and that’s got to be one of the top ones. What a great college game, just a great game. And I’m really proud of our group. I don’t know if I’ve ever wanted a win for a team more than I wanted this one for this group because of how this group is invested, how they believed, how they’ve been great students and how they’ve been coachable. So I’m so pleased that we could get this tonight. And I thought that we were really mentally and physically tough to do it.”

On Austin Torres…
“Fabulous. That’s the way he’s been practicing. He gives us that athletic front-line guy. We’ve been talking about him for about 10 days now since we came back from the Hall of Fame Tip Off Tournament. One of the things we said was, `We should’ve put him on Providence forward LaDontae Henton when he was crushing us.’ So we got him over with a white shirt a little bit. The thing is, he understands his role: do the dirty work, screen and rebound. He gave us a physical presence on Branden Dawson. Dawson is a fabulous player and athletic. He was on the one guy that could give a physical presence on Dawson. That really helped us.”

On Torres’ role…
“He isn’t going to be taking any three-point shots in practice tomorrow, I can tell you that much. He’s going to the same thing every day: screen, rebound and do the dirty work. But he understands that. That’s the role we talked about in Italy. We talked about, `That’s all I need you to do.’ And I talked about it in maybe a three-minute spurt. Tonight we needed him. He ball-screened great tonight for Jerian Grant and Demetrius Jackson to kind of screen them to get in there to make a play. It’s a big night for him because he kind of solidifies himself in our rotation now.”

On Pat Connaughton…
“He was fabulous. He was unbelievable tonight, defending, getting a key rebound, getting his hand on steals, just leading and talking in the huddles. Our two seniors, I loved how they delivered when the lights were really bright.”

On Demetrius Jackson gaining confidence after his fast start…
“He was really ready. For him to defend Travis Trice the way that he did and then to score 22, that’s a heck of a night for him. But I don’t think that surprises us. He’s been trending this way. He’s really confident and playing well. And he should be even more confident after this one.”

On V.J. Beachem’s injury…
“He’s out probably a month. I would love to have him back for the Hartford game. That was a tough blow yesterday with the plantar fasciitis partial tear. But we’re looking at a month. Austin Torres sure took advantage of it. And other guys may too now over the next couple weeks. The one thing about V.J. is if you’re going to miss a month, this is probably the best month to miss. You didn’t want to miss November because we had a lot of games. You certainly don’t want to miss in January. This might be the best month to miss. There’s not as many games and I would love to see if we can have him in practice when we come back from Christmas.”

On the run in the second half to come back from being down seven…
“I thought we really dug in defensively. We switched more stuff. Again, I thought Torres anchoring us back there was really good. We got to ball screening for Jerian Grant and Demetrius Jackson. The one thing that helped us was we got to the bonus quick. And so once we’re in the bonus, we want to drive that thing because any type of hand check puts those guys on the line, and I thought we executed that pretty good.”

On Pat Connaughton contributing when he doesn’t shoot well from three…
“I think he’s harder on himself. I don’t know if he’s ever been in the tank. But he’s our captain and there’s pressure on him to lead and be a rock.”

On expecting to win a game despite being outrebounded 43-26…
“Probably not. I knew they’d be able to play volleyball on us. I didn’t know it was going to be that bad. But at least it didn’t beat us. We were really efficient offensively and we really got key stops. The thing that we really did a good job of was not giving them as many looks. We chased them off the arc. Travis Trice didn’t get many clean looks. Trice, the ones he made, he made some tough shots. But they never got in a good rhythm from the three-point line, so you’re thinking, `As long as threes aren’t going in, I think we can hang around with these guys.’ Because they pull away from guys when they have double-digit threes.”

On the last play in regulation when Jerian Grant was not fouled…
“He fumbled the ball. I think that’s the right call. It was kind of similar to what happened against Providence. He kind of bobbled the ball a little bit. I’ll tell you what, we made a heck of a pass. Pat and him really communicated to get that touch. I think he was surprised he got it there. It may not have been bad to just rise up and shoot a jump shot, but he had been going to the well the whole night. I think that was the right call because he bobbled it before he was hit.”

Michigan State Head Coach Tom Izzo

Opening Statement:
“Travis Trice has been having a good year and really struggled tonight. I’ll give Brandon Dawson credit because he bounced back. It was our guard play defensively I thought that hurt us. Even though it seemed Jerian Grant scored a lot of points somewhere in switch-offs, I think Denzel Valentine did a remarkable job. It came down to a couple of plays again, a couple of turnovers for scores again and some mental mistakes. And not to get a shot off at the end, that’s my fault. What we had designed and what we ran were two different things. There was a huge discrepancy in free throws and that I think made a big difference.”

On Bryn Forbes’ shooting tonight…
“Well, his man had as many makes as he did is the problem. He gave up the first nine points of the game. Some of it we try to get him out of. Maybe we didn’t call enough of the right plays for him. So, I’m going to look at that. Our problem wasn’t offensively. Our problem was defensively and taking a few bad shots and making a few bonehead plays.”

On Branden Dawson’s play tonight…
“I stick with Branden for the right reasons, and tonight he proved it. But to his credit, I think he’s healthier. He was coughing hard today. I just have trouble reading my guys right now. Who’s sick and who’s not? We tried Alvin Ellis, and he just couldn’t go. Brandon did a very good job considering he got tired a couple times and he got hurt. But other than that, the offensive rebounding–getting nine of them–is incredible. It’s what he can do and I think we all know that. He just needs to do it on a more consistent basis.”

On three close games…
“It’s frustrating, but I understand it, too. Two of those games we didn’t have some guys. Today we’re still missing some guys. But at least we got Brandon back. You can see what a difference he makes. But we didn’t make plays down the stretch and that falls on the coach and guards. We just didn’t make the right plays, and we had a couple of foolish turnovers. That was the only thing disappointing about the whole night. I thought our bigs did a pretty good job until late when we let Grant get around us one time. We did enough good things to win. We did enough bad things to lose and that’s what happened.”

On Jerian Grant’s play…
“I think he’s a pro player. I think he’s a guy who’s so unselfish. He doesn’t force shots. He took seventeen shots, but to me you wouldn’t even have known it. He gets fouled, he can make passes and he defends pretty well. I think he’s as complete a guard as we’ve played against so far. I told him after the game I was very, very impressed by him. I thought he was a very good player in a lot of different areas.”

Notre Dame Player Quotes

Pat Connaughton – Senior – Guard

On the team’s performance in the second half…
“We executed at big times. There was a stretch when we were down seven points with about nine minutes left, and we were able to buckle down. We didn’t try to get it all back in one play, which we might have tried to do at the beginning of the second half. For the most part, we executed at key times, which we didn’t see much of last year. In regulation, we executed that last play and almost had a shot to win the game. I’m really proud of our guys. They played big minutes and they executed on the defensive end when they were called on.”

On the team’s defensive performance…
“If you look at the rebounding margin, they outrebounded us, but a lot of that happened in the first 25 to 30 minutes of the game. We were able to buckle down and get the stops that we needed and the rebounds that we needed. That’s the sign of a team growing in maturity and having toughness. We had each other’s backs.”

On how the loss to Providence helped them in this game…
“We were put in big game situations out at the Hall of Fame Tip Off Tournament, and it came down to that in this game as well. We really needed this one as a squad and as a basketball program in general because we thought we let one slip away against Providence. This was a big one to get.”

On readjusting his game despite his shooting struggles…
“Last year, I might have let those missed shots get to me. I took it upon myself to try to grow in that department. When you are missing shots, you aren’t helping your team as much as you could be, but you have to dig deep and find a way to get past it and help the team win in other ways. I tried to never let the aggressiveness disappear, but also never let the little things disappear, like defense and rebounding.”

On Austin Torres’ impact in the paint…
“Branden Dawson got out to a hot start. Part of that was my fault and part was just his great offensive performance. At the end of the day, Torres knew the game plan to guard Dawson and that allowed me to body their big guys and really attack the glass afterwards.”

Steve Vasturia – Sophomore – Guard

On how Austin Torres fit into the team’s rotation…
“He gets a lot of reps and is always ready to step in. He’s going to fly around and make big plays for us, and that’s what he did tonight.”

On the impact of the defensive ball pressure from Demetrius Jackson and Jerian Grant…
“They set the tone. It’s hard to start your offense when you have guys hounding you all the way up the court. We feed off that energy defending the baseline and it’s something we’ve been working on since the summer.”

On the raucous crowd…
“The fans were great. They were with us the whole way and it’s great to play in front of a gym full of people. We feed off of that and it energized us to get a big win.”

On building off the win…
“We just need to stay motivated. I think this a big confidence boost for us, but we need to admit that we made some mistakes and learn from them. We’ll use it as a springboard for the rest of the year.”

Demetrius Jackson – Sophomore – Guard

On his assertiveness in overtime…
“I just wanted to be aggressive, attack and play on defense. I really, really wanted this win, and I know all of the guys felt the same way. I wanted to go out and make plays.”

On why the significance of the win…
“It’s a ranked team and a really good program. I think this is a big game for us to go out and take a win. This is what you dream of growing up–games like this in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. It’s a great win for our team.”

On his crucial layup while getting fouled in overtime…
“We work on things like that every day in practice. Our practices are very competitive, so I thought I was pretty prepared for it. I went 6-8 at the free throw line. That’s not bad, but I want to be 8-8.”

On seeing Austin Torres rise to the occasion…
“I’m really excited for him. That’s him, flying around, making plays and being high energy. I’m really happy for him, and he really stepped up in this opportunity.”

On Michigan State’s 43-26 rebounding advantage…
“That’s something we really need to work on, but we got the ones that mattered.”

Austin Torres – Sophomore – Forward

On his willingness to do “the little things”…
“It’s one of the things that coach has always emphasized to me: getting rebounds, playing defense, getting my teammates open. Those are the things I’m going to continue to do.”

On what his performance does for his confidence…
“It definitely gives me a lot of confidence. My teammates – Pat, Jerian, Demetrius, Steve – they’ve been in this situation before. I haven’t been in this situation ever, so they really help me to help them.”

On his postgame emotions…
“I didn’t really expect to play this many minutes, but when things are flowing, it’s kind of hard to take somebody off the court. It’s a great feeling. I’m happy for the team and Coach Brey. We really wanted to get this one for him.”

Jerian Grant – Senior – Guard

On what the team did differently than in its loss to Providence…
“We got stops when we needed them. They hit some big shots just like Providence did, but we kept going. We didn’t hang our heads after they hit a shot. Our body language wasn’t bad. We kept digging.”

On his performance…
“The guys and coaches all game were telling me, `Jerian, stay aggressive. We need you to score. We need you to make plays. We need you to rebound.’ Those guys giving me confidence like that helps me out.”

On seeing young guys like Jackson and Torres step up late in the game…
“Those guys have been playing with confidence. When I left last year, those guys got a lot of minutes. They know how to play. They’ve played in big games against Duke and at Carolina. Those guys have been in these spots before, so I trust them.”

On what the win does to the team’s confidence…
“We were already playing with confidence these last two games, but to get a big win like that just boosts it even more. It just gives guys like Torres, who played really well, a lot of confidence. We know that we can go deep into our bench.”

On battling through the loss of V.J. Beachem to injury…
“Coach gave [Austin] the chance and he stepped up. He’s been waiting on his chance the whole year. He really seized it today. Demetrius played with a lot of confidence. When guys play with confidence like that, it’s easy to pass the ball around and play defense.”

Michigan State Player Quotes

Branden Dawson – Senior – Forward

On how Notre Dame got back into the game in the 2nd half…
“We just made some plays down the stretch that we didn’t need. We had too many turnovers, they had 16 points off of our turnovers, and I think that, down the stretch, we just had to make plays. In the first half, we dug ourselves in a huge hole by giving up 37 points. I think we just have to keep playing solid, play poised, and just don’t have mental lapses towards the end of the game.”

On coming to Notre Dame to play…
“It feels good, just to see my family in the crowd. Most of my family was in the crowd, just playing in front of my whole family, it feels great. It’s just a great feeling to come back to Indiana and play. My mom was here, my sister was here, and my coach was here too.”

On what coming back to his home state did for him…
“I think it was just another game for me. I told my teammates I was just going to have to step it up. Tonight, I came out here, and I was just focused in. That’s the main thing I was thinking, that I was going to have to play well tonight. “

On handling the loss…
“Like I said, we just didn’t make the plays we needed to make. We did well, but like I said we had twelve turnovers, and they had four, so it’s just about making the right plays down the stretch.”