Dec. 9, 2014

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Notre Dame Head Coach Mike Brey

Opening statement

“I thought we got off to a good start. We were ready to come out of the gate and our ability to pass is fun to watch. They (Mount St. Mary’s) fire a lot of threes and we played a lot of zone tonight just to get reps in it because we are going to probably have to use it some on Saturday (versus Florida State).”

On the play of Steve Vasturia

“He’s a pretty mentally tough guy. The numbers say that he should shoot it. I love the way he is hunting and driving more to be aggressive. He’s going to get fouled if he gets in there and he’s almost automatic from the foul line. This was a process of about 10 days ago. We told him not to play so safe and we created a monster.”

On what Steve Vasturia brings to the offense when he doesn’t have the ball…

“He moves without the ball beautifully, about as good as anybody on our team or the best. He’s a great cutter, he screens for people and he knows how to move in the post. He helps us flow. There’s a basketball IQ that is beyond his years and that’s one of the things I loved about him when I saw him in AAU. He’s cutting and rotating and taking charges. He knows how to play this game and was really well coached by Speedy Morris at Saint Joe’s Prep.”

On the work of the bench…

“I think it’s important that Martin Geben has earned that and Austin Torres has earned that after Michigan State. I thought Austin Burgett was really active. We are going to need him because he’s a veteran guy. We even got Bonzie (Colson) some more minutes. He’s on my mind too and it’s a long season. It was a night where everyone got in so you could keep them engaged. When you don’t play for a while, sometimes it’s hard. I think that’ll lead to good practices on Thursday and Friday.”

On Austin Burgett

“He’s similar to Steve Vasturia in that he’s easy to play with. We don’t want him hunting that three point shot, but the 18-footer is good. He is in good position, he knows how to move with us offensively, he helps people get open and he flies to rebounds. He gets those second shots. We are going to need him as the season goes through.”

On areas of the game to keep in mind…

“Defensive rebounding. The same thing I talked about in the preseason. It was certainly a problem for us against Michigan State. They’re (Florida State) really huge and I think we can defend the first shot. Can we keep it to one-and-done enough to win the game? It’s a big concern and a big focus as we move forward in practice for Saturday.”

On the upcoming Florida State matchup…

“They know how to win in this league. Behind North Carolina and Duke in the last seven years, they have the most wins. They are a little bit like us in the Big East. Leonard (Hamilton) has a program that knows how to win in this league. I expect them to be healthy on Saturday for the ACC game.”

On response to top-25 ranking…

“We talked about it a little bit in scouting yesterday. I told them how proud I was of them. I asked if they remembered the meeting with the returning guys after Wake Forest last year (in the ACC Tournament). We weren’t the most confident group. We only had six guys in spring workouts. I think we are smart enough to understand we have a lot of work to do. I think for them it was a confidence builder and that’s how they played tonight.”

On Demetrius Jackson

“He’s really confident. I think you’re seeing a young man who’s really confident right now and spearheading our defense. I love how he’s getting to the basket and making plays.”

On Demetrius Jackson’s leadership…

“He calls our sets and in our timeouts, his voice is heard as much as Pat Connaughton’s or Jerian Grant’s. I think with each week, he will become more of a voice and a really strong leader as we get into ACC play. The guys look to him and want him to do that.”

On ACC play…

“It’d be great to be 1-0 in league play at Christmas. It’s against an opponent (Florida State) that’s been really good in this league. For us to be 1-0 in league play at Christmas would be good. Any league game you scratch out is a good one. My feeling is it’s going to be a dog fight because they’re healthy and they know how to win league games.”


Notre Dame Player Quotes

Jerian Grant – Senior – Guard

On heading into Atlantic Coast Conference play…

“It’s huge. We wanted to come into this game playing well going into our first league game and I think that’s what we did. It’s fun to know that we’ll be able to start 1-0 in the league if we get a win on Saturday.”

On the Irish building a substantial lead…

“We had to yell at each other and get ourselves going in the timeout. The energy wasn’t what it needed to be. Steve Vasturia got us going on the offensive side and we started getting some stops on the defensive end.”

On Mount St. Mary’s defensive ball pressure…

“We like to be pressured. We’re two guys who can really create our own shots, when we have that opportunity its something we look forward to. It was great to have Steve Vasturia playing like that, especially going into Saturday.”

Zach Auguste – Junior – Forward

On rebounding…

“We just had to come out focused tonight. It was a good test for me to finally have some size to play against. It was fun, but it was important that we played together and took care of business.”

On having two solid individual games after struggling vs. Michigan State…

“It was good to bounce back. I just need to go out there and try to compete as best I can. I try to go out and make a statement every game.”

On Steve Vasturia’s play…

“Steve really lit it up tonight. He was shooting confidently and doing his thing offensively. He’s always hitting big shots, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him have a few more games like this. He knows how to play and he’s a really smart player.”

Steve Vasturia – Sophomore – Guard

On offensive outburst…

“It’s about taking the opportunities I get and trying to take advantage of them. Jerian Grant and Demetrius Jackson get us a lot of open shots, and they have the confidence in us to knock it down. It’s my job to make those shots, so I’m trying to work on it and be more aggressive.”

On being aware of his offensive efficiency…

“You know you’ve made a bunch in a row and you’re feeling pretty good, so you’re going to keep shooting. If I’m open, I’m told to keep shooting it. I’m staying confident.”

On building a substantial lead…

“I think we had to lock in defensively. We’ve been focusing on everything we’ve been harping on this year: getting stops on the defensive end, and getting out in transition. Mount St. Mary’s couldn’t get into its press, so that was big for us. We kept stepping on the gas.”

On creating momentum…

“Yeah, you get that momentum. People get more confidence. You keep running the floor, the bigs run the floor and we like to reward them. They’re getting the boards, they’re running and we reward them with layups. So it’s just a fun way to play.”

Demetrius Jackson – Sophomore – Guard

On Steve Vasturia’s offensive night…

“He got out in transition and made some great decisions with the basketball. He ran the floor, made some layups and did a great job tonight playing his game.”

On what Mike Brey said to the team in a timeout when it was up four…

“To be honest, I forget, but it was probably something inspirational to get us going. We came out and played hard. We did a great job after that timeout. Guys made great decisions with the basketball and were very aggressive.”

On keeping the team’s momentum after earning a No. 25 rank in the Associated Press poll…

“That’s something we noticed and we saw. We want to continue to build on what we’ve got going. We don’t want to get complacent or anything like that. We want to continue to build, continue to work hard every day in practice and continue to move forward.”

On moving on to Atlantic Coast Conference play against Florida State…

“It’ll be a great challenge for us. It’s a bigger team and a great challenge for us. I’m really looking forward to it. Especially for Jerian Grant–that’ll be great for him playing in the ACC for the first time.”


Mount St. Mary’s Head Coach Jamion Christian Quotes

Opening Statement…

“First of all, one of the things when you play a program like Notre Dame, for a person like me, it gives me a lot of encouragement for our future. You look at Notre Dame, one of the best Catholic universities in the world. Mount St. Mary’s I would like to say is in the same class; it’s a great Catholic university. Notre Dame is one of the universities in the college setting right now that really stands for my principles and values. So when you watch Mike Brey coach a team, you’re really encouraged by that. You can see that there’s a university that really stands by doing things the right way and that they’re having so much success, in multiple sports, not just basketball or football. So from a university stand point, it’s really exciting to step out here and play against some of the best, who are really, truly doing it the right way.”

On what was learned tonight…

“I learned that I have got a lot of tough kids there. We’re one of the youngest teams in the country at this point. We’re trying to challenge them. We want them to play against some of the best programs and some of the best coaches. My philosophy has always been that we really want to see all of our warts early in the year. It’s really paid dividends for us really late in the year, when things get really tough. Our team plays with great toughness. We didn’t play very well for the last 10 minutes of the first half. And anytime you play against a very good basketball team, they can stretch a lead out on you. I’ve never been a coach who focuses on win or loss. I’m always focusing on what are we doing to improve minute-by-minute, possession-by-possession. So obviously I wasn’t very happy with how we finished the first half out. But I was very encouraged about how we played in the second half. They outscored us by one point in the second half. We stepped in and made some shots and we really played well. That’s what I’m looking for. We’re going to continue to build on that as we move forward.”

On the difficulty of guarding Notre Dame…

“We watched it on film, and it’s a team you’d love to coach. I can imagine Coach Brey is so fired up to coach these guys everyday because they’re such a mismatch. You’ve got (Jerian) Grant, who can just do a little bit of everything; he plays some point guard, he plays some two, hits pull ups and fade-aways. And then you have guys who really understand their roles and play through them very well. Our whole question coming into this game was who was going to guard whom. We were going to try to let (Steve) Vasturia beat us, which he did today. We were going to try to make Demetrius Jackson make jump shots on us. He hit two threes. We recognized. And we have so much respect for how good they are and we recognize that. We knew this was going to be a very tough match up for us. But we’re excited for the opportunity and challenge. Today we took it on the chin. They played very well.”


Mount St. Mary’s Player Quotes

Chris Martin – Junior – Guard

On the team’s amount of three-point shots…

“That’s what we do. That’s what we’re really good at. That’s one of our strengths. We stick with that and we play very well in every game we play.”

On takeaway from tonight’s game…

“We made it to the NCAA Tournament last year, so the goal is to get back to that. Now we want to win an NCAA Tournament game, so this is going to prepare us for something like that by playing a big time team.”

On playing a team like Notre Dame…

“We’re thankful to play a team like this. We play in a smaller conference, so we wanted to take advantage of it and basically get better. Of course we tried to win, but when we don’t win, that’s what we’re trying to do.”

On his individual performance…

“I think I had a great day. I was a little soft on defense in the first half, picked it up in the second half. Offensively, I had a great day. It was the best day of my season so far.”

On the team’s performance…

“We really responded in the second half. We were getting bullied in the first half. I think it would’ve been a different game if we came out in the second half like we did the first half, so if we just work on that as team, I feel like we can be good the rest of the season.”