Dec. 20, 2014

Recap | Box Score | Notes | USA Today

Notre Dame Head Coach Mike Brey

Opening Statement

“I’m really proud of our group, we were obviously ready to play. We were down eight early and their big guys were giving us some trouble. I thought we stayed poised and finished the half with good momentum. The second half I thought we did it on both ends, we defended well, we did a better job on their bigs, and I think you saw what we can do offensively when we get out, run and share the ball. We’re really explosive, and I can’t say enough about Pat Connaughton and Demetrius Jackson. First of all my baseball player (Connaughton), he’s a pretty good basketball player too, don’t you think? To go 19 and 14, what a man. And I thought Demetrius really ignited us with his ball pressure, and his dunk probably was the exclamation point to say, `We’re probably going to win it today.’ We’re playing well, and you just kind of want to bottle it.”

On the team’s explosive second half run on offense…
“We’ve had some explosive offensive teams but we do it even more powerfully, this team does it even more powerfully. I am proud of our bigs, it was going to be a night where we were going to foul and you had to be unselfish and give your body up. I thought Zach Auguste handled that great, and then Martin (Geben) comes in and leans on them, and then (Austin) Torres comes in and leans on their bigs. Those guys really did a great job for us and gave themselves up physically against two really physical big guys.”

On the role of the defense leading to transition offense that sparked the team’s comeback…
“There’s no question that our ball pressure and getting into passing lanes is something we can do. Demetrius spearheads that, and when he’s pressuring the ball, all of a sudden those entry passes are longer. Now Jerian (Grant) can jump through a passing lane, and Steve (Vasturia) and Pat, but tonight Demetrius got his hands on the entry pass. He was deflecting the entry pass and it’s demoralizing when you have to play against that, it kind of wears you out.”

The development of Demetrius Jackson
“I thought Demetrius made great choices on offense, too, when to take a shot, when to involve people. What I’m seeing is when he is talking more each week, he’s really a leader for us now. He’s really got command of our system and is a strong voice for us. He’s become a better guard, his basketball decisions with the ball are that of a college guard now. That’s where he made a big jump, he talked about wanting to be better with his decision making and have less turnovers than last year. He’s playing with supreme confidence, and he and Jerian are playing off each other beautifully. They both can handle it, they both can play off the ball. I knew Demetrius was really ready to play in this one just watching him yesterday, he was really excited about playing down here. All the Indiana kids always love playing in this event, and we love this event because we have won three in a row. Let’s keep playing every year.”

On Austin Torres effectively guarding two seven-foot post players at 6′ 7″…
“He is one physical guy, and he’s got a great base, then he bounces up there and bothers the shot. He is hard to play against because of his strength, and he had (Isaac) Haas pushed off enough to where it was a trickier shot. Then he was up there bothering some of those shots with his athletic ability. Austin’s role is very important for us and you saw it tonight. When we made the run in the first half he was in there, kind of got a screen and roll, and he was 3-for-4 from the foul line during that spurt. He was not a guy we could rely on making free throws last year, so that’s something he has improved in.”

Demetrius Jackson

On finishing the dunk over Isaac Haas…
“I just wanted to finish strong. I wanted to have a play that set the tone and ignited our team.”

On his improvement as a guard…
“Making decisions with the ball. I am trying to be better with the ball and getting the ball to open guys, and that is where I think I have grown the most. I also think I have grown when it comes to my confidence in myself and my abilities. One of the things I really worked on this offseason was finishing at the rim, and throughout the beginning of this season I think that has shown.”

Pat Connaughton

On unselfishness of the team…
“One thing you can say about this team is how unselfish we are. We get those [dunk] plays because of our ball movement and chemistry. It comes from knowing where our guys are on the floor at all times.”

On dominance in the second half…
“We got our offense flowing. I think our offense is something that can ignite us, but what no one really knows is that the defense is the spark to our offense. As long as we can stick with our defense and rely on our defense, then the offense will come.”

On turnaround in the second half…
“It all starts with our toughness. It is a matter of doing the tough little things that you do during the offseason and in practice that contribute when it comes to the game. We are making the hard-nosed plays that we fell a little short on last season.”

On Demetrius Jackson
“His physical build obviously (is a strength), and then his toughness and mental capacity to take on whoever steps in front of him. He is up here to make a statement just like our team and he is the lead guy on the defensive end as well as the offensive end.”


Purdue Head Coach Matt Painter

On Purdue’s effort…
“I think we got what we deserved and I thought our shot selection when we were down two points was poor and we really talked about the tempo of the game and how good their guards were. If you make mistakes or take bad shots, they’ll definitely convert. Even when we were up 16-8 in the first half, we probably had four ill-advised jump shots to start the game. AJ Hammons had a couple, Kendall Stephens had one. I think Vince (Edwards) had another one. You have to take good shots and make better decisions at that point of the first half. But still in the second half I think we’re down two, 46-44, and it’s either two bad shots or two turnovers and they dunk it twice and I have to call timeout and it just snowballed from there. I felt Notre Dame simply stole our spirit and our guys gave in.”

On responding to modest deficits…
“Obviously it snowballed from there and every time we did something positive, we didn’t get good results. We’d get the basketball inside and we’d miss three or four point-blank layups at that time. I think that was a little bit different because we didn’t execute and we didn’t play well in the first half, but we kind of kept a fight and kept it at seven and then we were able to close the gap to two. Then when it went from there, guys, instead of being more patient and taking care of the basketball, we shot a couple of ill-advised shots, turned it over, and they just kept in transition, getting run-outs and dunks.”

On Purdue’s defense against dribble penetration…
“We had some issues with trying to keep the basketball in front and you’re going to have that with them. We try to box them in as best as we can, but we wanted to keep them out of transition more than anything and stay in front of some of our issues and we got behind too many plays. The game was lost in our decision-making and our shot selection and their ability to convert at the other end.”

On Purdue’s performance since a strong performance at the EA Sports Maui Invitational…
“I think for us, we had a good win against NC State and we had a couple good wins. We got up in the North Florida game and those guys come back. I thought shot selection was the issue in that game also. Vanderbilt, I just thought our attention to detail was poor. I think you have some of that with a young team and where sometimes we could play certain people, the attention to detail has to be greater because of what they run and what they do. We have a lot of guys trying to find themselves and what you have to do is you have to give yourself to the team and I always refer back to coach (Gene) Keady, who always referred to it as being a company man. Just as an employee, whoever you work for, be a company man, do what’s best for your employer. It’s the same as a player. We can’t be fighting ourselves in terms of what we’re good at and what we struggle with. We have to stay away individually from what we struggle at and then try to keep to our strengths and we’re just not doing a good enough job across the board with that.”

Raphael Davis, junior, guard

On the team’s effort in the second half…
“We’ve just got to play harder and finish the game. Even when we get down, we can’t just stop playing.”

On Notre Dame’s string of dunks…
“It was a lack of effort getting back. (Us taking) quick shots and (making) turnovers caused those dunks and caused a surge that allowed them to go on a run.”

On Connaughton’s game…
“He got his head up early. Once a guy gets his head up early and starts making shots and rebounding like he did, we knew he was tough. He played hard, so he got us.”

On using the game as a learning experience…
“You can’t forget a game like this. We’ve got a quick turnaround and we play on Monday, so this game is over with. We can’t do anything about it now, but we can learn from it. It can be a big learning experience for us being a young team. Everybody uses the young team as an excuse, but we always talk about how mature we are, so we should learn from it and we should be ready to bounce back Monday.”

Jon Octeus, senior, guard

On the team’s response to 10-12 point deficits…
“We just didn’t handle it. I think that a couple of the leaders on the team need to step up vocally when we get down like that. We just need to focus in when there’s time. When there’s 13 minutes on the clock and we’re down, there’s a lot of game left and we need to understand that.”