Feb. 24, 2013

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Cincinnati Player Quotes

Sean Kilpatrick o RS-Junior o Guard/Forward

On being double-teamed…
“I don’t blame them. I would do the exact same thing. There are a lot of things that have got to be changed because this season is going down the drain.”

On NCAA tournament chances…
“I don’t think about it at all. We’ve just got to take it a game at a time. We’ve got to focus on getting the win first before we can worry about the tournament.”

JaQuon Parker o Senior o Guard

On today’s game…
“We got beat, beat real bad. We made a nice little run in the second half, but we started giving up threes. And then they just changed the whole thing, which negated all our hard work.”

On losing five of six…
“It’s tough on the locker room, after coming from the Sweet 16 and starting to feel like a winning culture around our school, and then coming and losing five straight. It’s time to turn it around.”

On turning the team around…
“We’ve got to listen to coach. We have to do whatever he says. I think we’ve got to listen more, and do more of what he says. We need to pay attention.”

On Sean Kilpatrick and Cashmere Wright being held to six points…
“Holding them to six points, you would never think that would happen, really. Other people have just got to step up.”

Notre Dame Head Coach Mike Brey

Opening comments…
“I am very pleased and excited about our defensive and rebounding identity. We have done a great job for two games in a row. I think we did a great job of staying in front of people that wanted to beat us off of the dribble. We did a great job of keeping them to one-and-done. We were able to add that to 40 minutes of really good offensive efficiency, which gave us a great team win. Our big guys played very well today. Cam Biedscheid gave us great minutes off the bench. Maybe we are starting to find our identity on the defensive side of the floor.”

On when the rebounding mindset changed…
“When our four big guys are flying around like that and Pat Connaughton is in the game too, we should be able to rebound like that. Our perimeter did a great job of not getting beat off the dribble, so our bigs never had to get out of position. They could stay home, block out, and keep it to one-and-done.”

On how his team is able to avoid getting beat off the dribble…
“I think we have a lot of guys that can really move their feet. But we are also smart. We wanted to keep them off of the baseline. They are good baseline drivers. Eric Atkins and Jerian Grant can move their feet with anybody, and I think Pat Connaughton has made great progress.”

On limiting Cincinnati’s three-point shooting…
“They made nine on us when we played down there. We know if they make threes, it is going to be interesting. Today we did a great job guarding the perimeter. We defended ball screens very well. They could never really get going offensively, and I think our body positioning was great. They are in a tough situation right now because Cashmere Wright is not completely healthy. But we are just good at digesting the scouting report. We knew we couldn’t let them get going from three.”

On having six days off…
“It helped. But I think it also had us chomping at the bit to compete. We were a little wacky to compete, and I love that. I was wacky because we hadn’t played in six days. Our guys were a little like that too. We are going to have to break this week up. We can scrimmage on Wednesday, but I think there is some great practice stuff we can do before we head to Milwaukee.”

On having a team that prides itself on toughness…
“It is interesting. It is easy to say that when we are playing four big guys. When your four man is more of a step out guy and not a physical banger, you’re going to be a little limited in how physical you can be. We have four big guys that can really screen and block out. If one fouls out, it is no problem. All four of them played very well today.”

On how Jerian Grant and Eric Atkins were able to play so well today…
“I think they are confident against those guys. I think they are very confident in the way that they are playing. I think Monday night gave us a big confidence boost. I also think they are feeling good because it is getting to be time. Those two guys love big games. They love when the lights are bright. They deliver. They know March is right around the corner, and they also know that we are in the hunt for a title. They are excited about that.”

Notre Dame Player Quotes

Jerian Grant o Junior o Guard

On the team’s success in the second half…
“I think it was all on our defense. I feel like they didn’t score sometimes for three or four minute stretches because we would get three or four stops in a row and one or two threes to go on a 10-0 run. Getting defensive stops was what did it.”

On how the team defended Cincinnati guard Sean Kilpatrick…
“The important thing for us was running him off the three-point line-about seventy percent of his shots are threes, so we forced him into tough twos in order to stop him.”

On the rebounding performance…
“Usually we don’t play with two big guys, and now we’re playing with guys that are 6-9 and 6-10. The way Jack Cooley rebounds and the way Tom Knight is developing is really good for us.”

Eric Atkins o Junior o Guard

On the guards’ performance in the back court this afternoon…
“This is a big time match-up for us, they’re a highly touted back court, and Jerian and I just come into the game wanting to win those type of battles against some of the top back-courts in the country. I think we did a good job shutting them down.”

On the rebounding battle…
“It’s huge-if we can really control the backboard like that I think we’re going to win every single game so we just need to keep that up.”

On the evolution of the team’s defensive identity…
“I think it’s stemming from the offensive side of the ball. We’re really screening better, we’re really causing more contact, and defensively we’re just trying to stay tough and beat people up on the boards. I think that has been our main focus since we started this new line-up.”

On the school records the team set today…
“I’m just glad we came out of here with another win. It was honestly in a very impressive fashion, so I’m proud of my team today. The offensive side of the ball is always going to come-sometimes we don’t look as smooth, sometimes we rush a little bit-but what was impressive was that we just kept getting back and defending every single time.

On shutting down Cincinnati’s scoring opportunities…
“Seeing another team go through the struggles that we sometimes go through is nice, especially when we’re scoring on the other end, so it feels good.”

On staying focused…
“This veteran group has just fought through some struggles earlier in the season and we’re just going game by game to pick up another win. Our goal coming into the season was to be where we are right now, and with this nucleus, we can keep doing well.”

Jack Cooley o Senior o Forward

On the game in general…
“It’s great to see that so many people are getting time and Scott [Martin] is going to come back sometime soon. We’re really deep now.”

On playing with Tom Knight…
“Having Tom with you, how he crashes the board and his movement away from when I have the ball, is phenomenal. He knows exactly where to go or where we can find each other. The majority of my assists are to him so it’s great to see him out there.”

On the team’s defensive performance…
“I think it came from the coaching staff and also stemmed from the players ourselves. It’s so difficult to go up to seventy points every game and beat teams by six, so it’s a lot easier to lock in on our defense, shut teams down, and take it upon ourselves to not let our man score-that’s what we did really well today.”

On rebounding today…
“Yes, we were just rebounding the heck out of the ball. Zach Auguste came in and got eight in the first half, which is just extremely impressive. Rebounding is just so huge in order to win.”

Pat Connaughton o Sophomore o Guard/Forward

On the game in general…
“Huge win. We wanted to make sure we came out and got another league win. That’s what it’s all about.”

On what they did to play against Cincinnati…
“I think we played very good defense. I think that was one thing we focused on, defense and rebounding. When we’re tough like that. It’s tough to beat us.”

On today’s offense…
“Coach has been on me to shoot when I’m open more. He got on me a few times today when I had an open shot and passed it up, but I think it’s just a matter of shooting when I’m open and trying to make the best play for the team which is what I’m trying to do.”

On having three more games left in the BIG EAST…
“I think we just need to continue to stay focused. We get excited for big games and that’s something that we have down the stretch. So it’s something that we should be up for the challenge for.”

On what the team is focusing on…
“We focus on our toughness. We focus on things we can control and that’s defense, rebounding, guarding our guy, one on one and stuff like that. We know our offense will come. We have guys who can score. We have guys who can shoot. It’s really just focusing on the defensive side of things, and the offense should take care of itself.”

Tom Knight o Senior o Forward

On the game in general…
“I mean, coming in we knew, after a couple rough patches, we needed to get as many wins as we can so we could look forward and keep improving. We’re playing our best basketball at the end of the game, at the end of the season. We just tried to play really well today, and we came out and did that. It’s something to build on and it’s a great time to do it.”

On the start of today’s game…
“Coming out this game, we hit a few shots and we were like, ‘OK we’re in our groove. We’re back. Let’s keep this going. Let’s keep building off of it.'”