Nov. 7, 2007
2007-2008 Notre Dame Men’s Basketball
Notre Dame vs. St. Edward’s
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Joyce Center – Notre Dame, IN
Notre Dame Head Coach Mike Brey
On the play of St. Edward’s
“First of all they’re a very good team. We’ve been able to play these Division II’s now; you saw Grand Valley against Michigan State last night. At times it had the makings of that. They made us play a little quick. I wish we could have been better with the basketball; 19 turnovers is not something we’re used to. But you know what was good about this exhibition was that in the second half they had game pressure on you. You had get the ball in the low post and run the half-court offense. It wasn’t just three-on-two, two-on-one like it was in the first exhibition. I think it’s something we can build on before we get started on Monday.”
On the intensity of the game
“I was saying during the second half, ‘This is a Big East game.’ Grinding, physical, guys knocking each other around. The key thing was that we made free throws. We got to the line and made free throws. We did a good job in the second half in half-court defense. We played better ‘position’ defense; we can get spread out too much. We did a good job tonight getting Luke Harangody low-post touches. The first exhibition was a full-court game; this became a half-court game.”
On the play of Tory Jackson and Kyle McAlarney
“The most frustrating thing for me was that in the first half they had seven turnovers between them. They’re better than that. I thought they did a better job handling the ball in the second half, and they did a good job getting the ball to the right people and then defending.”
On players’ frustration during the game
“Our backcourt has such a nice game, but they’re very hard on themselves. I tried to talk to them, telling them, ‘You can do that after the game, but in the midst of the game, when you get frustrated with yourself, it takes away from what we’re trying to do.’ I talked to Tory [Jackson] and Kyle [McAlarney] and told them to forget about the seven turnovers and that we could we watch the film tomorrow. I thought they reacted pretty well.”
On the improved play of Jonathan Peoples
“We were struggling and he came in and scored for us and made some plays for us at key times. I have been impressed with him at times, and he was our best guard in the first half. He can come off the bench, handle the ball, and make plays. He needs to commit himself to being a physical defender, which is still a work in progress. He makes himself very valuable.”
On the upcoming games
“We have four games in a week. We need to get off to a good start here on Monday. Hopefully we’ll have a great crowd; I anticipate that. Then we go down to the Virgin Islands where we get to play for a championship. We play a Monmouth team that will ‘Princeton’ you and shoot a lot of threes. That will be a great challenge for us. People will know a lot about our basketball team when we get back from there with four games under our belt in seven days.”
2007-08 Notre Dame Men’s Basketball
Notre Dame vs. St. Edwards (Texas) – exhibition
November 7, 2007 o Joyce Center (Notre Dame, Ind.)
NOTRE DAME PLAYER QUOTES
Sophomore Forward Luke Harangody
On his unexpected twenty-six minutes of playing time
“We talked about what ever happened, happened. If I got into the game I would stay in there longer. I was able to get into the flow of the game.”
On his improved physical condition
“Wow, it felt good to get up and down the court, especially being a little faster than last year. I felt good at the end of the game. I think last year I may not have been that quick or that explosive. That’s why I feel better, I feel faster.”
On seeing playing time early in the game
“It was really good to get out tonight, get the jitters out and get into the flow of things. I was able to get some confidence. It was really nice to play tonight.”
Senior Forward Rob Kurz
On St. Edwards, Division II team, coming to play at Notre Dame…
“Sometimes these teams are just playing to play. They aren’t going to play together, except for a few games. That team tonight was a good team; they’ve got a lot to play for this season. They’re going to be a good Division II team. Getting to play at a Division I school is a good thing for them. They did a great job; they have a lot of hope.”
On Findlay beating Ohio State
“I think everybody notices something like that. You know anytime you step onto the court, either Division I or Division II or III, in college basketball, they are all good teams. And that was a really good team tonight.”
Junior Guard Kyle McAlarney On Notre Dame’s first half play
“I don’t think we were on our game yet; we weren’t passing the ball well and our defense wasn’t great and we weren’t boxing out too well. So we came in at half time and talked a lot about that; we needed to step it up. In the second half we had to bring our game. They were a good team and put a lot of pressure on us. We had to stick it out and stay focused.”
On Luke Harangody’s play
“He is such a good guy to throw into the post. We tried to do that in the second half. He’s so strong at the post. I kept telling him, ‘I’m going to get you the ball. You’ve gotta get in there and be ready for it. We’ll get it to you.’ It’s a great release for us. We can throw it into him and we know he’s able to score. It’s a good feeling to have him down there. He just plays so hard. He’ll get us extra possessions.”