Jan. 6, 2008

Recap | Box Score | Photo Gallery

Head Coach Mike Brey
On the second half of game…
“That was one of the most physical second halves that I’ve seen here. But you know what, it was the crowd. They were our sixth man tonight. Rob Kurz said at the end of the game ‘Coach the fans gave us that extra boost tonight.'”

On the team’s effort down the stretch…
“There were a few possessions at the end of the game where we needed to get a basket or get a rebound and we did that. I think in this game we showed that we’ve gotten older and more mature as a team.”

On switching from the zone to man to man…
“Points were few and far between in this game so we had to make sure that we didn’t allow them to sit back and take three’s on the zone.”

On the injury to Tory Jackson…
“He (Tory) looked like he had just been in a heavyweight fight. It wasn’t a dirty play. It was a clean play, but it was just a hard hit.”

Notre Dame Player Quotes

Sophomore Forward Luke Harangody
On defense…
“We came out in the second half and we battled like Coach Brey talked about. It’s a BIG EAST win and a scrappy win.”

On the upcoming game against Marquette…
“They are a great team and a top ten team and going into their place is going to be a tough battle and we are going to have a good week of practice.”

Sophomore Guard Tory Jackson
On why he stayed in the game…
“I felt like my team needed me and I couldn’t go out like that. A lot of big time players that is what they do, they fight through pain. They fight through injuries. If I could see out of one eye I felt like I could play.”

On Kyle McAlarney…
“I take my hat off to him, picking me up when I needed it.”

Junior Guard Kyle McAlarney
On his shooting…
“I used my legs a lot in my shot and when my legs go my shot kind of goes and I learned that rest is good and I actually did that the past few days. When you hit a few early then you feel good the rest of the game, you get in a great rhythm and you want the ball.”

On playing with Jackson…
“He’s great to play with and I hope he feels the same way about me. I said to him lets show everyone why we are the best backcourt in the BIG EAST. I really feel that way and I believe it.”

Senior Forward Rob Kurz
On getting rest after this week…
“It’s been a great week but taking a few days off for rest will be good for us before we have to go to Marquette. That will be another challenge for us. We can get our legs back and get ourselves physically and mentally recharged.”

Connecticut Quotes

Head Coach Jim Calhoun
On his team’s performance…
“The kids had a right to wear a Connecticut jersey tonight because when you’re down 21 on the road, it’s difficult to take the lead. Once we got that, we didn’t run out of gas on the comeback but we did stop executing.”

On how his team can improve…
“Until they learn that they have to play 40 minutes, we’re just an okay team.”

On execution down the stretch…
“Winning the two games is good but we had a chance to win the game tonight. When they were at 57 for those three or four minutes, we did not execute one single play…you’ve got to execute.”

Connecticut Players

Sophomore Center Hasheem Thabeet
On the slow start…
“We started pretty slow so we had to talk to each other and make sure we took good shots and played the best defense we could.”

On what he learned…
“This game tells us that next time, if we start well, we can do anything. We could win the game, but when we start slow, this is what happens.”

Sophomore Guard Jerome Dyson
On guarding Kyle McAlarney…
“It was hard to find him (McAlarney). His release was quick and he’s always looking for his shot. That’s really all he was looking to do. He wasn’t looking to go to the basket at all, just looking for that quick shot.”

On coming back from being down…
“We can always take pride in being able to come back from 23 points down. That’s a good thing, but that’s somewhere we don’t want to be because we use too much energy to fight back and then we don’t have enough for the end of the game.”