Jan. 10, 2009

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Notre Dame Head Coach Mike Brey Quotes

On the game against Seton Hall …
“I was concerned about Seton Hall with their speed and quickness off the dribble. That gave us trouble most of the game. I have a lot of respect for our group, finding a will to win when you’re up against a wall in a league game. For us to scratch it out and be 3-1 in the league, we’ll take that. We need to get refreshed real quick, because we have Louisville coming at us Monday night.

On the team taking advantage today …
I think that our guys understand when they can take advantage of a matchup or something struggling. Tory, the last two years, has done that. When he’s felt it, he’s gone for the jugular a little bit. Then, Kyle got going. Luke Zeller gave us some great stuff. In fact, I thought he was fabulous tonight. I thought he made some shots tonight, after not shooting it well Monday.

On Luke Harangody’s play …
“I hope you understand what we’re seeing here. This is a really, very special guy. Certainly, his motor kept us believing that whole second half.

On the keys to the game …
I hope we’re in a good rhythm there (from the free-throw line). That’s huge. That’s the first thing I mentioned to the guys. 28-32 from the line. I, also, think the keys were the two out-of-bounds plays we executed. An out-of-bounds under, where Harangody got a layup and a side out-of-bounds, where we swung the ball and Zeller stepped back for the three. Our attention to detail there was key. That gave us some breathing room to get away from them. I’m really pleased with our basketball IQ right there. We scratched and fought in the lane a little better in the second half than we did in the first half.

On Harangody’s maturity over the last year …
He missed some close ones there, and I actually sent Zeller in to get him during that stretch. Then, I came back to reality and said, ‘Go for Hillesland.’ I kept him in the game because, I thought, he’s a veteran, let him ride through this thing. He was getting good stuff and was getting every offensive rebound. The offensive rebounding clinic he put on during the second half … I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anything like that. It’s not like those guys were 6-3 and couldn’t jump. His will to chase down and get us other possessions were key. I do think that’s where he’s matured. He kind of laughs about it now instead of getting upset.

Notre Dame Player Quotes

Tory Jackson – Jr. – G

On having an early lead…
“We knew it was going to be tough and that they were going to come after it. [Jeremy] Hazell wasn’t on yet, so eventually something was going to happen and he started making plays and their team got confident and went on a run. We knew it was going to happen so we took it and then dished it out too.”

On stepping up…
“I didn’t want to go out there and take over, but I felt like I needed to do something to spark the team. I got a basket early and they tried to put the ball in and I felt like I could make a play, either steal it or force a travel, and I made him travel. Plays like that can really amp up a crowd and amp up the team and that’s what happened.”

On the team playing through Harangody not scoring for a stretch…
“We’re tough; Harangody, even though he went through that little draught, he came back and gave us big minutes. The ‘And-One’ [Harangody had] at the end was huge, we just have to find ways to score without him sometimes.”

On the two upcoming games (at Louisville and at Syracuse)…
“We’re very excited, they’re are two tough teams but that’s what the BIG EAST is about. Louisville is a great team and they played well today. We’re going to take it game-by-game. We have to be focused like we were the last two days and just take care of business.”

Luke Zeller – Sr. – F/C

On his impact against Seton Hall…
“I just come out and do my job, every day. I bring the team energy. We had to have someone on defense to make sure they’re not attacking our lane and I take that responsibility on my shoulders. We need to continue to work on rebounding and making sure we’re playing good defense. “

On tying Pittsburgh with the BIG EAST home winning streak of 20 games…
“I didn’t know we tied it. I don’t pay attention to that kind of stuff. It’s a bigger deal for us to play from game to game. That’s how we build a streak and that’s how we’re going to continue doing it. We always have to go out ready to play the next game and take each one as it comes, not looking too far ahead. We have the great support of our fans and that makes a huge difference.”

On the Saturday/Monday game schedule recurring frequently this season…
“I like playing basketball. I would play games every other day if I could. I have no complaints about the Saturday/Monday schedule whatsoever. I think a lot of us are like that. We’d rather be playing basketball everyday. “

Kyle McAlarney – Sr. – G

On making the most of his senior season…
“We’ve been told to cherish each and every game, each and every win. I don’t think it will hit us until after the season how much you love being around these guys. We will look at the things we’ve done after this season and be very proud of them. We are taking things one game at a time. We punched this one out, now we need to get ready to play Louisville away. “

On the impact of Luke Zeller against Seton Hall…
“Zeller’s impact is huge. Having him come in, hit shots and be tough down low is what we need him to do. He’s done that to the best of his ability. He has come out and played hard. He’s got the cool head that, as a senior, is very impressive. “

On expectations going into the Seton Hall game…
“We knew we weren’t going to blow Seton Hall out like last year. We did a good job of recognizing that we were not going to win by 20 or 30 points, but we’d need to grind it out and fight for this one.”

On the next eight games against very competitive teams…
“It’s going to be a lot of fun. We need to take it one game at a time. We flushed this one out and now right away we need to get ready for Louisville on Monday. It’s a road game. We have two road games ahead against top teams. It’s going to be a battle for us, game in and game out, but we just need to take it one game at a time.”

Seton Hall Head Coach Bobby Gonzalez

On today’s game…
“You almost have to play perfect basketball to beat them [Notre Dame]. I’m really proud of our kids; I thought we played exceptional today. We had a great game plan, we were quick off the dribble, we did a great job keeping Harangody down as much as we could, but he’s a remarkable player. I thought he was the difference in the second half.”

On Luke Harangody’s play today…
“What he [Harangody] does is get those offensive rebounds and he gets his team and himself those extra possessions that are back breakers for a team like us because we’re small. I thought that was the difference in the game.”

On his game plan for today…
“We thought there were only a couple areas where we had an advantage against Notre Dame. One was our foot speed and quickness so we tried to use that; we thought that when we got into a half court game that they would have match up issues. Also, if we could take away their transition points, we could stay in the game with them because we thought we could do a decent job rebounding with them, but that is not what happened.”