March 18, 2009

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2009 National Invitation Tournament Post-Game Quotes
Notre Dame vs. UAB
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 * Joyce Center * Notre Dame, Indiana

Notre Dame Quotes

Head Coach Mike Brey

On the game…
“I thought we executed some offensive sets at key times. Kyle getting the ball to Gody at two sets at key times, and then we made free throws. We’re thrilled that we get to play on Thursday. We beat a good team tonight and we’re thrilled we get to play again.”

On the rest of the Tournament…
“I think we were ready to go. We got off to a good start. This group is excited to keep playing basketball. The opportunity to maybe go back to New York City was something we talked about after the West Virginia game. That won’t be easy because our bracket is very difficult.”

On mental toughness…
“The mental toughness of this team I’m never really worried about. They really didn’t flinch in that time-out when we talked about it. I thought they came out and really reacted well, and then really defended the rest of the game excellently. The things we’ve been though have been mentally tough, so we don’t worry about many things.”

On the home crowd…
“Our crowd really helped us tonight. It’s a quick turn around. It’s nine o’clock on St. Patrick’s Day; I understand that. Our crowd will be much fuller on Thursday. Our students were great and the people that were there gave us energy. We had a home court advantage tonight even though there wasn’t 11, 400 in there. They were great.”

On forcing turnovers…
“We double-teamed some ball screens and actually forced some turnovers that helped us. We’ve not been a team that is able to force turnovers; that’s not been our forte. Ryan [Ayers] is a guy who probably leads us in deflections. He gets more deflections and gets his hands on balls with his length. And that was a big one.”

Senior Forward Luke Harangody

On the crowd…
“It was something unusual. We knew there wasn’t going to be a big crowd, with the quick turn-around and St. Patrick’s Day. We were expecting that. But as the game went on, it felt more and more like a BIG EAST game. The crowd got loud, and like coach said, they were our sixth man. Definitely down the stretch in some key parts of the game they really came through for us. It got pretty loud in there. There weren’t a lot of people, but the people who were there made some noise. It was great.”

On approaching the game…
“We were pretty loose coming into it. We always have the goal to get back to New York, so I think we took it serious. You saw that out there tonight, and we have to do the same thing Thursday.”

On the tournament providing motivation…
“I think it does, especially for our seniors to play another home game on Thursday, that’s great for them. They’re looking to fight every game. They want to keep playing. Everybody on the team wants to keep playing. We’re just excited to be out here.”

Junior Guard Tory Jackson

On UAB making a run in the second half…
“With it being college basketball, you know they’re going to make a run. But we stayed tough, we took the punches. Once we made a couple runs, they got frustrated.”

UAB Quotes

Head Coach Mike Davis

On the game…
“We’re very disappointed. But our guys fought hard, and that’s all you can ask of the team, to fight and play hard. We did that. I’m just disappointed for our seniors, that’s the main thing.”

On the early second half run…
“We got good looks. A couple of times we shot too quick, instead of making a run we went 0-4, we missed free throws, but we got great looks.”

On an alleged non-call in the second half…
“I’ve never seen a guy shoot a basketball where it goes straight up. It’s usually going to be too long or two short, but not straight up. But that wasn’t the call that cost us the game, trust me.”

On the momentum shift in the second half…
We missed free throws. On the transition we had the numbers and we turned it over. We had every opportunity at the end, but we just came up short.

Senior Guard Paul Delaney III

On the game…
“It’s very difficult. It’s my last game in a UAB uniform. We had a chance to run away with it, but instead [Notre Dame] they got back in it and eventually won it.”

Senior Guard/Forward Robert Vaden

On the game…
“I’m disappointed that we had to come all the way up here and lose a tough one, the same way we’ve been losing a lot of them this year. We fought hard, but we just came up short. I don’t know what else to say about it.”