Jan. 24, 2009
2009 Notre Dame Men’s Basketball Post-Game Quotes
Notre Dame vs. Connecticut
Saturday January 24, 2009*Joyce Center*Notre Dame Indiana
Notre Dame Head Coach Mike Brey
On the end of the streak…
“It is kind of hard to say congratulations after a night like this. I am kind of glad it is over. At 3-4 in the league we want to see if we can get a split this weekend. We are certainly proud to hold the all-time BIG EAST record at 20 with Pittsburgh, we have been pretty consistent.”
On the upcoming game with Marquette…
“Monday comes and we will be ready. You lose three in a row and you have to start searching. Our goal is to win fourteen league games and that is going to be really hard.”
On the atmosphere before and during the game…
“Our fans gave us every opportunity and I am sorry we couldn’t give them more because the energy in the building and the all day build up was fabulous. I have never seen anything like it. I hope they bring it back Monday.”
Notre Dame Player Quotes
Kyle McAlarney – Sr.- G
On Notre Dame’s missing a string of shots in the second half…
“I didn’t feel any sense of panic. We missed a few shots and then we didn’t defend those possessions. Those possessions really hurt us and that was the start of the fall tonight. I know I had some great looks. That’s the way it goes. You just have to keep shooting.”
On the end of Notre Dame’s home winning streak…
“Maybe it’s a good thing the streak is over, so nobody will talk about it anymore. We need to put tonight behind us and just focus on the upcoming game. It’s going to be tough but we’ve done a good job facing back-to-back teams on a weekend, so we’ll be bouncing back and facing that next team.”
On Notre Dame’s biggest concern about the loss to Connecticut…
“We’re 3 losses in a row in the BIG EAST, that’s what everyone’s focusing on right now in this locker room. We need to win. It’s tough because that’s the way the league goes. At home, this is our place. We had the record going and this hurts.”
On the benefits of playing at home
“We defend better at home. We defended well tonight and that’s something we can look at and build on for Monday. We can still look at this place and be confident here. We have one loss in two years. I don’t think we should take this like it’s the end of the world.”
Ryan Ayers – Sr. – G
On the end of Notre Dame’s winning streak…
“Now the pressure’s off in a way, and we can bounce back on Monday against Marquette. Now we don’t have to talk about the winning streak any more, in that way maybe it’s good for us. We have our backs against the wall. “
On losing at home…
“We want to win every game. That’s what you play for, and unfortunately we didn’t do that tonight. It’s off our back now, we need to stay hungry and go after it.”
Tory Jackson – Jr. – G
On his disappointment with the loss…
“I’m so angry we disappointed our fans tonight. I hope they come out Monday. We have to get things going again. When we miss open shots it hurts, but we came back defensively. That’s why we lost other games, we would play well offensively but not defensively. We are going to continue playing great defense. The shots that we miss are the easy shots we usually make in every game.”
On his block against Connecticut…
“That was an “angry” block. It was something I did to spark my team, and it did. “
Luke Harangody – Jr. – F
On his thoughts on how he played…
“We got great looks, but we just couldn’t hit them, myself included and that’s going to happen. All the credit goes to Connecticut, they came in here to win. It was a crazy atmosphere, the students were great, the fans were great, but we just couldn’t hit the shots.”
On the winning streak being over…
“Now we don’t have to worry about it anymore. We have to just concentrate on our next win.”
On the slump in the second half…
“You know, I don’t know. It’s not like we were shooting contested shots. I can remember a ton of great looks. There’s going to be nights like this. Think about this one tonight, forget about it tomorrow.”
On playing for the fans…
“Towards the end of the game we could sense that the win was out of reach. But the atmosphere was great and the students were great. This is one of the best places to play, I’m just sorry we couldn’t give everyone a better game.”
On Responsibility…
“Toward the end of the game, it was desperation time. I thought we got pretty good looks throughout the game.”
Zach Hillesland – Sr. – F
On the game overall…
“For the most part we did a pretty good job on defense, which was a step forward. But on the offensive end, our shots weren’t falling. When you play that way offensively it’ll be hard to beat a good Connecticut team. They caught us on a cold night.”
Offensively…
“I just think our shots weren’t falling. We have some of the best shooters I’ve seen and they took shots today that they usually knock down. Hopefully we’ll get those looks on Monday.”
On the streak being over…
“Now we have a clean slate. We really have nothing to protect anymore. We’ve lost 3 in a row and we need to concentrate on getting out of this slump. It’s going to take another step forward on the defensive end. We have to be strong offensively for 40 minutes.”
Connecticut Head Coach Jim Calhoun
On the outcome of the game…
“I couldn’t be happier in the fact that we really ran offensively well early and okay late because we kept running. And our goal was to run every play even if we didn’t score just to try to accelerate pace. And I think on (Kyle) McAlarney particularly, we tried to deny him the ball and made it so that anytime he tried to get the basketball, he would have to work really hard.”
On Luke Harangody’s play…
“I told Luke Harangody in line that he’s as tough and good as everyone has always said he was and as Hasheem and all of us at Conneticut think he is. He is a tremendous competitor. One of his threes was in McAlarney range. He just competes.”
On his team’s performance…
“I couldn’t be prouder of my team because we won by staying together and playing defense. I only had to call one timeout because we weren’t communicating and we were a little upset. That timeout had nothing to do with shooting, purely with staying together.”
On Hasheem Thabeet’s game…
“Hasheem’s effort may not show up in five blocked shots, but in terrific players missing shots they usually make in point blank range. His presence does that to you. He was just important to have in the game because every time Jackson or somebody penetrated, they were looking for him.”
On contribution from the bench…
“Gavin was a sensation. In a space game, that’s where he’s good. He was terrific tonight. Kemba gives you more and Craig is the veteran. He came up to me and said, ‘Coach, I really let you down tonight with my foul shooting.’ And I told him that his defense on McAlarney was irreplaceable.”
On team’s composure…
“I don’t think that it was composure that was our problem in the first half. I think it was excitement. The fact that we had 14 threes and they were only at 10 told me that. That’s not our game. Not when you have Hasheem and Jeff. I do think that we had the necessary composure. The crowd made it just an exciting event. And as a competitor you just can’t wait to get into that game. The advantage we have is Hasheem defensively but I think that Notre Dame is a great team.”
ConnecticutPlayer Quotes
A. J. Price – Sr. – G
On taking control of the game after Notre Dame cut the lead to two in the second half…
“That little run actually made us tougher. They cut the lead to two, and we called a timeout. A couple guys said what they had to say to each other and got everything off their chests. The next second we were like, ‘Let’s go, let’s do what we have to do to get the lead back and win this game.’ We went out there and executed. We played defense, we got stops, and we got rebounds. We did everything we needed to do to win the game.”
On the play of Jeff Adrien, who had a career-high 19 rebounds…
“He’s been everything to our team lately. He gives us senior leadership, and he’s the steadiest guy I’ve ever played with. That really says it all. He was all over the glass tonight. At 6-7, he’s just an animal and he gets every rebound.”
Gavin Edwards – Jr. – F
On the play of UConn’s bench players…
“That was really crucial. It allowed everybody to stay pretty fresh. That helps our coach too, because he knows he can switch people in and out comfortably without worrying about having to get the starters back in.”
Hasheem Thabeet – Jr. – C
On playing well on the road this year…
“Every game we know we are going to face a different type of challenge. We talk to each other to make sure we are ready to play well right from the start. We were able to do that today and get a win.”
On the contribution from the bench…
“Marvelous. Just marvelous. We are always looking for guys to play well off of the bench. Today nobody was in foul trouble. We came out today just wanting to get this win. People will be talking about this one for a while.”
On closing out the game…
“The whole team helped us to get the win. We were able to get a lot of big stops at the end. The last five minutes of the game they could not score. We tried to lock down on Tory Jackson because he makes so many great plays. Luke (Harangody) kept shooting and we just tried to make him take tough shots.”
On the matchup against Luke Harangody…
“We talked some after the game. He was more experienced than me last year. Playing against Roy Hibbert and all of the other guys last year really helped me. I don’t go out and say that Luke is not going to score today. If someone gets beat in the post, I’ll go over and help, and if someone beats me, Jeff (Adrien) is there to help.”
Jerome Dyson – Jr. – G
On preparing for this game…
“We knew almost all of the plays that they were going to run, and we practiced them a lot in practice.”
On ending Notre Dame’s 45-game home winning streak…
“It feels good. We knew that we just had to make sure that we didn’t let this be a “crowd” game. At the end, defensive stops were the key. We were giving up a lot of easy buckets during their run in the second half. We just got together and said that we had to protect the middle, and that if they were going to score, it was going to be from outside.”