Dec. 22, 2010

Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery

Notre Dame Men’s Basketball
Notre Dame vs. UMBC
December 22, 2010
Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center – Notre Dame, Ind.
Notre Dame Head Coach Mike Brey

Opening Statement…
“I’m proud of these guys for getting through the non-league (schedule). I thought their concentration was really good. I thought tonight they were ready to play like they were coming out of exams. We continue to be unselfish, we played some guys in the last eleven minutes who haven’t played much in a game but who stayed in character and moved the ball. That’s a real trait of this group, the unselfishness.”

On tonight’s non-conference game…
“I think we’ve maxed out our experience pretty well. I’m very proud of how we handled our 12 non-league games. We’ve stayed focused, concentrated, and we’ve learned a lot. I still think we can get better, there are some areas we can improve, but we’ve put ourselves in a great position heading into league play.”

On areas the team can improve upon…
“I think we can improve upon rebounding, ball screens, coming up and defending ball screens – how we defend them. I think we need to help our group with getting different looks because it is going to come up a lot. Defending drivers, being mentally prepared to defend guys driving at our lane, even though the team we play next Wednesday is shooting the ball at a clip that leads the league. They’ve become a jump-shooting group and they’re shooting it really well, that being Georgetown. Those would be areas (we can improve), and really just staying in character.”

UMBC Head Coach Randy Monroe

On the loss to Notre Dame…
“I thought that we played a very good basketball team tonight. Notre Dame did a tremendous job of moving the basketball as well as sharing the basketball. They (Notre Dame) are a fun team to watch as a collective unit. They are a very good basketball team. (Notre Dame Head Coach) Mike Brey did a great job of preparing his players to play the game of basketball tonight. It might not have been fun being the opponent, but you can appreciate good teams.”

On the differences between Notre Dame and UCONN…
“Connecticut is driven by Kemba Walker. Kemba (Walker) is a tremendous talent as we all know. Connecticut feeds off of (Walker) whereas Notre Dame is a great all-around basketball team. They (Notre Dame) might not have a superstar, but they have good basketball players. A lot is to be said of Notre Dame’s record (11-1). Taking nothing away from UCONN, but this team is one of the better teams I have seen this year in terms of playing together. Notre Dame just has great balance from end to end.”

On moving forward…
“We have to go home and get ready to play our last non-league game against Niagara. As a group we are still trying to find ourselves. I still like this group and have seen some things in practice that shows we are getting better. We are doing a much better job of moving and sharing the basketball, although we did have a hard time of doing that earlier in the year. We will continue to work on our defense, particularly keeping the man in front of us. I told our guys in the locker room that we have to take some things away from this game and continue move forward.”