Feb. 24, 2008

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Notre Dame Head Coach Mike Brey

On the play of Notre Dame junior guard Kyle McAlarney
“What really impressed me were his teammates. They move themselves around to different areas and just find Kyle.”

On the play of the Notre Dame bench players…
“I am very proud of them. They really stepped up on defense. Ryan Ayers really stepped forward. He has done it in practice and he is starting to put it together. Jonathan Peoples has given us great energy lately.”

On the upcoming game against Louisville…
“They are playing as well as anyone in the league right now. They are athletic. It is going to be exciting to go down there and play them.”

Notre Dame Player Quotes

Sophomore Forward Luke Harangody
On their home win streak…
“When we are at home, we never think we will blow the lead. When we are down, we know that we will come back. This is a special place for us and we feed off of the energy that the crowd gives us. We come out with a strong performance every time.”

On the Big East and their competition…
“Syracuse is one of the top teams in the Big East. They just got a big win over Georgetown last week. We knew coming into this that they would put up a big fight, but we knew that we would have to win to have a chance at winning the Big East title.”

Junior Guard/Forward Ryan Ayers
On his change in coverage…

“I had to play post defense, when I am usually used to guarding on the perimeter. It was a change, and I think we did a good job. We were able to control Paul Harris and he was not able to get off too much on us”

On the reaction to his dunk…
“When I got the steal, I wanted to dunk it. I think it felt pretty good because everyone’s always getting on me saying I can’t dunk or do this or that, so they will lay off me for a couple weeks.

On winning the Big East title…
“We think about it a lot. Our goal is to win the Big East Championship. Even though we are one game back in the win column, we believe we can still do it. We are just going to keep playing with confidence and go on the road to play another good team.

Junior Guard Kyle McAlarney
On his shooting…
“When I’m shooting, my imagination just flows. I was thinking about the game and how they were playing in zone. I was really feeling confident.”

On his record-setting performance…
“I felt really confident tonight especially since they were in zone. The way we move the ball and how unselfish we play, I knew that my teammates were going to be able to hit me in open spots. I just took it when it was there and took what the defense gave me.

On beating Colin Falls’ record…
“I’m going to call Colin up today and rub it in his face. Colin told me at the beginning of the year I wasn’t going to beat his record.”

Sophomore Guard Tory Jackson
On his patience with the Syracuse’s zone defense…
“We worked on it [patience] in practice. They were going to wear down. They were young, very talented, but young. We moved it around a couple times and once we hit the high post we kind of ate them up.”

On McAlarney’s performance…
“He was shooting from back in New York so you can’t stop him out there. When he’s shooting like that it’s hard to stop him.”

Junior Forward Zach Hillesland
On playing against Syracuse’s zone…
“Syracuse is a very long team with a lot of long players. It’s a matter of ball faking and swinging it around and getting the flash to the high post instead of sitting there the whole time. As long as we get good movement as if they were guarding us man to man, we can attack it that way and have success like we did today.”

On the team’s response to Rob Kurz leaving the game…
“Our team is very poised and very confident so it’s just a matter of going out there and playing like there is fifteen minutes left in the game, while at the same time understanding trying to score and picking your spots.

Syracuse Player Quotes

Sophomore G/F Paul Harris

On what went wrong on defense and why Notre Dame got so many good looks…
“I think Notre Dame has some good shooters so it is kind of crazy to play zone. They can put 4 or 5 people out there who can shoot. It is kind of hard even in a man-to-man defense, but we got into foul trouble so we had to play zone.”

On the final three games and making a good showing in the BIG EAST Tournament to get a look at the NCAA Tournament…
“We just have to take it one game at a time. You don’t want to look too far down the road. You just take it one day at a time, one game at a time, and just see what happens.”

On what is needed to make the team efficient offensively and defensively…
“I don’t think our problem is offense at all. It is just straight defense. We have to learn how to stay out of foul trouble and we have to know how to guard people and we have to know who the shooters are. (We need to) remember that and don’t forget it.”

Syracuse Head Coach Jim Boeheim

On his team’s performance…
“We played better offensively than we’ve played for a while, but defensively we just couldn’t get any stops. We played about half zone, half man to man; it didn’t really matter. We couldn’t get any stops on the defensive end. We made a couple of bad turnovers, but overall, not bad. We missed thirteen lay-ups, ten in the second half, and in the end, I think that was the difference. I think it could have been really close if we’d had made some of our lay-ups.”

On Notre Dame…
“Notre Dame is a very good basketball team. Offensively they’re probably the best team in the league. They can score points. They’re very, very good. They’ve got a good inside game and a good outside game. We really couldn’t stop them with whatever defense we played today.”

On Paul Harris’ play…
“I thought he had a real good first half. In the second half they got up on him and started pressuring him. He kept shooting the jump shot when he should have been going by them and trying to make plays. He was very good in the first half, but in the second half he really, really struggled shooting the ball. He’s got to make plays in those situations.”

On Donte Greene’s play …
“Donte struggled and got in foul trouble. Donte has struggled shooting the ball for seven or eight games. Tonight, he just struggled. He rebounded pretty well, but with everything else he struggled. He’s struggled shooting the three, and he’s 6’9″ or 6’10”, it’s difficult for him to get by people. He’s got to learn to get by people. He’s a young player and he’s got a lot to learn about the game.”

On Johnny Flynn’s play …
“Johnny got some good looks. We need him to shoot the ball from the three-point line, and he just couldn’t get it down. We’ve got to find a way to get some shot. I thought Johnny got good looks. He’s got to shoot for us.”

On Kyle McAlarney
“He’s a tremendous shooter. We just did not do a good job of finding him or identifying him. He’s a tremendous shooter. You cannot give him those kind of looks.”

“He shot better than (former Syracuse guard) Gerry (McNamara), although Gerry always shot pretty good out here.”