Dec. 19, 2011

Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery

Notre Dame Men’s Basketball
Notre Dame vs. Sacred Heart
December 19, 2011
Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center – Notre Dame, Ind.

Notre Dame Head Coach Mike Brey

On the offensive difference between tonight’s play and play against Indiana….
“I think we are always in a good rhythm here [in Purcell Pavilion]. I love that, and I couldn’t care less about the rhythm on the road right now. I would just like to see if we can maintain this rhythm at home. I think our guys are happy to be back here, it’s a place we feel good offensively. I hope we can maintain that because it’s going to be an important thing to have for this team over the next three months.”

On Scott Martin’s play…
“He only played 23 minutes. He’s probably mad at me. I’m not worried about him getting 30 [points a game], but I think that those mid-range shots in the lane are things that he gets for us, and I like the fact that we have some other guys scoring. I thought Jerian [Grant], Alex [Dragicevich], Eric [Atkins], and Pat [Connaughton] hunted for their shot more. Not enough for me yet. We can’t have those guys turn shots down, and we’re still evolving in that area.”

On the formation of ‘roles’ on the team…
“I don’t think we’ll have all of the questions answered until we are going to the BIG EAST tournament. I think that we are going to be figuring it out on the fly for two months. I do like the lineup we have now because I think it can score for us early, it can get out of the gate for us, especially if Jerian [Grant], Alex [Dragicevich], and Eric [Atkins] hunt their stuff and we let them make plays. I think there will be a bit of a revolving door at times. I think Joey [Brooks] gives us a lift in this building. He’s a guy who is the epitome of someone who is confident offensively in this building, and that’s a good thing to have right now. I think we’ll keep learning things as we move through this [season].”

Notre Dame Player Quotes

Jack Cooley – Jr. – Forward

On the team’s confidence with everyone who played scoring points…
“Oh yeah, I mean everyone loves scoring. It was really good for (Patrick) Crowley to go out there and score and be a beast like that. It just helps everyone. (emotionally) Everyone is happy and feeds off of one another’s scoring, so it was good.”

On the difference offensively from the Indiana game…
“It was good to get in the flow (of our offense) and play our offense a little more, instead of having to pick our spots and choose plays. It was good to just go out there and play basketball-get a rhythm and a flow and help us score more.”

Jerian Grant – So. – Guard

On shooting at home…
“The stats don’t lie. We definitely knock down more shots and more three-pointers at home where we are more comfortable playing our basketball in front of our crowd.”

On the stats…
“I think we had 25 assists and 4 turnovers. That’s our game, passing the ball around; catching shoots, getting open looks, penetrating and dishing. I think that is really going to help us throughout the BIG EAST schedule.”

Eric Atkins – So. – Guard

On his nine assists…
“I try to pride myself with a high assist marks. Jack has been playing really well so to get him going and to get him confident going into the BIG EAST schedule is really big for us.”

On building confidence going into the BIG EAST schedule…
“This game let us get our confidence up before the Big East starts because every game is a big game from here on out. We got a big win and got out of here and are ready for Pittsburgh.”

Joey Brooks – Jr. – Guard

On worrying about being on the starting lineup…
“There’s really not much I can do. I try to have fun and just play the game. If you think about all that other stuff it will really drive you crazy, so I don’t even pay any attention to it. I just play until my number’s called and if it’s not called, I just cheer my teammates on.”

On keeping focused during the game…
“We just paid more attention, especially at the end of the first half. It felt like we were kind of sleepwalking, and then we woke up. When the BIG EAST starts, we have to pay attention to detail, that intent to finish and if we don’t we’re going to get beat. We have to understand that. We can’t wait until halfway through the season to understand that. We have to understand that right away. “

Sacred Heart Head Coach Dave Bike

Opening Statement…
“I told Mike (Brey) after the game I’m going to root for you guys. I said, ‘I hope we jump started a lot of what is ahead of you in the future.’ From our standpoint I am disappointed in our performance. If some good can come out of it I hope Notre Dame can catch fire and play well the rest of the way. You look good making shots and we made a few and the kid had a pretty good first half for us, (Shane) Gibson. You don’t look good when the other team is making a good percentage and you’re not stopping them. The only way we stopped a few is when we fouled them. That is somewhat of our Achilles heel and I’m disappointed in that and we have to figure out a way, which we have been struggling with the last few years. We’ve got to get better defensively.”

On what happened after getting the lead…
“All we had to do is score 49 points and we would have been ahead for the half. Too tough of a job; 37 is good, but if you’re shooting and their shooting and making them it’s too tough of a job. So you’ve got to stop some people at sometime and they (Notre Dame) made moves. We’ve got to play better defense. They did what they wanted. Notre Dame is only averaging 10 turnovers a game and they helped their average by a lot. They only turned the ball over four times. We couldn’t slow them down at all and they are good at that. They were better than us.”