Feb. 13, 2016
Recap | Box Score | USATSI Gallery 
POSTGAME QUOTES
Notre Dame 71 (18-7, 9-4 ACC), #13 Louisville 66 (19-6, 8-4 ACC)
February 13, 2016
Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center Notre Dame, Ind.
Mike Brey, Notre Dame Head Coach
Opening statement…
“I told the team on Thursday, as we got ready for this matchup, that so much would be made of the bestoffense in the league  us  against the best defense in the league. I said that at the end of the game I wouldreally like the story to be about our defense. I would love to come off the floor at 6 o’clock and talk about ourdefense being the difference. In the second half, to hold them to 20 points and to rebound the way we did,was the key to the game. One thing we really have developed in the last week is an amazing will to win. Wereally have some fearless guys and it comes at just the right time with March around the corner.”
On the play of his guards…
“My two guys today were fabulous, Demetrius [Jackson] was off the charts. I don’t know why he isn’tmentioned for player of the year in our league more, he didn’t make the Wooden  I know I already ventedabout that  but he’s a player of the year candidate. He is in the position to chase down a regular seasonchampionship, especially with what he has done for our team. Steve Vasturia is just fabulous in the clutch.”
On winning the rebound battle against both UNC and Louisville…
“The way Bonzie [Colson] and Zach [Auguste] have been playing, how physical and how tough they havebeen, I shouldn’t be surprised. They have such a great will. Right now they are really taking on other frontlines and putting in on them. They are a little bit of a tag team. Bonzie was at the radio show on Thursday,and I said ‘you guys are like the Bash Bros 2.’ They are just going after people and eating people up. Bonzieis talking to other coaches and getting them pissed off and he has a couple intentional fouls. These guys justplay, they compete. I’d rather calm them down than light a fire under them.”
On halftime speech…
“I said we were in bad shape last Saturday, and I don’t think we are in as bad of shape this Saturday. Buttonight you will have to guard to win the game.”
On the crowd…
“When we are guarding in the second half and we have our 6th man back there, the students being loud, itcreates a great atmosphere to help you defensively. You really never feel tired and begin to believe. Ourcrowd has been outstanding the past two home games. They make us believe that we can come back andwin.”
On leadership…
“One of the things I wasn’t sure about, but I am really proud of, is our leadership going into the season. Thejob those four guys are doing, setting the tone and running the team, makes me so pleased. The two guysthat we lost [Jerian Grant and Pat Connaughton] who were sitting across from me tonight, it was nice to lookup and see them sitting over there. They did an unbelievable job. This group is doing as good a job. I didn’tknow if I would be able to say that this year and that is what I am so proud of.”
Notre Dame Players
Zach Auguste, Senior Forward
On his perspective of where the season has turned….
“We’re happy with where we are at. We’re confident and excited about what’s going on. We don’t getoverÂanxious or overÂexcited. We take it game by game, and we prepare ourselves.”
On being down double digits…
“We’ve been in that position before. We can’t put our heads down. We had to continue to charge and go fullsteam. It gets a little bit easier to succeed every time. And we’ll continue to go with it.”
On the improvement of rebounding between halves…
“We weren’t in a great position in the first half. We were a little bit lackadaisical offensively and defensively.Bonzie and I had to take responsibility in the second half to make sure that we had second opportunities andthat we were aggressive on both ends of the floor. We love to go out and compete on the highest level.”
Steve Vasturia, Junior Guard
On home court advantage…
“The fans gave us a huge boost. We have a lot of confidence when we are at home. All season no matterhow far we’ve been down, we’ve been able to bounce back.”
On difference between first and second half…
“Our defense was definitely the difference. You have to play defense if you really want to win. We reallymade an effort to get stops. And we had our offense do what we normally do in the second half.”
On the team improving defensively…
“When you want to be a great team, you have to be good on both ends of the court. We’ve gotten betterevery single game on defense. When we really needed a stop today, we got it.”
Demetrius Jackson, Junior Guard
On the defensive play…
“We forced some tougher shots, we forced them to miss some shots, and they are great players over there.They’ve got some capable shot makers and we forced them to make some difficult shots, and got some bigdefensive rebounds which ZA [Zach Auguste] did a lot of today.”
On his and Steve’s performance in the backcourt…
“We were just attacking and going downhill, trying to create for ourselves and for others. With that zone andwith their defense we had a lot of opportunities to attack. We just wanted to take advantage of that and notbe passive; we just stayed within ourselves and played a hard game with getting to the bucket andattacking.”
On getting another big win at home…
“I think we’re just gradually getting better. We really developed a tough mentality, especially in the last mediatimeout, we really talked about being mentally tough and pulling it out. That’s what it takes sometimes to winthe game.”
On his 3 ball…
“I think I shot myself into it. I actually air balled a couple in shoot around today and I didn’t know I was goingto go for it. I was just stepping up confidently in rhythm, just trying to shoot shots, and just finding areas tohelp myself and do one for my team.”
Rick Pitino, Louisville Head Coach
Opening statement…
“It was a tale of two halves. You have to give Notre Dame a lot of credit. They played a great second half,and we played a great first half. I thought defense was really good the first half and then not good in thesecond half. One of the problems with young players is that when your shot’s not going down, you don’t playgreat defense. We had a few bad breaks in the game, and they took advantage of it. I give them a lot ofcredit.”
On Demetrius Jackson and Steve Vasturia as opposing guards…
“Demetrius is very tough. We did a good job in the first half of trapping him, and then for some reason, weswitched in the second half which really cost us. I don’t know why we did it. We are a young team, and weconstantly make mistakes like that. We have a lot of freshmen and sophomores, and we make a lot ofmistakes that they won’t make next year.”
On team flaws…
“This team has one major flaw that we have to get over. If they miss a shot, they put their head down anddon’t think about defense. That’s probably the number one hurdle we have to get over this year. The keyplay in the game was when Trey [Lewis] missed a shot and put his head down, and the other guy came backand made a three that gave them a one point lead. You can’t do that. You just have to keep thinking aboutdefense. That’s something we will keep drilling on them.”
On postÂseason ban…
“They are playing really hard. They are a good group of guys, and they want to win badly. They know theycan’t go to a tournament, and that’s what breaks them. We just move on to the next game.”
Louisville Players
Quentin Snider, Sophomore Guard
On first half vs. second half performance …
“I think in the first half we played good basketball, had good ball movement. I thought in the second halfwhen we went in the zone, we couldn’t score, we missed shots.”
“He had a good night, he got by us. I give him credit.”
Damion Lee, Senior Guard
On his performance …
“The ball just wasn’t going in. We can’t hawk on our offense. It was really the defense where we weren’tgetting stops. I think that’s the real reason why we lost.”
On the Louisville defense getting beat off the dribble …
“Going into the half they had six three’s. They were consistent.”