Feb. 27, 2016

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Notre Dame Head Coach Muffet McGraw

Opening statement…
“I thought it was a phenomenal accomplishment for us to through [conference play] undefeated. Credit the seniors and the whole team. What we went through this year with losing Ali (Patberg), it was a really interesting season for us. I think we got better throughout the year, especially the freshmen. But what would we have done without Madison Cable coming back and (Brianna Turner’s) shoulder making it through? We are so blessed to have this class, these amazing young women. They just keep fighting every single day and find a way to win. No matter how ugly it gets at times, we rely on our defense, we rely on our rebounding, and these two [Turner and Cable] heavily. Great win for us today.”

On what Madison Cable means to the team…
“She’s the heart and soul of our team. She is the most competitive, the hardest worker, and she will give it all for the team every single day. She will take a charge, dive for loose balls, and give it 110 percent every single minute she is on the floor – practices or games, it doesn’t matter. She plays hard every day. She takes charges on our guy practice players, which everyone isn’t willing to do. She makes big shot after big shot. This year, if you have to catalog her big shots, I wouldn’t know where to begin. Look at the Duke game. Every time we absolutely had to make a basket, she was the one. Just a phenomenal year. We would not be where we are without her.”

On the senior class and the team’s culture…
“They were in charge of the culture. They’ve done a great job with that. What we are going to miss from them is so much more than statistics because of the way they lead and the toughness that they bring. They are competitive. They have a sense of urgency. They understand what it takes to be at the level we want to be at. They try to get the freshmen to understand that, too. Their leadership this year has really been phenomenal. Statistically, they’ve great things, too, but all three of them have added so much more in terms of our culture.”

Graduate student guard Madison Cable

On her time at Notre Dame…
“It’s hard to put into words what Notre Dame, the fans, the teammates, and the coaches have meant. On the court, it’s great. We’ve accomplished a lot and hopefully we will accomplish more this year. Off the court, I made some of the best friends ever. I’ve made some relationships and learned a lot of things. I’m not going to be looking forward to leaving.”

On her performance on Senior Day…
“I’m just glad that we won. Lindsay (Allen) always has all these assists. Brianna does these amazing things. One of the freshmen always does well. Michaela (Mabrey) is bombing threes. Huff (Hannah Huffman) is getting rebounds. There are always other people, it’s not just one person. That is why I like to deflect anything that comes to me.”

Sophomore forward Brianna Turner

On Madison Cable…
“Maddie brings everything. She can hit a three whenever we need it. She is our best defender. She is taking charges, I haven’t taken a charge my whole time at Notre Dame. She is always willing to sacrifice her body and she is a great teammate. I always ask Maddie ‘what do I do?’ and she’ll say ‘Bri, you have to go this way or that way.’ She’s really a great leader.”

On the culture that the seniors have created…
“They lead the way. The coaches will talk to us and sometimes the seniors will talk to us additionally. They’ll say ‘we need to get on it. We can’t do this and that’. They’ve been there and done that. They are really good at guiding us where we need to go.”

Boston College Head Coach Erik Johnson

Opening statement…
“What we talk about all the time is that our team is right there. We are playing a team on Senior Night in front of an incredible crowd. They are 28-1 and their only loss is at UConn without Brianna Turner. The margin for error at this level is really, really small. It comes down to a few mistakes and a few plays. We know that when we are locked down and focused both offensively and defensively that we can play with anybody. The reality is that Notre Dame is who they are because of the way they make you pay. You can’t let them have a run like that, you can’t spot them 12 points and then expect to be able to come all the way back. But our kids kept fighting and there is no question that they kept going and believed in themselves and in the system. Again, we are going to get to that point where we can be able to win that game. It’s another big step, if you remember where we were last season when we came here, we have certainly come a long way.”

On defending Notre Dame’s balanced offense…
“They shot 73 percent in the first half, and it wasn’t that they shot the lights out. When they get an open three, sure, they make it. What makes them special is that they are the highest three-point percentage shooting team around, but they don’t shoot that many, because they go out and get layups, they get great shots. They are able to be balanced and they are able to share the ball and create shots for each other. They got a lot of shots in the paint and that was our game plan – to prevent points in the paint. But they were able to get them, so those were some of the adjustments we had to make. Let’s not let them get those easy shots inside and make them shoot around the perimeter a little more. We did that pretty well and made good adjustments. But Notre Dame is pretty good. They have weapons all over the place.”

On the toughness of Notre Dame’s defense…
“Notre Dame is always going to be well prepared. With respect to our inside game, Mariella Fasoula is our freshman center, who is a candidate for rookie of the year in the conference – she’s a very good player, hurt them in the first game. She had 20 points so we knew there was going to be congestion and there was going to be double teams. We didn’t handle that very well, but once we settled in a little bit and once we moved the ball in and out, we got some shots. As I pointed out in the beginning, at this level, you can’t spot a team 10-12 points at the beginning. Again, I give credit to our kids for keeping the fight.”