Jan. 14, 2016

POSTGAME QUOTES
Notre Dame 72 (11-5, 2-2 ACC), Georgia Tech 64 (11-6, 1-3 ACC)
January 13, 2016
Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center — Notre Dame, Ind.
Attendance: 7,795

Mike Brey, Notre Dame head coach
Opening statement…
“I was pretty proud of our group, bouncing back like they did. It was one of those ugly January games, but we were gritty and we played well in the paint. I’m pleased with how we shot free throws. I always thought that would be a weapon for us and it was tonight.”

On Matt Ryan starting…
“That looks a little bit like how we played last year, when he is on the floor. We played that way, but we never started that way obviously, but I thought it helped us get off to a better offensive start. I think it freed up Zach Auguste for a lot of rim rolls because we had a fourth shooter on the floor for most of the night.”

On Georgia Tech…
“They are much different offensively than they were last year. I was very pleased with how we defended tonight. We really helped in the post, and they are one of the teams that really throws it into the post. Our guards, we had a good chest from our bigs guarding their bigs, but our guards really came down and dug it out. That’s something we talked about as we prepared for them.”

On most of the team’s points coming in the paint or from the free throw line…
“I think it’s just the way the game was going, there was good spacing for us to drive and get fouled when you are more four on one. The floor is more open when you have shooters on the floor and you are open to drive it, and then Zach is ready to rim roll. I think the spacing really helped us tonight.”

On Demetrius Jackson…
“I thought he was great. They face guarded him and I think he wasn’t really able to get into a great offensive rhythm, but he never let that distract him on the defensive end with 9 rebounds. He was especially great at controlling things for us down the stretch.”

Notre Dame Players
Demetrius Jackson, Junior Guard
On his shooting tonight…
“I just try to continue to help this team win games. Even if I don’t shoot the ball well, it feels good to be able to step up and knock my free-throws in when I need to.”

On going into the Duke game 2-2 instead of 1-3 in ACC play…
“Regardless, we go into every game thinking of the win. We try to prepare for a win regardless of our record. We have to get a good couple days of practice in to go out and play as hard as we can. We just have to go out, play our game, and do what we do.”

On team’s confidence…
“I feel like we’re really confident, because we’re getting better every single game. So even though we dropped a couple, we’re doing a great job of continuing to get better, keeping a positive mind. And so when we come out as hard as we do in practice, it makes us really confident.”

Zach Auguste, Senior Forward
On the importance of this win…
“This is a big game. We needed this, especially to bounce back. Hopefully we can use this as a booster and a confidence-builder as we go into Duke. It will be another great challenge for us, and that is something we need to focus on and be happy about.”

On his effectiveness in the game…
“It was great. I give a lot of credit to Demetrius and my teammates. They are great passers, and the game comes easily to us when we can just play our basketball. When we try to force things, it doesn’t always go well, but when we relax and play patiently, we are hard to guard.”

On Duke…
“It’s exciting. I’m looking forward to going down there. The last time we went down there, it was an ugly sight for us, so we are looking to get some vengeance and to go back there for revenge.”

On getting the win…
“It feels great, and hopefully we can use this as a confidence-builder. That’s pretty much what every game is going to be like in this league. It’s going to be tough, and it’s going to be a grind, but we just have to continue to work.”

Matt Ryan, Freshman Forward
On his confidence/pace of the game…
“I just think the pace of the game wasn’t as fast as it was against Pitt. The pace of the game was a little bit slower, they were a bigger team…they ran some sets and got to the post. And that’s what it was, a slower pace. But no, we were confident the whole time. I mean in the back of my mind, I thought we were gonna win that game from the jump. We just had to grind it out, it was a late game. We just had to get it done.”

On guarding Georges-Hunt…
“Yeah I was on him a bunch of times, I mean the way they run their stuff they didn’t look for a lot of iso’s. So I mean, he’s a big strong guard, posted up a couple times. But I think just lining your feet, he was pretty easy to stay in front of.”

On being inserted into the starting lineup…
“A couple days ago, coach announced it to the team. He had talked to Bonzie but I didn’t know until we talked as a team. And he said that Bonzie might be called to the bench to get some energy and that I would be moved to that Connaughton role.”

On his reaction to starting…
“I mean I was just relaxed, I’ve gotten comfortable playing with the lineup that’s in there. It was just a role that I had to embrace and I had to get on the backboard. That was the number one thing, had to be strong on the boards.”

On the team’s improvement defensively…
“I think when the ball got into the post, that big man, he was effective. But when we were hedging out, we managed to kick it out a bunch of times in the second half. He wasn’t as effective; so that’s one thing that we had to do against this team and their two post guys.”

Brian Gregory, Georgia Tech head coach
His thoughts about the game…
“We didn’t play very well. And give them credit, they were more aggressive on their drives, on the post, more aggressive in terms of attacking the basket. We didn’t respond to that the way we needed to respond, especially on the road. We got some quality looks at the basket, didn’t shoot very well, but we were down by only three at halftime, even with that. An area that we need to address, because when we get those shots around the basket, we need to finish them.

On a difficult road schedule…
“They ain’t going to change it. We’ve got to play the game. Obviously, it put us in a difficult situation in terms of three out of our first four on the road and who we had to play. I think we played better in the two previous games on the road. But give Notre Dame credit, they played well. They kept the ball in the hands of their best player, in Jackson. Auguste, who hasn’t played great against us in the past, we did a good job on him because he’s a quality player, but we left him open too many times and he responded because he’s a good player and did extremely well.

On Zach Auguste…
“He was aggressive. He scores on some rolls but he also got a couple post opportunities and he was aggressive in scoring on those. They went to the free throw line and they made their free throws.”

On taking tough shots…
“We forced some shots, in particular in the first half off of rebounds. We had ten offensive rebounds and if they’re walling you up and swarming you in the post, you’ve got to kick it out. I don’t like to say `bad shots’, but we made some bad decisions about when to shoot and when not to. We showed some immaturity in our decision making in our shots.”

On not getting over the hump in the second half…
“We didn’t get any stops. To start the second half, they must have scored on their first six or seven possessions. We couldn’t get the one big stop, we cut it at three. We had two big shots right by the basket. If you make those it’s a different game, but we weren’t able to come up with the big offensive basket that we needed, or the defensive stop.When you can’t do that you get behind, and you’re always fighting uphill.”

Georgia Tech Players
Nick Jacobs, Senior Forward
On defending Notre Dame…
“As a team I think it came down to us guarding ball screens. The four bigs did a poor job of guarding ball screens. In practice we talked about how guarding ball screens is a five man defense and today we didn’t come out and guard it to the best of our ability. Coming into the game, coach was telling us this game was important because we had to guard ball screens. We worked on it all practice but today we just couldn’t guard.”

On team mentality after win against Virginia…
“We wanted to come in with the same focus as the last game. We did not want to be overwhelmed with the win. We both missed shots and it came down to the defensive end. We did not defend today so we paid for it.”

On poor offensive shooting as a team…
“It really wasn’t what they were doing. Nothing was falling for us. It was nothing they were doing. We were getting shots at the rim. Today just really wasn’t a good offensive day.”