Jan. 29, 2003

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Mike Brey Postgame Quotes

On the game . . .
“I’m very proud of this group. We played a very good basketball team tonight. This is a team that beat the University of Florida and Georgetown. Their style is tough to play against, with long possessions on offense. To keep them in the sixties is pretty good. We were efficient offensively. I think this was the first night that all eight guys played very well [in our eight-man rotation]. In other games, we’ve had six or seven of them play well, but we got something out of everybody offensively tonight.”

On West Virginia’s offense…
“I think we did [interrupt their game plan]. We tried to keep them out a little bit more. They got into a rhythm, and we had to try to bottle that. That really weighs on you heavily when you play defense for twenty-five seconds every possession. I thought that affected us a little offensively. In the first half, we didn’t get back too quickly. In the second half, we were better. We had twenty-two offensive rebounds, and I almost fell off my chair when I saw that!”

On the upcoming Georgetown game…
“Tonight was a good, methodical game. It gives us some momentum into Saturday because it will be a different style of play on Saturday.”

On Notre Dame’s play…
“We’re comfortable and we’re confident playing here. It’s a pretty poised, confident group. Sometimes it’s just about the coach finding the right combination for that particular night. I was pleased to see all eight of them play at a really high level tonight.”

Notre Dame Player Quotes

Notre Dame senior forward Matt Carroll

On offensive rebounding. . . .
“I was surprised at all the offensive rebounds we got. I knew we had a lot, but I didn’t realize it was that many [22]. It’s a lot, especially for this team, because we’re not known for offensive rebounding.”

On how the game was played…
“It was a very methodical game. I think we have to give credit to our defense, because they played great man-to-man defense. I think we’re still improving, and our play is going to vary in each game.”

On playing Georgetown this weekend…
“It’s going to be a battle; it always is. It doesn’t matter if we play them at home or away. They have a lot of big horses inside, and we’ve got to be ready to get physical with them.”

Notre Dame freshman forward Torin Francis

On the rebounding . . ..
“We’ve been out-rebounded almost every game this season, and they’ve all been close games. Tonight we wanted to go in there and out-rebound another team and get a big win at home. Now we’re putting more emphasis on team rebounding. We want all the guys going in for them, not just the front row players. We did a great job doing that tonight.”

Notre Dame sophomore forward Jordan Cornette

On playing inside . . .
“We saw that we had a height and strength advantage inside, since they have younger guys who like to play outside. We tried to get it down to Tom Timmermans and Torin Francis as much as possible and let them out-muscle the West Virginia players inside. “

West Virgnia Head Coach John Beilein

On his team’s play…
“We did not play as efficiently as we like to play and as a result, we were down six at the half, and I think we should have been ahead. We did force them into some misses, but they just killed us in the backcourt. We know we do not have to out rebound people to win the game, but we can’t be beat 51-27 off the boards.”

On the BIG EAST…
“You look at our side of the league, the West Division, and we have Pitt, Notre Dame and Syracuse. They are all in the top 25 in the polls. You add Connecticut and a couple of other teams that are right on the edge, and you have a heck of a league.”

On Drew Schifino…
“He ended up getting to the line 13 times, and I thought he had a pretty good game. He had 20 points and he got a lot of attention.”

On playing on the road…
“I think with the roster we have right now, I don’t know if life on any road is going to be kind to us. We just have to keep doing our best. We were playing a top-ten team in the country, on the road tonight. Every road game is a very hard game. You need to have some, tough, tough veterans to win anywhere on the road.”

West Virginia Player Quotes

Sophomore forward Drew Schifino

On game…
“They played real good today. It was an off-night for us, but give them credit, they’re a top ten team.”

On play of Notre Dame guards Matt Carroll and Chris Thomas in second-half (30 combined second-half points; 6 combined first-half points)…
“They are two good players and they are going to get their points. When the shots started falling, they were tough to stop tonight. That made all the difference in the second-half. They did a good job creating their own looks.”

Sophomore guard Nick Patella

On difference in the game…
“They out hustled us tonight. They seemed like they wanted to win more.”

On Notre Dame’s defensive play…
“They had us very well scouted. They jumped up on our high sides most of the night and wouldn’t let us run some of our stuff and from lack of experience we didn’t know how to get back into it .”

Freshman center Kevin Pittsnogle

On West Virginia road woes…
“We were prepared to stay and play, but for some reason we just can’t get a win on the road. Hopefully Saturday will be our first one.”

On scoreless personal second-half performance…
“I missed a couple of shots, a couple three’s I should have probably hit. Everybody has a rough night, though. I’ll probably have a few more before the year’s over. It sometimes happens.”