Feb. 1, 2003

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Mike Brey Postgame Quotes

On the game . . . .
“We’ve had six overtimes the last two times we’ve played these guys. I’m really proud of our guys. We needed a lot of different people to make those plays, and everybody that got in the game had a big part in this win.”

“You hear Matt Carroll talk in the huddles, saying, ‘We didn’t win in the first overtime.’ In the timeouts, he just kept us calm and poised. Chris Quinn comes off the bench when Chris Thomas fouls out, and he gave us solid minutes there. Torrian Jones was fabulous with that key free throw. We had a great team win, and, again, [it’s] something we can hopefully build on.”

On Matt Carroll…
“I think it’s fair to say when you talk about Matt Carroll that he is a flat-out winner. The guy is a winner. He was a winner in high school, and I don’t think it’s an accident that when he got to Notre Dame, we’ve had some pretty good seasons. I can’t say enough about his leadership and his keeping us calm in huddles. He just kept bringing it up throughout the game, ‘We’ll play until we win.'”

On Georgetown…
“They defended us well in the second half. They are very quick and strong, and they got out and flustered us a little bit. We made free throws when we had to, and I think we did a good job off the backboard tonight.”

On Dan Miller…
“Dan Miller was able to help out a little bit on a couple of possessions. It seemed like he scored everytime. Dan gets a lot of rebounds. He was our leading rebounder and was all over the backboard today, finding a way to help us. Torrian Jones was very active, and Tom [Timmermans] gave us great minutes. I was proud of Torin [Francis]. He’s never really got into a rhythm before, but in the overtime, I thought he played very, very well.”

On the crowd…
“I can’t remember the crowd being that loud ever since I’ve been here. They helped us on defensive possessions and gave us some energy, especially when we were down in front of our [student section]. I don’t think we ever felt tired today. [It was] great on the homecourt, and we have still have a few more games here, so we need [the crowd].”

Notre Dame Player Quotes

Senior guard Matt Carroll
On the Torrian Jones three-point play . . . . “I knew he was going to make it. I told him after the foul, ‘T, you’re going to make it. You only need one of these anyways.’ I knew he was going to do it. It was a heck a relief when he hit that.”

On the game . . .
“I was feeling pretty good today. I don’t know what it is. Georgetown took us into overtime, but we have a team that refuses to lose. We’re going to keep fighting if it takes three overtimes. We are going to keep fighting until we get the win.”

On Georgetown during the end of the game…
“They really turned the defense up. They’re big, long, strong, athletic and tough to score against. They turned it up and made some big shots. I think that was the difference there.”

Sophomore forward Jordan Cornette

On the players coming off the bench . . . .
“The coach has always played us all year. We have great guys coming off the bench and the guys already in the game are role players. We showed that whenever somebody goes down, like Chris Thomas did tonight or whoever else, we have guys that can come in and fill their spots and not have a significant drop off when they are in there.

On his last minute three-point attempt . . .
“The shot felt good again, but unfortunately, it didn’t go down. I think that made me more determined once I got to the free throw line and got my chance to make up for missing that shot. I knew I missed that shot, but I just wanted to make a play in the game.

Georgetown Coach Craig Esherick

On the last possession in regulation . . .
“We called time out. We ran a motion offense play and tried to get the ball into Mike Sweetney. Clearly we didn’t do that, and we didn’t get a shot off. I thought we did a great job recovering from that.”

On Notre Dame guard Matt Carroll’s play. . .
“I think we didn’t do a bad job of covering him. We knew where he was most of the time, and I thought he hit a lot of tough shots. He’s turned himself into a real good player. He’s a tough person to cover for a guard because he’s 6’6.”

On forward Mike Sweetney’s effort…
“I don’t think we wasted Mike’s effort just because we lost. He played a great game, and everyone could see that. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but I don’t consider it a waste if Mike had 38 points and we lost.”

On playing without forward Wesley Wilson in the first half…
“I was very happy with the amount of time that Wesley missed, and still being so close at the half. I clearly would have preferred to have him in the game, because one of the things he does is provide us an opportunity to give Mike ( Sweetney) a breather. Mike didn’t have a breather, and he played too many minutes today, particularly when we have a game on Monday.”

On playing at tough venues on the road…
“We’ve had some practice playing on the road lately, and those games prepared us and made us have the ability to come back like this. If we hadn’t played at Virgina, Duke and Pittsburgh, we would have folded when Notre Dame went up the way they did and the crowd got pumped. Our guys did a great job of coming back today, and I think that’s a credit to some of the places that we’ve played.”

Georgetown Player Quotes

Sophomore guard Drew Hall

On the close loss . . .
“I don’t think this team deserves this. We worked so hard. It’s the fifth game we’ve played a ranked team and been so close without a win. Hopefully this thing turns around.”

On second-half run to send game to overtime . . .
“We picked the pressure up a little bit. We all got together and said we can’t lose this one.”

On key baskets in overtime period . . .
“Mike [Sweetney] was getting double-teamed so much and a lot of my teammates had been scoring, so they [ND defenders] were playing off of me. I had to take the shots and I hit them.”

On play of Notre Dame guards Matt Carroll and Chris Thomas . . .
“They hit a lot of big shots-they are both good players. That killed us early on in the game and we had to fight back. I give a lot of respect to my teammates for fighting and digging deep and putting that to a halt at the end.”

Junior forward Mike Sweetney

On difference in the game . . .
“We made a lot of mental errors down at the end of the game which we need to correct. We can’t keep talking about it, we need to start doing it because it’s getting towards the end and we need to get as many wins as possible.”

On fatigue as factor . . .
“Fatigue was not a factor at all. Everyone is in pretty good shape on this team. It was the mental part and that could draw you down sometimes during the game.

On play of Notre Dame frontcourt…
“The shooters got open shots. Chris Thomas got to the hole and penetrated to get guys open. He got his team into the game with open shots and everyone in the front court just stepped up today.”

On final Georgetown possession in regulation . . .
“We just lost track of the clock and didn’t get a shot off.”

Junior guard Gerald Riley

On game. . .
“It was a tough loss, a real tough loss. We played hard today. Maybe we’ll get a little luck down the road, but for now we’re not getting any.”