Jan. 5, 2010

Notre Dame at USF Box Score

Head Coach Mike Brey

Opening statement…
Just another Big East game. It was a heck of a game, and I am proud of our group as we are trying to develop an identity especially on the road because you know, because when Jones dunks and transitions, it doesn’t look good on us getting out of here. I thought we made some big plays and some big free throws to escape with a win. We executed there at the end to get Luke [Harangody] to let the ball in the right place and then we defended that out of bounds pretty well. We’ll take them any way we can get them, initially especially because we are on the road. I’m very impressed with them and they aren’t at full strength, and we are going to see them when they are at full strength. They’re tough to guard at times, and we had a hard time guarding them at times.

On the run by USF in the second half…
You know what, I think they defended us better. We had Tory [Jackson] on Jones who was our best match up. We couldn’t do much with Jones. I thought about putting someone else on him, but I just felt we are going to win or lose the game with Tory. I never felt we were going to win by 20 down here. When we were up by 13, I was hoping we could hold them off and it wouldn’t be one, but I think you just have to be ready for runs. I thought their defense improved, they really locked into us when we were up 13.

On the final play…
Well you know we run that set a lot, we ran it in the opening half against Connecticut four up. We try and get Ben [Hansborough] and Harangody on the side and if Ben catches it then it’s a ball screening situation. They took that away, Jones really contested him, Tory did a good job of getting Luke a touch at the elbow, and when we do get him a touch there, we clear the whole side. We wanted him to go and make a play and he did, he made a heck of a play and drew a foul and you know you have your best player. You are going to win or lose the game with you best player with his hands on the ball.