Nov. 1, 2009
Notre Dame Men’s Basketball
vs. Lewis Flyers (exhibition)
November 1, 2009
Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center – Notre Dame, Ind.
Lewis Head Coach Scott Trost
On the overall play of the game…
“I’m very proud of our guys. We competed well and acquitted ourselves well. We learned a lot about our team by playing four sophomores and a junior, and then we came off the bench with a freshman. I couldn’t be happier or more proud of our team. I thought we competed well. With [Luke] Harangody you’re sometimes in the right position, but he’s so good and so big and so strong that he makes a play.”
On playing Notre Dame…
“Playing Notre Dame was fantastic for us. I’m very appreciative of Mike [Brey] and Notre Dame for giving us the opportunity to play. This is something the kids will remember for a long time. It was a great experience.”
Notre Dame Head Coach Mike Brey
On the performance of the team…
“I don’t think we’re going to shoot it as much as last year. Tonight we kind of played like last year. We got a couple of quick ones off. We’ve been trying to drive a little bit more, but I thought the second half we drove a lot more, and that’s a difference in our team. (Ben) Hansbrough will take that. (Luke) Harangody, we want him to step out and take some. He took good ones, and made some good decisions. You still need to get a feel for our group.”
“We wanted to get some young guys in, but we had to play to win and we played those seven older guys. We tried to keep up our rotation. We’re still analyzing our group.”
On the players…
“We were forced to play that way tonight because they were pretty small. I thought we would be able to spread it out a little bit around (Luke) Harangody. In the first half, I don’t’ think we took advantage of how well we passed because we shot so quick. In the second half, we started the defense some more, but we had to rest the offense because we were tired.”
On playing a different team…
“It was good to play against someone else.”
“It was good that they (Lewis) put a little mental pressure on us, and I think we handled that pretty well. It’s good to have a little pressure on your team when the lights are on. You never know, whether you’re playing freshmen or seniors. When the lights are on, everyone’s personality is different. I was interested to see some of the things that the guys were trying, and maybe some things that they shouldn’t have tried. That’s all part of the evolution of the group playing under bright lights this year”
On Purcell Pavilion…
“It’s been energizing to work out and practice in here for our guys.”
Notre Dame Players
Luke Harangody – Senior – Forward
On improving his game…
“I have so much confidence in my team that if something stops a shot I’m going to be fine with that, because I like to think that the shot will become a repossession, and we’ll have a chance to score again.”
On needing to score 33 points every night in order to win…
“That’s not going to happen. We have so many weapons on this team. A lot of guys can shoot as well I did, and we have so many phenomenal shooters. We have so many weapons; I’m not going to have to score this many points each night.”
Were his 33 points an aberration…
“Let’s just say I don’t think we’ll see that a lot this year.”
On what he liked about the game…
“I liked the way we had strong rebounding and controlled the last 30 minutes of the game.”
On what he learned about the team tonight…
“This team is very competitive. It was a solid effort, and I think that a lot of guys were just curious to see how we would play together. It was a good learning experience, and that’s why it’s great to play exhibition games.”
Ben Hansbrough – Senior – Guard
On taking the ball to the basket more in the second half…
“At times I thought, ‘I’m not getting my shot going right now, so I’m going to take it to the bucket.’ That’s part of why people work on all facets of their games, so they are not one-dimensional.”
On facing a two-point deficit in the second half…
“You look all across the country, and with these first exhibition games, you have these teams coming to play Division I colleges and playing their hearts out, leaving it all on the floor. Sometimes these big-time Division I teams just underestimate these teams, thinking that they are going to come out and just walk all over them. Things got tight, but we started to run on them at the end of the game and closed it out.”
On relying on a big performance from Luke Harangody every game…
“He’s a great scorer, but I think we had a lot of guys who didn’t shoot tonight like they are capable of shooting. I don’t think that will happen every night.”
Tory Jackson – Senior – Guard
On how the team will look different this season…
“Our toughness. We got down during a few games last year, and we played some big time teams and put our head down a little bit. Today we had guys laughing a little bit and staying calm and showing a different composure.”
On the team’s defense…
“Defense will be huge for us, and defensive rebounding will be huge for us. Staying together is going to be big for us too. Today we did a great job sticking together and toughening things out. This year it is going to be a lot different. Coach (Brey) has been on us about being tough and just going on to the next play. Like you said, defense will be a big, big key for us, and I think staying together is going to be key for us.”
On tonight being a tough game…
“I expected it to be tough and for us to be out of sync, because we’ve been beating each other up (in practice) and have not sat on the same bench before tonight.”
Tim Abromaitis – Junior – Forward
On returning to play after not making an appearance last season…
“I had a few dumb turnovers, but I settled down after a while. I think I’m getting a feel for it.”
On the play of Lewis’ guards…
“They were giving us some trouble. They shot the ball really well, and that’s why we started switching more in the second half to get different matchups. [Luke] Harangody, Ty [Nash], and I ended up on guards at times. We figured it out by the end and started to get some more stops.”