Dec. 10, 2011

Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery

Notre Dame Head Coach Mike Brey

Opening remarks….
“Well I was happy we could build on a little momentum off of Thursday night and feel good at home again. That’s going to be important for us throughout the year. Defensively we were great all night, we were in good position. You’re really kind of playing off of a burn offense-long possessions. So then you have to go down to the other end and be very efficient offensively, and I thought we were that. I loved how our big guys played. That’s the most three-around-two we’ve played since (Harold) Swanagan-(Ryan) Humphrey-(Troy) Murphy days. But it’s kind of something we got into the other night against Maine, and I think it’s something that’s going to be good for us. It was very helpful. We started different guys, guys came off the bench; Joey Brooks gave us a great lift coming off the bench. Maybe that’s the best thing for him. As I told them, I’m not sure who is going to start Saturday. We’ll evaluate that and let everyone know who’s going to play.”

On the team’s defensive play…
“That’s probably the highest I jump on the sideline. When a guy gives up his body, that’s a big, unselfish play, and we weren’t good at it early in practice and we got better. We really emphasized it more and I think our guys really try to get them. That’s great unselfishness, and then their teammates can trust that somebody’s going to help. I was happy with our defensive rebounding. We blocked some shots tonight. It’s interesting to find out new things about our team each week.”

On a different starting line-up…
“We want to just change it. I thought Alex [Dragicevich] and Pat [Connaughton] really deserved to be in there given how they played the other night against Maine. We decided we’re going to start them and bring Joey [Brooks] and Jerian [Grant] off the bench. I’m not sure that will be the case next Saturday. That’s going to be a revolving door all year and that’s OK. I don’t think that’s a bad thing.”

Notre Dame Player Quotes

Jack Cooley – Junior – Forward

On the keys to tonight’s game…
“We had some keys tonight, and one of them was to get the ball inside. After our success with it last game, we wanted to keep doing it and build on it for the rest of the season.”

On the game overall…
“We just wanted to make sure that they had no contention and that it wasn’t a close game. We wanted to work on a few things, especially team unity. We just wanted to have a good game and get out of here and focus on exams.”

On the next game against Indiana…
“The next game is going to be even more important. We have to focus on finals, but the next game is going to be in the back of our minds. We have to go out and get a win. I know it’s neutral, but it’s going to be a home game for them.”

On getting excited for the rest of the season…
“It’s good to get inside to the post. It opens up the court for everyone, and it makes it easier to play when they have to guard the post as well. It’s also fun to score.”

On his confidence level…
“It’s as it was in high school. I’m just extremely confident now in my game, and I know I can go out there and score.”

Joey Brooks – Junior – Guard

On his current play…
“I really feel like I’m just playing my game, having fun and playing with confidence. It’s really difficult sometimes to get in a rhythm and other times other guys are playing well. It’s not just me, it’s us; we’re a team. Tonight, I got a chance to play well and step up, and I got the job done. Other guys have stepped up and that’s been a hallmark of our program, different guys stepping up on different nights.”

On the unpredictable nature of the game…
“That’s the thing about sports. It’s unscripted. It’s one of those things where you never know what’s going to happen. A big part of that is just being prepared. You’ve got to be ready when you’re number is called.”

On different starting lineups…
“It gives guys a chance to gain confidence. There are different starting lineups and different guys getting minutes. In a way it does change your attitude if you always know you’re going to get you’re chance. You’ve got to always stay positive. That’s what I always try to tell the guys is that it’s got to be about us. If it’s about us, and we have our collective goal, it doesn’t matter who gets it done as long as it gets done.”

On the upcoming game vs. Indiana…
“I’m really looking forward to next weekend. Indiana is a great team, but so are we. I feel like we’re getting better. People are sleeping on us, but that’s kind of the way we like it.”

Alex Dragicevich – Sophomore – Guard

On Dartmouth’s offense…
“They were kind of burning us a little bit. They were holding, trying to look for a good shot the whole time. But we did a really nice job of when the rebounds came, get it out, outlet and make them play faster. So that was really good.”

On contribution by the big guys…
“Mike [Broghammer] is definitely a fighter. His knees are really always questionable. They’re always sore for him and he fights through pain every single day. That’s something that he has been really great about, never complaining, and stepping up offensively. Jack [Cooley] has always been super reliable. They’re a great little trio.”

On upcoming game against Indiana…
“You grow up in Indiana, they have a good program. I think our fans will be coming down, so Assembly Hall will be a neutral site. We’re hoping to bring Notre Dame fans down there. Indiana, they’re hot right now, so we’ll have a good week at practice, but will be kind of spotty with our finals schedule, but I think we’ll be ready to go.

Tom Knight – Junior – Forward

On how far the team has come since October…
“You going to be surprised about who is going to step up for us. Everyone has their shot to step up big for us and get a lot of points for us. Everyone works hard in practice. Alex [Dragicevich] just kills in practice, he’s knocking down threes. The [dunk], I don’t even know where that came from. I haven’t seen Alex Dragicevich jump like that in my life. It was impressive. Really, you kind of have to expect anything from anyone on this team, because anyone can step up at any time.”

On having another different starting line-up…
“I think it is just the confidence by everyone on the team. Everyone knows they’re good enough to play and excel at this level. To come out and someday it’s your day, then you can succeed.”

On strategy for today’s game…
“In practice, [the coaches] talked about working the high-low game. It worked well today. Really we’ve been keying on that. I enjoy playing with the other bigs. There’s more help on the post, so there are more one-on-ones.”

On high-lows with Alex Dragicevich…
“Tell me about it. I love playing with Drag. He just is an absolute beast out there, so he can bully his guy around. If I get the ball on the high-post, I’m going to look down the post, because I know he has good position on his guy.”

Dartmouth Head Coach Paul Cormier

Initial thoughts on the game…
“I think what we witnessed today was us just physically not being able to stay with a BIG EAST team. We’re not quite ready there, and we’re trying to rebuild our program. This was a good challenge for us, and we were looking for a lot of things in a game like this. We wanted to play against some bigger and stronger teams to see where we are and what we have to do. I thought at times early in the game, we executed and got good shots. If we shoot like we did, we’re not going to be real competitive in a game like this, and that’s exactly what happened. I was very disappointed with the way we shot the ball. A lot of the reason we shot poorly had to do with Notre Dame, but there were also some times when we had to make some shots. If we’re going to be competitive and stay in a game like this, we definitely have to shoot the ball better when we get open looks. I thought we didn’t shoot those open shots to complete the deal.”

On preventing Eric Atkins and Jerian Grant from scoring…
“We wanted to contain them. I’m sure Coach Brey’s goal was to punish us inside, so those guys didn’t perform as well. I’m sure their focus was to work inside, but I do think we did a pretty good job defensively all around. We just couldn’t match the physicality inside. Defensively, I’m not disappointed. Offensively, I wish we could have made some open shots and executed better. I thought we took ourselves out of the offense a couple times. We needed to play a perfect game offensively to win, and weren’t even close tonight.”

Dartmouth Player Quotes

David Rufful – Senior – Guard/Forward

On the overall experience at Notre Dame…
“Well, we took a long trip to come out here. It’s a great campus and a great place to play, and we were excited to come out here. But, we were also excited to compete in this game and unfortunately we didn’t do as well as we were hoping. Notre Dame is a great team; they have big guys inside and that’s kind of where we struggled a lot.”

On how Notre Dame’s defense made it hard for them…
“I think we were trying to attack the basket and finish inside, and their ‘trees’ in there, the big guys, blocked a lot of shots. In that situation we have to hit shots from the outside, and we weren’t doing that tonight, so they came away with a 20-point lead.”

On learning from this game for the rest of the season…
“Well these out-of-conference games right now are really a growing period and a time where we can focus on things that are going to get us better: shooting more, practicing every day harder and better, and hopefully those shots will fall.”