Nov. 26, 2012
Notre Dame Head Coach Mike Brey
Opening Statement…
“Well, we made some shots. I hope that carries over to Thursday because I don’t think we have shot the ball as well as I think we can shoot it. Our offensive rhythm was good tonight. I think that is something we are going to need, not only on Thursday, but down the road as well. I loved how we shared the ball and moved it around. I think our offensive flow and identity has gotten better here in the past seven or eight days, and not a moment too soon with what is coming on Thursday.”
On the play of Jerian Grant…
“I think that he is taking some of the pressure off himself. He has been reminded that he has plenty of other good players around him. He doesn’t have to force anything. I think he was really ready to go early tonight. We need him to put two halves together. Hopefully we can build on his performance tonight.”
On the advantage of playing so many games early in the season…
“I think it is definitely an advantage. Especially when you have an older team. They want to play. I think guys like Garrick Sherman and Cam Biedscheid are becoming very comfortable playing in our rotation. They have given us a great lift. The scoring they have given us off the bench has been key. I worry a little bit that after Thursday we have only one game in two weeks. What do we do to keep everyone engaged when there is not a game on the horizon? I think all the games we have played has helped us.”
On Cam Biedscheid’s outside shooting…
“I think it is key to get him going. I am surprised when he misses. He has shot very well in practice. I think our veteran guys are really finding him. I think he is learning to get his feet set and become a shooter for us. Sherman also helps us on both ends of the floor. They have both given us a big lift.”
On the importance of shooting well from beyond the arc and from the free throw line…
“I think we need to shoot it better. I hope that we can build on tonight. We are going to need to make some shots on Thursday. With the shot blockers that they have we are not going to get as much stuff in the lane and in the paint. We are going to have to make some shots and to get out in transition. We did that tonight. I think that came at a good time.”
Notre Dame Player Quotes
Jerian Grant, Junior, Guard
On the team’s performance…
“It was pretty good tonight as a team and myself. I think we needed this going into our next game. A lot of guys knocked down shots, and we’re really feeling good going into our game against Kentucky.”
On being effective early in the game…
“I was just getting into a rhythm and not forcing anything and just playing my game. I was just not putting any pressure on myself and went out there and I played like I usually do. I’m not putting the weight of the world on my shoulder. It’s not like if I don’t play well we’re going to lose. We have a really good team, we have a lot of guys who can do a lot of things, but I can just go out there and not really think about what I have to do for us to win. I can just play my game.”
On using confidence to boost his play…
“I feel like if I can get myself going early as a player, I’m more involved in the game and have more energy throughout the whole game. As I get going early I think it definitely helps my game.”
On the team’s three-point shooting…
“When we’re knocking down shots and running up and down the court, Coach Brey just lets us go. That’s the great thing about Coach – he let’s us play and when we play like that we’re tough to beat.”
On preparing for Kentucky…
“Tonight definitely helps. Everybody has confidence and everybody was knocking down shots. Being able to play our defense and rebound is just going to help us. Seeing the ball go in is going to help no matter what. We haven’t been shooting the ball well, but we knew it was coming and we have great shooters on this team.”
Pat Connaughton, Sophomore, Guard
On the team’s shooting…
“I think maybe we were due, but I think everyone kind of put a lot of work into shooting this week because no one felt like they were shooting great the last few games. It’s something we worked at and we all knew we could shoot but it was just a matter of getting that confidence.”
On the scoring balance…
“It’s great. Last year some guys would get in double figures and others in different games. It’s that much easier to share the ball, it’s that much easier to find open guys because we have the utmost confidence to knock it down.”
On preparing for Kentucky…
“We needed a good game. Even though we came out and we were hitting all of our shots we still wanted to play well throughout the entire game because we’re going to need all 40 minutes Thursday night and it’s going to be exciting.”
Eric Atkins, Junior, Guard
On the game in general…
“I feel like we performed pretty well tonight, especially because we really got our offensive game going. We’re really shooting the ball well and getting everybody involved so I think tonight went really well for us.”
On looking at tonight in terms of Thursday game against Kentucky…
“In practice for the last couple of days we’ve been talking about letting this game really get us started for Thursday night. That was our mindset and I think we did a good job.”
On anticipating the game against Kentucky…
“As soon as soon as I heard that we had them on the schedule, you have to be excited for that game. Since this summer I’ve been really excited.”
On his relationship with Jerian Grant on the court…
“I think we’re just being more aggressive on the offensive side of the ball and looking for our own shot. I just think that’s really helping us out as a team. When we’re aggressive it gets everybody else open. It just helps everyone out.”
Jack Cooley, Senior, Forward
On the Notre Dame defense…
“It’s good to never see that letdown because defense is why we won games last year and why we plan on winning game this year. We’ve got to keep that up for forty minutes and no matter what game it is it’s got to always be there. Offense maybe you can let up a little bit and run down the clock, but defense there are no excuses. “
On the second half of the game…
“I mean, we really just decided to keep playing it how it was. They weren’t really guarding us on the perimeter, and then the second half they switched it and over exaggerated the perimeter so we could just drive by. We just played how the game dictated. “
Chicago State Head Coach Tracy Dildy
Opening remarks…
“Let me start out by saying that I want to thank God for this opportunity and I want to thank all of you guys here at Notre Dame. It’s just a first-class university. The people have really treated us well. Also, I want to say congratulations and good luck in he National Championship football game!”
On defending Notre Dame…
“I’ve got the utmost respect for the program and for Coach [Brey]. He’s just a technician. You can show things but he’s going to pick it apart eventually. We were able to, early on, stay in there and we showed them some different things to kind of confuse them a little bit. But when you’re playing a top-25 program, a well-coached top-25 program, it’s only a matter of time until they start clicking. I think that backcourt is amazing. I was telling our guys, ‘This is probably going to be the best back court we play all year.’ We were really worried about [Jack] Cooley. We limited his touches the first half. If you guys saw he only had two attempts. But when you’ve got shooters, penetrators and posts, it’s hard to come up with a defense that can stop everybody. It was like us choosing the lesser of two evils.”
On the experience of playing at Notre Dame…
“It was a great experience. We were able to bring our team over early. We practiced on the court and went around campus. We stuck our head in the soccer game yesterday. It’s been a really great experience.”
Chicago State Player Quotes
Clarke Rosenberg, Sophomore, Guard
On hot shooting to start the game…
“We just tried to come out with a lot of energy, just play as hard as possible. And our shots were falling in the beginning – we just couldn’t get enough stops.”
On what Notre Dame did well on offense…
“They were getting their shots off really quickly and hitting them. They were knocking down a lot of shots. They were giving us a lot of different looks too, guys getting down in the post and kicking it out to an open man. They were running a pretty decent offense. We just couldn’t get enough stops.”
On positives to take away from the game…
“We just need to bring this energy. I thought we played with a lot of energy. We just need to bring this energy to our next couple games.”
Jeremy Robinson, Senior, Forward
On how to extend a hot start…
“We just have to keep playing hard. I thought we started out playing really hard, really aggressive. As the game went along we had spurts where we were aggressive, and we need to play more aggressive the whole game – how we started off.”
On trying to overcome Notre Dame’s size advantage…
“We know we’re an undersized team, but we try to be real scrappy and try to throw people off that way. I think for the most part we held our own [on the boards], but it was an obvious advantage for them.”
On what to take away going into conference play…
“Just how hard we need to play to win. Every conference, every level is different. And I think the biggest thing from this game is we need to play hard 40 minutes in order to win or stay in games.”