Nov. 12, 2012

Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery

Notre Dame Head Coach Mike Brey

Thoughts on the game…
“An interesting group to play against with the run and jump stuff, and we didn’t handle it very well in the first half with 10 turnovers. But I thought we did a good job in the second half offensively attacking it and being better against traps. I thought defensively again for the most part we were really good. We played more zone in the first half-that changed, helped us get a little more of a spurt. And it was the first time in the exhibitions or the two games we’ve played we’ve been able to play Cooley and Sherman for long stretches, and that really helped us, being able to pound away with two big guys.”

On Garrick Sherman…
“He needed this one. He’s got that ability, and we’ve seen it in practice. He hasn’t done it with the uniform on, so I think this is so important for him before we head to Brooklyn. That’s a game that kind of makes him believe he’s really part of it.”

On the difference between today and Saturday for Garrick Sherman…
“We tried to get him to slow down a little bit. I think he can play a little fast, and sometimes he wants to be too crafty. He has the ability to be very crafty with his footwork and with his different hands around the bucket. I just think calming down a little bit-and we did a good job feeding him. He has such a good feel against all that run and jump stuff. He has the best feel for of big guys to present himself as a receiver in a good spot. Jack maybe gets there a little slower than him. Garrick really has a good feel to get to spots. He was receiving it after they double teamed and got distorted.”

On Garrick Sherman’s agility…
“He’s really light on his feet and crafty and stuff around the bucket. The other thing that was evident to me too was you heard me say Scott Martin is this great team defender. Garrick is right there with him, and the two of them-the stretch they were playing together-at time outs, they’re talking about how they want to rotate and who they want to guard. He’s getting to be that guy that can come over and rotate with a big body really wisely. He’s always been that defensively from day one. He’s an experienced player. The offensive stuff he just kind of had to find a rhythm, and tonight he did.”

On Cameron Biedscheid passing the ball…
“I’ve been really pleased with him. He wants to be coached, he wants to be good. I thought he turned down some shots. I think he’s trying to please his teammates and his coaches by being easy to play with. And I thought his shot selection was excellent. And he’s getting better defensively. He is improved defensively.”

On giving Cameron Biedscheid leeway to shoot as the shot clock is winding down…
“I told him at a couple timeouts, ‘Why did you turn that one down?’ I got on him about turning shots down. I didn’t do that the first couple weeks of practice. Now I’ve got to bring him back to, ‘Don’t be afraid to step up and stick it.’ Because he’s going to have to make shots for us. We’re a little streaky out there, and I just think he’s a guy who can make three of them in a night or five of them in a night or what Connaughton did in Philly. He can do that. He’s done that in practices.”

On the bench…
“Scoring again, coming in and giving us scoring. And we don’t let down defensively, especially with Sherman there. Maybe sometimes we’re better defensively with him in there. He’s really good, and Cam wasn’t a liability. And I was really happy we could get Zach [Auguste] in the rotation tonight. We had some foul trouble on that front line, and we could go to another big, and obviously he is very active. There’s a lot to work with. We’re trying to make up for some lost time in practice time with those injuries, but he’s going to be important for us in the long haul.”

Notre Dame Players Quotes

Jack Cooley, Senior, Forward

On the game…
“Our first two games have been against two of the most different styles that you could have. Evansville slowed it down, and tonight we received a lot of pressure. It was kind of like a football game. It was stop and go, there were a lot of fouls, and it was extremely physical. It was hard to get momentum going because it seemed like every 30 seconds there would be a foul called. It is good to see that our team can adjust to that and still put away games.”

On Garrick Sherman’s performance…
“It was huge. It is hard to find a team that has a player who can come off the bench and play like he does. He is able to give us rebounds and points. It is huge for us to have two guys who can do that.”

On what makes Garrick Sherman tough to guard…
“You can play the best defense that you can possibly play, but Garrick finds a way to score all the time. That is just how he plays. He is going to score on you. You can do everything right, but he will still find a way to make the ball go in the basket.”

Garrick Sherman, Senior, Center

On playing up to his potential…
“I feel like for the past few games I haven’t been playing up to my potential. I owe it to Coach Brey and I owe it to this organization to start playing better. I wanted to make it a point tonight to come out and do that. I think I was a little to passive in the first few games. Tonight I just went out and played my game.”

On what he was unsatisfied with coming into tonight’s game…
“I was pretty much unsatisfied with everything. I just hadn’t been playing up to my real potential. I guess I wasn’t making a big enough impact as I was hoping. I know that I owe it to this team to play well. There were some nerves in the first game, but that is no excuse. I wasn’t playing well at all. I was embarrassed by my performance, and I wanted to come out and play better today. I made up my mind that I was going to be aggressive tonight, and it worked out well.”

On establishing himself on the team…
“It is a process. It will probably get easier as the season goes on. I think I was a little too passive at the beginning of the season. Hopefully tonight was a little better. I think my role involves being a little more aggressive. I feel like I did some good things tonight, but there is always room for improvement.”

Pat Connaughton, Sophomore, Guard

On his role this season…
“Obviously it’s changed. I’ve grown up and matured. My body is stronger and quicker. I think I had to improve upon my ball handling. I have to be able to drive more and not be so one dimensional with my shot. I think there’s more expected of me which I love. I love playing to win like everyone else on this team does.”

On playing in the Barclays Center…
“It will be cool. It will also bring a little added intensity to the locker room because it’s such a big event. I think it’s just going to get us more hyped and ready for the game.”

Scott Martin, Graduate Student, Guard

On rebounding…
“At a point last season we said let’s just let Jack Cooley go around and get the offensive rebounds because we were getting beat in transition a lot. Defensively you just try to be in the right place at the right time and a lot of it sometimes is luck. If you happen to be on the weak side on a long shot you have a better chance.”

On improving foul shooting…
“It’s early in the season and that’s one thing you really can’t simulate during practice and over the summer, playing as hard as you can for three or four minutes and then having to stop or coming out of a timeout and having to shoot it. It’s all about the game flow and with the shooters we have we’ll be okay.”

On the bench points…
“They came out tonight, especially Garrick Sherman. He’s such a good, skilled player and gives us such a lift. Him and Cam coming in scoring the ball is good for us and makes us that much harder to guard.”

Cameron Biedscheid, Freshman, Forward

On the contribution from the bench…
“We were able to come off the bench and offensively give our team a spark as well as defensively. Garrick Sherman came off the bench with nine strong rebounds for us that we really needed along with 22 points.”

On feeling more comfortable offensively…
“I was just really trying to attack the lane and move and attack the traps to find the open guy and look for my own shot if no one was open.”

On scoring more points tonight than in the opener…
“Of course we had two exhibition games, but Saturday was our first official game, and the first one the counts. I think we just had some jitters, and we still need to get some things smoothed out, and I think with this game it really helped us do that.”

Monmouth Head Coach King Rice

On Notre Dame as a team and improving at Monmouth…
“I take my hat off to Coach Brey and the Notre Dame team. I’ve known Coach for a long time and I’ve watched his teams play for years. I recruited a bunch of kids on the Notre Dame team when I was at Vanderbilt, and he does a great job. Coach Brey just does a great job-the type of kids he gets. They’re a really good program, and hopefully someday we can get better and at least be able to give them a game. But I take my hat off to those kids, man, because they really know how to play basketball. They play the right way; they share the ball. You can tell they’re a team; you can just see they’re a team, and that’s what we’re trying to build. So hopefully someday we’ll get better and be able to give them a little bit better game.”