Jan. 9, 2016

Recap | Final Stats | Notes | USATSI Gallery

Mike Brey ââ’¬” Notre Dame Head Coach

On the gameââ’¬¦

“I’m proud of our group, we gave ourselves a chance. But it’s frustrating to start that way and have to dig out of a hole. I wish we could have dug in a little better defensively to start the game like we did the last ten minutes of the game to make it interesting. But they had an answer for everything and they’re really good.”

On Notre Dame’s defenseââ’¬¦

“We never had effort and defensive intelligence together much tonight. Digging in and being smart about our positioning. We kind of played all over the place, and they’re too good, they burn you.”

On his team’s comebackââ’¬¦

“We did some really good stuff to keep digging and give ourselves a chance with a team that was in a great offensive rhythm. And I’m proud of that. But I think we started the game and the half on our heels and so it’s exhausting. For us to have a Matt Ryan three to tie it, I don’t know if we deserve that frankly. Somehow the game got crazy and there we were in that position.”

Notre Dame Player Quotes

Demetrius Jackson ââ’¬” Junior ââ’¬” Guard

On Pittsburgh’s quick startââ’¬¦

“I think the way we play when we are 18 down is how we should be playing from the beginning. At that point, there is nothing to lose. We fought to claw our way back, but in the future we have to start with that intensity.”

On the Panthers’ shooting efficiencyââ’¬¦

“They are a really good team and have some really good players. We have to continue to grow on the defensive end and quick being disciplined and do whatever we can to win the game.”

On defensive correctionsââ’¬¦

“We have to come out better from the start. We can’t feel it out. We have to be physical from the start. If we have attention to detail, we will fix our mistakes and hopefully play better on Wednesday against Georgia Tech.”

Zach Auguste ââ’¬” Senior ââ’¬” Forward

On relying on his teammatesââ’¬¦

“You have to treat every game like it’s your last. I wasn’t able to stay in, fight through and help my brothers, but I trusted them to do what they could do. We just couldn’t get the win.”

On handling Pittsburgh’s strong start offensivelyââ’¬¦

“We have to use it as a learning experience. We just can’t come out soft, we can’t come out slow. We have to come out with guns shooting and blazing. That’s something we are going to learn from. We can’t wait. We have to do it now.”

Steve Vasturia ââ’¬” Junior – Guard

On the crowd’s contribution to the comebackââ’¬¦

“It’s always good to have them out here, cheering us on and being into the game. It’s always nice to have them. I’m sure we’ll see the same thing Wednesday evening.”

On handling the lossââ’¬¦

“We had a lot of opportunities that we wasted. We didn’t play a complete game and we had to fight our way back into it the whole time. That’s a tough way to play a game, so we have to learn to have better starts and learn from what we did today.”

Jamie Dixon ââ’¬” Pittsburgh Head Coach

On the win

“Good win against a team that hasn’t lost a home game. They are good, very talented and hard to guard, but we were hard to guard. Good start to the league – 3-0 in the ACC – and we’ll get ready for our next one.”

On the hard work of Sheldon Jeter

“We’ve had a lot of close games and he’ll (Jeter) continue to be in those games for obvious reasons. We feel that he is one of our five. We like the balance that he brings and his ability to score.”

On playing against Notre Dame

“They’re hard to guard. We got that lead and we were scoring. I think we continued to score the rest of the half, but they were making shots. We were making stops early, that is how we got the lead. They’re shooting 51 percent, 40 percent from three, so we knew a run was coming but I thought we kept making our shots and played good defense.”

Pittsburgh Player Quotes

Michael Young ââ’¬” Forward ââ’¬” Junior

On Pittsburgh’s offensive presenceââ’¬¦

“We didn’t come into the game thinking we were going to score as much as we did. Our goal was to come in and play defense and rebound, and if we did that we would have a great chance at winning. The points came, I started off hot and Sheldon (Jeter) came off the bench hot, but our rebounding was what won us the game.”

On having matchups in the gameââ’¬¦

“With our size, depth and front court we knew we had a great chance at out matching them because they play only two of their front court guys maybe the entire game. We could out-match them just with our depth.”

On starting the game strongââ’¬¦

“We came out hot and with such a good start, especially myself, but we knew they were going to make a run. It was just about withstanding their run and getting key stops especially in the first half but coming out hot to start definitely helps.”

On the importance of a good start, especially on the roadââ’¬¦

“You always want to come out and hit first because you don’t have your fans. You want to hit first instead of getting hit. It felt good to come out like we did and put everything together and win.”