Dec. 15, 2012
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery 
Notre Dame Coach Mike Brey
Opening Statement
“I thought that was very business-like by us today. We are an older team, and I thought it was men kind of playing like men. Thrilled with our defense, especially in the second half held them scoreless for a while. I thought our offense efficiency was excellent again. These guys love playing together. (Pat) Connaughton played terrific against (D.J.) Byrd. He also gave us some scoring. Our big guys, (Jack) Cooley, (Scott) Martin, and (Garrick) Sherman all helped on ball screens. There were a lot of ball screens and our guards needed help against driving guys who gave us problems at times. All 3 of those guys were really there with their bodies to clog that up for the most part.”
Talk about the state of the team going forward:
“We have a great frame of mind. These guys love playing together, and they do play beautifully together. How they move the ball, cut, and share it. I love that we have had a defensive identity from the beginning of the season. Our offensive identity has just kicked in. We can still get better. Sherman is still getting comfortable. (Cameron) Biedscheid is still getting comfortable. That’s what I really want us to concentrate on here. We have six more days before we take a Christmas break, and we have three games.”
Talk about the way they made free throws down the stretch:
“We were a little shaky in the beginning. I looked out there and I turned to coach Anthony Solomon and I told him that this group has been in this situation a lot. They have iced games away there at the line. They did that like a group that has done it a lot before.”
What was key to get out to the 24-point lead:
“We played really well on defense. They only had two points in the second half for a while. We were really proud of the way we played defense as a team, and we rebounded well.”
Talk about where the ball club is now:
We are playing very well, especially on the offensive end. Our defense was good at the beginning of the year, and now our offense is catching up to where our defense was. We are flowing very well, and we’re just playing really well on offense. No one is being selfish, and that is great to see.”
What allowed you to play your game when you had two fouls:
“Coach switched me off Ronnie Johnson. He was being very aggressive. Coach just told me to keep playing my game on the offensive side of the ball.”
What was going through your head, when Purdue cut the lead down to nine:
“At that point, I think we just really wanted to win. We tried to get stops, and we started hitting our free-throws. I think that was the biggest thing at that point when they were coming back. We knew they were going to foul us a lot, and I think we did a good job down the stretch hitting our free-throws.”