Jan. 14, 2007

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Notre Dame Head Coach Mike Brey Quotes

On Seton Hall’s Style and Comeback…
“They get you in a frenzied pace and just keep coming after you. They have a lot of guys with quick hands. I thought overall we did a good job. They got to us there a little bit but thank God we had a little breathing room. We were very good defensively, especially defending the three-point line. We guarded the line and made them two-point shooters.”

On The Play Of The Backcourt …
“I was very impressed with our young guards. [Ryan] Ayers and [Jonathan] Peoples had career days. Colin Falls has been slowed with a stomach virus and we gave it a try but he’s just not 100 percent and those two guys stepped forward.”

On Zach Hillesland’s Strong All-Around Game …
“Zach has been the designated press-breaker because he is just so good with the ball and can get through traps. He keeps attacking the defense and we don’t get passive when he is in the game, we’re still trying to win and go forward. His temperament helps us stay aggressive. Zach also did a great job defending Laing and Harvey at times. He is a big part of our rotation.

On Areas Of Improvement …
“We still have a lot to work on – mainly on the defensive end and rebounding. On offense, we have been very unselfish and it’s just a matter of having the right guys in there at the right time.”

On Russell Carter’s Sparkplug Play …
“There was more pressure on Russ to jumpstart us with Falls touch-and-go due to his illness. [Carter] can ignite us.”

On The Next Game …
“Villanova is very good – they went in and beat Georgetown on the road. They lost some guys from last year but they will put on pressure and come after us athletically. We are going to have to be good with the basketball and guard drivers with a lot of speed. It will be the toughest road atmosphere that we have been in so far this season.”

Freshman G Tory Jackson

On the presence of the underclassmen on the court…

“That’s a big plus for us. Between the young guys that have this experience, and especially in a conference like the Big East, we all come with it. We don’t worry about what class we’re in-we’re just worried about going out there and fighting, and giving it our all. Today that’s what we did.”

Freshman G Jonathan Peoples

On the play of sophomore Zach Hillesland…

“We always look for Zach in the middle. He’s one of our best all-around players. He can handle pressure, he’s a good dribbler, and I think he makes good decisions. All the time in practice we practice different situations, and every time Zach’s in the middle he always seems to create for us. We wanted to spread them out, and me and Tory just gave Zach the ball in the middle to penetrate and find open people. Zach played the best today.

On Notre Dame’s all-underclassmen lineup at times during the game… I didn’t even recognize it [until someone else pointed it out]. I think we all have confidence, and we don’t look at each other as freshmen or sophomores. We look at each other as just being teammates.”

Seton Hall Head Coach Bobby Gonzalez

Opening statement …

“I’m proud of our kids for battling and trying to make it a game. The game really could have gotten away from us and turned into a 20 or 30-point blowout two or three different times. We had an iron will and we kept being resilient and fighting. We pretty much did the best we could. They’re a heck of a team even without Kyle McAlarney. They are one of the best shooting teams in the country that I’ve seen. We’ve played Brigham Young, Virginia Tech and teams in our conference, St. John’s and Rutgers. They are just a really, really hard team to guard offensively. They have a lot of options and everyone can shoot the ball. We tried very, very hard to keep them from getting their average, which was 83 points a game and they got 88. We tried not to let them make nine three-pointers from a variety of ways, either pressure defense, zone or man and trying to contest the three-point line and they still went 10 for 20 from the three-point line. They just out-classed us and they are a really good team.”

On having a young team playing on the road in the BIG EAST …

“Eugene Harvey and Larry Davis are puppies. They are only babies, they are freshmen. We got 13 from Davis and 17 from Harvey. Jamar Nutter and Brian Laing stepped up. We have to get a little more from our inside game. Stan Gaines had a pretty good first half. He and Grant Billmeier didn’t give us much (in the second half). We had tough match-ups with how skilled they are. Not only do we have young guys playing, but we are very, very thin inside. It’s no secret that we are thin inside and they beat us on the backboard by five. We really battled to make it a game on the glass because they were coming in plus 10 and we were coming in minus two. We have two big challenges all the time, playing a young backcourt and the fact we can’t match-up with people’s interior at this level.”