Nov. 14, 2009

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Notre Dame vs. North Florida
Nov. 14, 2009 – Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center – Notre Dame, Ind.
Quotes

Notre Dame Head Coach Mike Brey

On coaching his team to a dominating victory over North Florida…
I thought we were very efficient offensively, collecting 11 first half turnovers and converting them into points; it’s a group that’s fun to watch. It’s a group that has fun when they play. They all pass the ball, and willingly pass it, and we capitalized on scoring opportunities, especially in the first half. Everyone did a great job for us. We had seven days to get ready since our last game and we just want to get better this week.

On maintaining scoring opportunities on the deep ball after losing Kyle McAlarney…
Well, as we certainly saw, Ben Hansbrough can shoot the ball. He hadn’t made a shot from the three-point range in the first two exhibition games, but he’s going to be our hot threat shooter. And Tory [Jackson] and [Jonathan Peoples] are going to fill that role for us as we saw in the exhibition games. When you look at Jon Peoples and Tory Jackson you can see that their percentages say that they should be able to shoot [the deep ball]. We just want to make sure that we move the ball more than two passes before taking the shot. It was good to see (Tim) Abromaitis get in there, because he’s going to have to score for us.

On the Irish’s first victory in the new Purcell Pavilion…
It was great to see so many fans come out on such a beautiful day. When I looked at the weather report I was unsure how many people we would get to come out, but we had a great student section. I was wondering who it was that made the first basket and it looks like it was [Jonathan Peoples] with the three. So I guess it’s Jonathan that gets the honors today.

Notre Dame Players

Luke Harangody – Sr. – Forward

On letting the other players play…
They were bringing double teams all the time, and my touches aren’t always going to be there. It’s so fun to play this offense because on nights like this, I really don’t have to do much.

On Ben Hansbrough’s shooting and the overall team play…
He does really shoot like that everyday. During the first two exhibition games he shot like that all the time. Everyone was very solid today especially on the defensive end. The freshmen played especially well today.

On overpowering North Florida…
It wasn’t a matter of competition. This is a good warm-up for what we have coming up later and over Thanksgiving. We don’t take these games lightly at the same time.

Ben Hansbrough – Sr. – Guard

On his three-point shooting
I didn’t say I wasn’t a three-point shooter. I just made some shots today and got better from the three-point line. I’ve been working on my jump shot with [Tory] Jackson in the gym. It’s been a year and a half since I played a real game, but it’s been fun.

On Luke Harangody’s quiet 19 points.
He had a quiet night tonight, but the big man was in there banging around for a quiet 19 points. That just speaks for itself.

On what the team will bring to every game in order to win…
We’ll bring intensity. I can’t tell you that we’re going to make shots everyday, but we’ll have intensity on defense. We’ll play hard and do our best to win.

Tory Jackson – Sr. – Guard

On his analysis of today’s game…
I feel like we still have a lot of things to work on. We shot well today, but once we get ahead by 20-30 points we have to learn to make the same good decisions that got us there. The defensive end of the game was amazing.

On his view of the team from a veteran’s standpoint…
Even with Ben Hansbrough coming in, it feels like he’s been here all along. He’s just another one of the other Notre Dame players now. The younger guys didn’t let the pressure get to them today; they just went out and played. I think they got all of their nervousness out during the exhibition games and now they’re ready to go out and play like we do during pickup games and at practice.

On playing in the new arena…
It doesn’t feel like a new arena. We just got a few new things to get used to such as changing the bench. It feels good to hear the crowd cheering again. The fans were great today. I was very happy with the turnout especially in the student section. To have that here is great.

North Florida Head Coach Matthew Driscoll

On what impressed him about this Notre Dame team…
When Notre Dame went on that 10-0 run in the first half, and obviously when they were making three pointers like that, it’s tough to get up and stay up with anybody and win. That is disappointing on my part and on our part – that we did not take away those three’s like we needed to. I give Notre Dame credit for that. Any time you score 28 buckets and you have 21 assists that means that your team is playing as a team, and I thought Notre Dame did a great job of sharing the sugar and getting the ball to the right guy in order to make shots.

On what Notre Dame did to space the floor and to get open shots…
Notre Dame did a good job of throwing the ball in, reversing it out, and making the extra pass. It is like the old hockey assist they talk about; I bet Notre Dame had about 15or so of those hockey assists tonight. They were making the extra pass that led to the pass. When you are a good team and when you have seniors and veteran guys who know what they are doing you can hurt teams.

On how Notre Dame was able to get such a big lead on his team so quickly…
Yesterday when I stopped and said prayers on the campus of Notre Dame, I was saying a prayer and sniffling. Some young woman put her hands on my shoulders because she thought I crying. I was kind of wishing that she was going to come back and put her hands back on my shoulders early on in the game. It is hard when you are down by 30 to go into the locker room and come out with some sort of a 30-point game plan, especially with the way Notre Dame was playing.

On how his team can learn from this loss…
Hopefully this is one of those learning points from film we can use to get better. However, I do not like learning from losing. I do not think that is a great way to learn. I would rather learn from winning.