Feb. 24, 2010

Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery

Notre Dame Men’s Basketball
Notre Dame vs. Pittsburgh
February 24, 2010
Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center – Notre Dame, Ind.

Notre Dame Head Coach Mike Brey

On Notre Dame’s defensive performance…
“I thought we executed our plays well in playing slower, and we managed the tempo really well…I’m really happy with this group, they played their backsides off. The past couple games without Luke (Harangody) it’s been tough, but they’ve really kept it up in practice and I think tonight it really paid off.”

On who leads the team in the absence of Harangody…
“I think there’s no question, certainly our guards were great, Ben [Hansbrough] and Tory [Jackson] set the tone, and they must continue to set the tone for us to have a shot. They know that. They’ve really been stretched, they certainly were tonight, and Ty Nash – three points and seven rebounds – he’s become our low post option, now that Luke is out. He’s embraced that and handled that very well, and he seems to be proud of it.”

On Notre Dame’s outstanding offensive efficiency…
“We played a very physical Pittsburgh team tonight, we had a very physical game, and I think what’s important is that our guys enjoyed playing a physical basketball team. We need that, and we’ll continue to need it. We’ll be challenged like that every game we play the rest of the way, that’s what this league is all about. But I’m very, very proud of my group, I couldn’t have been prouder in a loss than a week ago in Louisville, but that game we didn’t really shoot well and couldn’t finish, and tonight we did, and I think that’s a very big step forward for us.”

Notre Dame Player Quotes

Ben Hansbrough – Senior – Guard

On his thoughts whether this was the “biggest win of the season”…
“This game and West Virginia were. They are a really tough team; ranked 11th in the country. They’ve proven themselves in the BIG EAST. We knew what we had to do to win tonight. We had to play with toughness and we did that.”

On carrying on this win and its energy in the rest of the season…
“We just need to keep on improving offensively, getting good shots every time and taking care of the ball. Now we just try to take this kind of energy and discipline on the road.”

Jack Cooley – Freshman – Forward

On waiting for a chance to see more meaningful minutes…
“You know, as long as the team is doing well, I am alright. I know my part and my part is in practice to help out the team and make everyone better there. I knew to be ready for when my chance came to just get out there and try my hardest.”

On his development over the past few games…
“I have worked on my conditioning and my quickness a lot. My strength also has improved considerably since the beginning of the season, which has been key. I have also been working on some post moves with the coaches.”

On fitting into the lineup…
“It is definitely different from high school when every (play) goes off of you. Here, my part is to get other people open and as long as the team is winning I’m perfectly okay with that. That is definitely an adjustment I had to make.”

Tory Jackson – Senior – Guard

On the importance of carrying this win to the Georgetown game Saturday and remaining composed there…
“It will be huge because it gets rowdy in (the Verizon Center). It gets loud and a team like that, they can make room. But we’ve just got to be poised, be smart on offense and be great on defense…we’ve got to be great (on defense).”

On the importance of tonight’s win…
“A lot of teams haven’t beaten Pittsburgh. This conference is tough. Whenever you can get a BIG EAST win, it’s a positive. A win against a team like that who has got a great RPI means a lot for us right now. It shows us and everyone else that we can compete. We still can do this as a team. We can play with the best in the league.”

Luke Harangody – Senior – Forward

On what it means to be the first member in Notre Dame’s Ring of Honor…
“This is a huge honor. When Coach (Brey) first brought this up to me, I was shocked. I am honored to be the first one up there too, thinking of the great players who already came through here.

On starting the Ring of Honor, a practice similar to many other programs…
“Everywhere we go on the road, we talk about that, ‘who is this’, and ‘who is that’? In five years we will have a lot of names up there, and that just helps the tradition of the school.”

Tim Abromaitis – Junior – Forward

On the team’s quick start…
“We really emphasized coming out with a lot of energy. We came out ready to play today, we had prepared for them well, and I think we were really efficient on offense all the time.”

On shooting three-pointers collectively…
“We can be really good. Especially with Harangody out, we have had to spread it out a little bit more. Ty Nash was able to give us presence and size but at the same time we were moving around the parameter really well and we were getting good shots.”

On the defensive effort…
“I think we prepared for them well in terms of scouting and things like that, but I think it was just the team effort really. Everybody came out ready to guard their man. We were getting rebounds all night. I think we just came out ready to play.”

Tyrone Nash – Junior – Forward

On the level of pressure….
“Maybe there was a little sense of urgency. We practiced a lot this week with a sense of urgency and I think that really helped us today. We knew we had a good team coming in here and we knew we just wanted to get back into the win column. I am proud of the way we played, I am proud of the way Jack (Cooley) played, everybody, Carleton (Scott), Mike (Broghammer), they just all played well.”

On what can be learned from tonight’s game for Saturday’s game at Georgetown…
“That sense of urgency that we played with today. We just want to finish it. We want to go in with that same mentality that we went into Louisville and today.”

Pittsburgh Head Coach Jamie Dixon

On the way he thought his team played…
“Well congratulations to Notre Dame. I am sure they are very happy with the way they played. On the other hand, we are not very happy with the way we played. Obviously, we got beat in pretty much every aspect, but this is one game and it is one loss. Right now it feels like a number of losses but we need to move on and get ready for St. John’s on Saturday. To Notre Dame’s credit, they made shots from the beginning to the end of the game. It seemed as though they hit a lot of shots at the end of the shot clock, and when they did not make shots they were able to get long rebounds. The numbers just speak for themselves. They played well and made shots.”

On his disappointment about the amount of threes Notre Dame made tonight…
“That is what we really emphasized to start the game. We had talked about it over the last three days, that they were going to need to make threes to do well. Sure enough, the first play of the game they made a three. They hit a bunch early and really set the tone. They obviously used clock and kept holding the ball and we did not play well enough. It is tough to lose a game by fifteen and only have four turnovers. But we just did not get to the free throw line, we did not get rebounds, and we did not make shots.”

On how he thought it was different playing Notre Dame without Luke Harangody…
“If you watch the game against Louisville, a game they should have won as they were up the whole time in the first overtime. They played well on the road and they just move the ball and they shoot it well. If you make your threes you are going to beat a lot of people and they made them tonight.”

Pittsburgh Player Quotes

Jermaine Dixon – Senior – Guard

On Notre Dame’s three-point shooting…
“It was definitely disappointing. We didn’t play good defense. We let them get a lot of open looks from three. When they did miss one, they got the offensive rebound. They definitely outworked us.”

On Notre Dame constantly running the shot clock down…
“Coach (Jamie) Dixon said that they like to run it down to the end of the shot clock and they end up getting a lot of threes off. He said that we had to make sure that they didn’t get the rebound when they missed one, but they did. They just outplayed us and wanted it more than we did. There’s not much else I can say about it.”