Jan. 4, 2011
Recap | Box Score | Notes | AP Photo Gallery 
Notre Dame Men’s Basketball Notre Dame vs. Connecticut
January 4, 2010
Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center – Notre Dame, Ind.
Notre Dame Head Coach Mike Brey
Opening Statement…
“I think that our team awareness of (Kemba) Walker was great. I told Ben Hansbrough that it was a heck of a workout to guard Walker and then score 21 points while making key plays. Ben has been a man, but tonight he was the ultimate man on both ends of the floor. I thought that our team defense was excellent and that we rebounded well enough to win. I was concerned about us rebounding, especially without Carleton (Scott), but we did well enough to come out with a win.”
On Ben Hansbrough…
“I love him. He makes me confident everyday and he’s making his teammates believe and get confident since he has gotten here.”
On the approach without Carleton Scott…
“The only thing that I had talked about to the team was that we had been there before (lost Harangody last year). I was proud of Jack Cooley and Joey Brooks, who gave us good minutes tonight at key times, and they will continue to have to do that. The one thing not having Carleton does, though, is it makes Scott Martin a four-man. When a big man chases him around he’s pretty good. I think that he was excited because he could get to the post a little more than usual and it seemed like he took advantage of some of those matchups. I told him before the jump ball that there is nobody in the gym that can guard you tonight and he was strong right out of the gate. I think that was a key to get off to a good start without Carleton because the guys then knew we were going to be fine.”
On the lessons learned from the past week…
“We have a mentally and physically tough group. We weren’t as tough in the paint as we needed to be in the Carrier Dome (at Syracuse) and we really took the time to talk about that. They really wanted to make up for that tonight by playing great defense. I think that our mental toughness is every bit as great as our physical toughness.”
On Jack Cooley…
“He is a crowd favorite so everybody gets juiced up a little bit. Our guys just love playing with him and Ben (Hansbrough) absolutely loves him. He really gives us some toughness and bought us some time with Ty Nash in foul trouble tonight.”
Notre Dame Players
Tim Abromaitis – Senior – Forward
On the satisfaction from tonight’s win…
“I think we would have liked to be 3-0 [in the Big East], but we’re definitely happy to get this win. UConn is a really good team and out of the three teams that we have played they were really good, but then again, every night in the BIG EAST is going to be tough. Our challenges really aren’t over yet.”
On playing well against three BIG EAST teams…
“I think it really says that we are a good team. Obviously the BIG EAST is going to throw us challenges, but we’re a pretty poised group, and we’re able to handle any adversity that comes at us whether it’s Carleton [Scott] going down or guys in foul trouble. I think we’re able to bounce back, and that will be big the rest of the year.”
Tyrone Nash – Senior – Forward
On the positives and negatives of playing such a strenuous schedule…
“A positive is getting to play as much as I can. I love playing basketball, and this is my last year so any chance I have to get out and play really excites me. But we really need to prepare for two good teams, especially one of the hottest teams in the league right now, St. Johns. Then we go to Marquette, and they are a great team. If we focus in and take it one game at a time, we have St. Johns first and then move on to the next game I think we will be alright.”
Ben Hansbrough – Senior – Guard
On what the game against UConn allowed him to do as a player…
“Like I said, guarding a lot of pro point guards over the summer really helped me get used to that level [of play]. Guarding guys like Raymond Felton and a lot of those guys prepares you to guard to guard the best BIG EAST guards. I came out and tried to make things hard on them.”
On guarding Kemba Walker…
“Once you get out there playing you really get into a flow. I was just reacting to his moves. I told Coach (Brey) the other day in practice, I was having the hardest practice of my life, and I told coach I don’t want to come out [of practice] because I want to be in good shape to go out and guard Kemba [Walker] tomorrow night. He understood and put me right back in. You just have to continue to get in better shape. I think I prepared myself in terms of cardio to have a chance to keep up with those little guards all night.”
Eric Atkins – Freshman – Guard
On the statistics from tonight’s game…
“We won the rebounding game, and every time we win the rebounding game, we win the game. That’s the first thing that really jumps out at me.”
On rebounding as a point of emphasis and playing the game without Carlton Scott…
“Carleton Scott was a really good rebounder for us, and UConn is a really good rebounding team, so we really just had to get in there and crash the boards and then rebound and go from there.”
On the pressure UConn brought to the game…
“I think we handled the pressure well. We didn’t have any turnovers when they were pressuring us, and I think that was big. I think we handled it well, and we came out with a win.”
Connecticut Head Coach Jim Calhoun
On the loss to Notre Dame…
“I thought that Notre Dame did a great job, especially with (Carleton) Scott out and (Eric) Atkins played well against a pressure defense. I thought we did an incredibly poor job opening the game, allowing three-point shots to get them into a rhythm. They had a very nice three-point shot at the end of the half when they were well defended, that’s not what I am worried about. I am worried about the other six when they weren’t defended.”
On small details making a big difference…
“They physically handled us getting over screens. They physically handled us during rebounds. They pushed and bumped us. We all know this is a very physical league and they did a nice job with it. I think this is the most physical defensive team Mike (Brey) has had and obviously offensively they did a great job.”
Evaluating the game…
“We are a young team, but I also thought they did what they needed to do to win. I thought we tried to tire them out and it did show up in their missed free throws. We still had a chance to win right down until the last nine seconds when we came down the court and didn’t see Kemba (Walker) wide open.”