Feb. 9, 2011
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Notre Dame Head Coach Mike Brey
On tonight’s game overall…
“What a great atmosphere. You’ve heard me say that before when we’ve had wins like this. I thought we really defended better after the first half. Their transition really bothered us. We had a hard time keeping up with them. We certainly defended the last five minutes of the game to get to overtime, and then I thought we were fabulous in overtime. Our seniors finished the game and started the overtime because they felt they could win for us. It was a heck of a game. A lot of toughness and smarts by our group to get out of here with a win.”
On switching from man to zone defense…
“We’re big; that group can play zone. We did not talk about it in the timeout. We kind of changed on the fly, and we did a great job. That is veteran guys making it work. That helped us. It changed their rhythm a little bit.”
On Jack Cooley’s play in the first half…
“Awesome. He kept us alive. You feel that in a game like that you don’t deserve to be down four-you deserve to be down twelve. You’re counting your blessings. Jack [Cooley] and Eric [Atkins] gave us a lift off the bench tonight. Jack [Cooley] was scoring for us. We couldn’t score.”
On Tim Abromaitis’ improved play…
“He was great on [Preston] Knowles, and then he scored well. We showed him some tape today of the game at Louisville last year when he had 29. He has a great rhythm, and we want him to keep riding it.”
On the team’s mindset going into overtime…
“I think we were thinking, ‘we’re probably lucky to be here, so now let’s win it’. These guys have been through a lot of experiences. They had a clean slate. They’ve missed some layups. They’ve had some defensive breakdowns. I said it’s 0-0, and we’re playing a 5-minute period. It was great to get a 3 to start overtime.”
Notre Dame Players
Ben Hansbrough – Senior – Guard
On the overtime performance in tonight’s game…
“We did not play very well offensively tonight. We were trying so hard to make our runs, but we really weren’t making shots. I thought Tim [Abromaitis] really stepped up and willed us to a win. We were in a heck of a draught, and we just got things going. We were due. If you give us enough time, we are going to start hitting shots.”
On the importance of confidence and being able to hold off Louisville…
“The whole team brought a lot of confidence. Especially when I had that rebound and I dropped it. It was great to see my guys will their way back into it and continue to fight. It was just a heck of a win for us. This is one of the wins that I will remember for the rest of my life.”
On the energy that Carleton Scott brought…
“I think that dunk was the signature. It was unbelievable. He played unbelievable, and it was a heck of a team effort.”
On the performance of Jack Cooley…
“I thought he was fabulous. Ten points in the first half.”
On the defensive effort…
“They really worked us. They started different against us. You have to give coach Pitino credit on that. He put four guards out there. I think they really wanted to spread us out and find some three-point gaps, and they did. But coach Brey did a great job adjusting.”
Jack Cooley – Sophomore – Forward
On providing energy and getting the crowd into the game…
“We had a great crowd tonight. They just seemed like they needed something to help them get going. I was very glad I was able to get out there. I got really hyper. I have to conserve more energy so I can keep doing what I’m doing. It felt great.”
On coming into the game and keeping the team afloat…
“Louisville is a great team. It was just a little rough patch for our team, and we couldn’t get anything flowing on offense. So I knew that something needed to happen. I just tried to help pick it up. Once I got those put-backs I started to make some offensive moves.”
On his performance …
“I would have to say that was probably the best four or five minutes in my career. That was just phenomenal. I was very glad I could go in and help my team. I felt a little lull, and I know that since we have such great scorers, they only needed a little time to get going.”
Tim Abromaitis – Senior – Forward
On what got the team going down the stretch…
“I think Jack [Cooley] was definitely huge in there. His offensive rebounds and put-backs really got us some momentum and gave us some confidence. Past that, I think it was just a total team effort. Carleton [Scott] played great in overtime. I think everybody really stepped up tonight.”
On Carleton Scott setting the tone in overtime…
“We were very confident after he hit that first three. We were able to execute. Ben [Hansbrough] was able to come off a few ball screens and create plays. It was really just everybody staying confident and poised.”
On guarding Preston Knowles on the last play in regulation…
“I did. He almost put it in right in my face. I was kind of fortunate that it bounced out because he is a great shooter and he made some tough ones.”
Scott Martin – Senior – Forward
On the end…
“We need to win games. Today, we knew we had to make stops at the end. We had to do it by stopping their drivers. We were able to do that at the end. We just really locked in on what we had to do at the end of the game.”
On upcoming road games…
“We are playing well on the road right now. We’re excited. We have a couple of road wins in a row and are trying to extend that streak. We are excited to play every game. When you’re playing well you just want to keep playing, and thankfully we get to do that.”
Carleton Scott – Senior – Forward
On playing in overtime…
“We have to come out and not play too tight even though it’s a tough time in the game. We have to just let it all hang out and go for it.”
On hanging in there for forty minutes…
“Definitely. We didn’t let anything get us down, even when they were knocking down shots. It was a good game. We knew it was going to be a dog-fight going in. We just had to keep our heads in it and do work.”
On Louisville driving lane…
“We had trouble with that all night. Siver is a great point guard. He’s quick, and I think we misjudged his quickness. He was a great point guard, got into the lane, got into our chest, and they were able to get looks outside.”
On defensive plan for the last 25 seconds…
“Just defend. Do whatever you have to do. Be scrappy. It was kind of crazy at the end of the game with Jennings almost getting a tip in, but I got my hand on it to knock it out. That was kind of crazy”
On huddle before overtime…
“We practiced this. We did game situations. If its been tied and into overtime, we practiced it. We know what to do.”
On being the quickest team to reach 20 wins in a calendar year…
“That’s a great achievement for us. Our work isn’t done. We have to turnaround and play at South Florida, and take this show on the road.”
On playing defense in overtime…
“Every game we have to rely on our defense. At times we got away from that, but, at the end of the game, we made sure that we come back to our defense.”
Tyrone Nash – Senior – Forward
On where this game ranks…
“It is definitely up there. To have the game pressure at home where we aren’t used to having game pressure, maybe two times against Marquette and now today. It’s great to get a win like this. We can always refer back to this game in future games. We can talk about how we were down late in the game, and were able to pull this out. Hit big shots, big free throws, and stay mentally tough to pull out a victory.”
On not accepting it just wasn’t our night…
“We just don’t want to be okay, it just wasn’t our night. I think we worked hard enough and have done enough to be a special team. We are capable of going out there and being a special team every night. We are capable of doing that 40 minutes every single day. If we manage to do that for 40 minutes, we are a special team, not just an okay team.”
On getting through the game and overtime…
“I think we need to play 45 minutes every game, especially against them. Mental toughness. We could have easily folded when shots weren’t going down for us, but we found it inside. It starts with Ben [Hansbrough] and works its way down to me. It is something we have inside that we don’t want to lose, especially in this place.”
Louisville Players
Peyton Siva – Guard – Sophomore
On the game performance overall…
“[Notre Dame] played like a team down the stretch. They are an experienced team. They shot over 50 percent in the first half from the 3-point line. They’re a great team. We tried to get it out, but couldn’t tonight.”
On the performance of the team in overtime…
“They took their shots down the stretch, and they moved the ball. We didn’t. We just gave it away at the end. They got every rebound, and we didn’t.”
On the situation of a close game…
“It didn’t go our way-that’s all. This game will allow us to learn from it. When we get into overtime, we need to execute. Our shots just didn’t go down. They’re really good, they’re tough and our shots just didn’t go down.”
Kyle Kuric – Guard – Junior
On the technical foul that he received…
“I was surprised to get that call, but it happens. The ref said that when I looked down at him, I taunted him and he gave me a T [technical]. I didn’t want to get another technical, so I didn’t argue my case for myself. I’ve only ever had two technicals before, back in grade school. It’s the first one for a while.”
On the overtime performance…
“They hit a lot of open threes.”
On Preston Knowles…
“I think he looked fine out there tonight.”
Preston Knowles – Guard – Senior
On the game performance overall…
“I took the game very personally. I was trying to do everything myself. And coming off an injury, after having not played in the last game, it got to be too much. I think if I didn’t let a lot of things get into my head, this game would have been all right, but I took everything too personally. Because we didn’t get a lot of ball movement, I just tried to do it all myself, and with how this team is, you can’t do that. As a team captain, you can’t let anything bother you. That’s why I always stay upbeat and positive. I was showing great emotion, but just in a negative way, and I can’t do that with my team. I let a lot of things get to me, and it hurt our team tonight. I’ll take full responsibility for this loss. Kyle [Kuric] had a great game, and we were going to it, but down the stretch, I just did a poor job of leading this team.”
On Kyle Kuric’s technical foul…
“I was very surprised by that. I have a lot to say about a lot of stuff, but I just stayed quiet.”
Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino
On what jumped out to him during tonight’s game…
“That was a great basketball game. We played as intelligent as we could play in the first half. We put in a new offense to go against them and have worked on it the past two weeks. It’s a pure motion offense, and we got the ball inside, made great cuts, and made great plays. In the second half we broke it because it is a new offense and we tried to go too much one-on-one. That was our demise along with certain things defensively that we didn’t do correctly. But I’m real proud of our guys because Notre Dame is one of the premier teams in the country and we went on the road and lost in overtime.”
On his team’s defensive schemes…
“We were playing zone and man and opened with man to start. But a couple times we didn’t guard the ball screen correctly.”
On Louisville’s overtime performance…
“Everything went bad including the tip. We got the tip but tipped it to the wrong guy and they made a three. I think we fatigued a little bit. Steven Van Treese was sick and Mike Marra had a bad back, so I didn’t want to play him a whole lot. He got beat almost every possession defensively because he had a hurt back. Overall, I still think it was a very gutty performance.”
On the strategy of the final possession in regulation…
“We just wanted to get the last shot. Notre Dame switched to a zone and we were supposed to screen the outside of the zone, and Peyton Siva went to the wrong side of the floor. He should have gone left where we had the overload. But that’s okay. We got a shot up and that’s what we wanted.”
On how the new offense benefited Terrence Jennings…
“It definitely helped Terrence the most. He no longer got the ball out of the lane but he caught the ball in the middle of the lane. This in turn helped every single player. In the second half, we broke it too much. Instead of looking for the high percentage shot, we tried going one-on-one too much.”
On the referee’s explanation of Kyle Kuric’s technical foul…
“He said Kyle looked at [Scott Martin], so that was considered taunting. First of all, he’s a mime. At first the ref said Kyle said something, but [Kyle] hasn’t said anything in three years. He’s a complete mime. He’s the nicest young man on the team.”
On the team’s fight throughout the game…
“The whole team played great until the last ten minutes of the second half. I thought the whole team played very gutty. I think the motion is going to be great for us. We need more time to work on it. Terrence Jennings was the only one fighting against it because he didn’t like setting screens, but in basketball the screener is more often more open than the guy he is screening for. The screener is the most dangerous guy on the court. Even though Terrence is old, he still had to learn that.”