Feb. 26, 2011
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Notre Dame Women’s Basketball
Notre Dame vs. Cincinnati
February 26, 2011
Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center – Notre Dame, Ind.
Notre Dame Head Coach Muffet McGraw
Opening Statements…
“I thought we had a great spurt of a game during the second half. We came out and played our game. I think that Senior Day got to us early on. I think it got to people other than the seniors. It was a difficult game to play. We are at that point in the season we need to continue to be intense and focus and offensively we did not do that today. I thought Dev(ereaux Peters) came out and she played well. She pretty much carried us throughout the game, in the first half with her defense and her rebounding and with her scoring. Then Skylar came in and she attacked the basket. That was good. “
On what she said at halftime…
“We wanted to get back to our defensive intensity. They got us 9-0 at the end of the half. I had made some poor choices substituting so I think we decided to go with our starters as long as we could. Then Natalie (Novosel) got hit and Brittany (Mallory) got her third foul and unfortunately we weren’t able to go through the bonus one and two. I think that was a big key and getting the starters on the court. I was disappointed, but I think they were too. I didn’t feel the need to scream at all. We just talked about what we needed to do, and then they went out and did it. I felt better having not screamed when we were making the 21-0 run than I would have if I would have screamed at them.”
On starting Mary Forr…
“Yesterday at practice we were talking about Senior Day and that I would be starting Mary. She started with a big smile and then ended in tears and I think she was a little overcome with emotion. The best thing about the whole announcement was how quickly Dev was to say that she could start for her and then Brittany followed with the same thing. Everybody was willing to give up their spot for her. Then Skylar came up to me after practice and said ‘You have to start the seniors. Dev is a senior and she needs to start and I will come off of the bench.’ That kind of attitude with the whole team I thought was great. It was great for Mary. It was Becca’s day, but I thought it was great for Mary to be out there. I think she got a thrill being a starter.”
On Kaila Turner and her three pointers…
“She is a really good shooter. She has been shooting well at practice and she works on it quite a bit. We talked about her looking for opportunities and taking the shot a lot more off of the dribble than she did today. I think she felt really confident. We really needed to score at that point and it was good that she decided to shoot it. “
On Becca Bruszewski…
“I think her contribution over four years has been outstanding. But her contribution this year from a leadership perspective has surpassed everyone’s expectations. I think she has taken this team and really set the tone the entire year. Off the court, on the court, and in the locker room she says the right things and does the right things. She has always been a really hard worker and relentless competitor. She brings it every single day and comes to practice ready to go. It doesn’t matter how she is feeling. If she gets hit she comes right back in. She is the most amazing competitor I think I have ever coached. She would never quit. She just doesn’t have that word in her vocabulary. And the team feeds off of that. She has been an amazing leader for us and she is a big part of why we are where we are.”
Cincinnati Head Coach Jamelle Elliot
On Cincinnati’s first half defense…
“I don’t know how much of that is our defense or if it was just them coming out playing the basketball that they typically don’t play. I would love to give credit to our defense, but I just don’t know if I can. I wouldn’t have envisioned us going into halftime only down eight against a good basketball team like Notre Dame. I was definitely happy going into the half down eight, but whether or not it was our defense or them being sloppy and not their normal selves, I don’t know. I was hoping we could come out into the second half building on that, but they (Notre Dame) started playing the basketball that they are capable of playing.”
On the difficulties of playing in the BIG EAST with only seven players…
“Tough. You can see how tough it is based on our record. Being down to seven players, while playing in what I think to be one of the hardest conferences in the country, is hard because you never have a break. Every night you play a team that’s quick, athletic, and deep. At this point, teams are battling to win basketball games and every win means a whole lot in this conference. We wouldn’t expect anybody to take it easy on us simply because we only have seven players and the result of that is we haven’t been winning too many basketball games. As you guys saw today, though, we played extremely hard. It’s a process and hopefully we continue to climb that BIG EAST ladder. I’m hoping to follow in the footsteps of teams like West Virginia and Syracuse who started somewhere in the basement and worked their way up. It’s going to take some time, but hopefully we get good results.”
On the message at halftime…
“The message at halftime was that we were in the game and don’t be surprised by it. Being down eight points at halftime against probably the second best passing team that we have faced all year, I was surprised but I didn’t tell my team that. I wanted them to build on that and come out in the second half with that same confidence that we ended the first half with. Obviously Notre Dame continued to press us and I think at the beginning of the second half that pressure wore us down a little bit. We turned the ball over 28 times and you can’t do that against a team like Notre Dame and expect to be in the ball game, which we weren’t in the end.”
Notre Dame Players
Becca Bruszewski – Senior – Forward
On what Senior Day was like…
“Today was great. Definitely something I always dreaded as an underclassmen to see the seniors go. I think we played a little jittery in the beginning and I think that is going to happen. We had new lineups that we are not used to. How we were playing and the flow of the game was kind of iffy. We got back at it and halftime we all talked about what we needed to do on the court to take care of business so after the game we would be comfortable with how we played.”
On what Notre Dame has meant to her…
“So much. That is really all I can say both on and off of the court. I was on the bench with Dev the last few minutes and I was sitting there watching the crowd and the game. I was just really taking it all in like I did at the last football game. I have been keeping it in check, every last thing I do. And my teammates remind me of that.”
Devereaux Peters – Senior – Forward
On the posts…
“I think after the Connecticut game Becca did really well. I think the rest of us were kind of off of our game and we really wanted to get back to what we were used to. I think we got it back at West Virginia and continued today to keep the pressure inside and do what we normally do.”
On her points…
“The team usually makes fun of me and says that I try to pack my stats. They were a little bit of a smaller group so I always look for that advantage inside and really tried to crash and get in there and get offensive rebounds. Coach is really on us about that and how we don’t get in there so I tried to make it a point with them being smaller and not having a lot of people to get inside and get those rebounds.”