Nov. 15, 2015

Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery

Notre Dame Head Coach Muffet McGraw

Opening Statement…

“I thought Bucknell did a really good job of executing their offense. They were able to drive the ball to the basket numerous times. They exposed our lack of weak-side help rotation. They rebounded the ball extremely well and played hard. They out-toughed us and out-worked us. They out-rebounded us by 11, so that’s something that we need to work on. We have some better rebounders than we showed today, and we hopefully will show tremendous improvement after this game. I think we learned a lot. Offensively, we struggled at times. Defensively, we had a lot of breakdowns. We have a lot of work to do. We are not where we need to be right now.”

On postgame ceremony honoring her 700th win at Notre Dame…

“It was great to be here in front of our fans. We have such great support here from everybody. Our fans have been tremendous. My family was here. My staff has been so important to me. Tot he administration here with Jack [Swarbrick] and Jill [Bodensteiner] and everybody that has given so much support, I am so thankful. It has been an honor for me to coach here.”

On goals when she started…

“I wasn’t much of a goal setter. I think my first and only goal here was to pack the Joyce. One thing I wanted to see was a big crowd here. We were able to do that and continue to do that. Every time I come out to the arena before the game and see the people supporting us, I want to pinch myself.”

On player’s streaks…

“We were trying to go inside for the most of the game. We weren’t as effective in the first half. We came out in the second half and looked to go inside. I thought Brianna did a much better job in the second half. Marina gave us a huge lift off the bench. I think that was just an opportunity that she saw and took advantage of.”

On areas of concern…

“The areas of concern I have are many. They are in pretty much every area of the game. We have to figure out what we are going to get from a certain player every single night. Consistency is something that you expect freshmen to be pretty up and down with, but the rest of the team you expect to be on a certain level and we are not there yet. That is a huge concern with the veterans. Defensively, we knew that we weren’t a great defensive team, but we are a lot better than what we showed tonight. We were unaware of who their best player was and where the ball was. I don’t think we pressured the ball. I thought the press was pretty good, but that needs work too. We’ve got a ton of work to do.”

On Lindsay Allen and foul trouble…

“It’s a concern not to have Lindsay on the floor, and I think you can see that. The second quarter was really sketchy. We struggle without her on the floor in every way. We can play with pretty much any four people around her and be successful because she will get us into something good. When she is not in the game, we have to watch who is playing with who because we can get some bad combinations out there on both ends of the floor. Having here out there for forty minutes is a must. She needs to stay out of foul trouble. There were a couple of poor decisions on her part. She could have let a couple of those go. They were more like freshman mistakes that she probably won’t make again. I think she learned a lot from that. We have great depth at every other position, but that is the one player we need on the floor.”

Marina Mabrey – Freshman – Guard

On head coach Muffet McGraw’s impact…

“She’s really tough on us, but that helps us because we learn faster. She sets us up to do well and puts us into good positions. She has also been very patient with the freshmen.”

On her start to her college career…

“As I said, Coach puts us in really good positions to score on offense. I need to work on my rotations and being more aware of where I am, where the best players are, and where I need to be. Also, I need to make smarter passes on offense. I think everyday I get a little bit better with what I need to learn, but today I don’t think I got better. So hopefully tomorrow I will, it’s a new day.”

Brianna Turner – Sophomore – Forward

On head coach Muffet McGraw’s impact…

“I think that she is such a great leader and knows so much about the game. I learn something new about the game. I will come out of practice and know five new things about basketball that I didn’t know the previous day. She’s such a great teacher and it’s great to learn every day.”

On starting the season with a win…

“It’s nice to start the season with a win. But like Coach is saying, we have to learn from here and grow from the mistakes we made this game to grow in our next game.”

On defense today…

“We need to know where we need to be. It would help to communicate better. It’s always loud in here because we have really great fans, so we need to be loud and communicate a lot. That would help with our defensive rotations.”

Bucknell Head Coach Aaron Roussell

Opening Statement…

“First and foremost, I want to congratulate Coach McGraw on her 700th win (at Notre Dame). She’s the absolute best, and she’s been great to a lot of coaches. I hate to say that I’m honored to have been the one beaten for her 700th, to be in the building, but she’s great to me personally. She opened her doors for me when I was back in (the University of) Chicago. We talked a lot of hoops and she opened up her practices for me. She’s the best, and I hope everyone here knows how great they have it with a coach like that. There’s a lot of talent here, but she’s pretty awesome, and it’s cool for her to get that achievement today. As far as today goes, I was proud of our effort. There were a couple of lapses here and there and I thought the score got away from us there at the end. As far as we went, concerning the matchup and the size issues that we had, I was proud of our effort. There’s only so much you can do when the other side has the talent and coaching that they had today.”

On outrebounding Notre Dame…

“I’m very proud of that. That’s something that we hang our hat on. I think the number of times that they turned it over had an affect on that, which I’m not too naïve to understand. Being a fan and a follower of this program and Coach McGraw, I know not many people outrebound them. That will be a takeaway for us, the effort on the boards. We missed some shots. They have a lot of size and are good on defense, and that bothered us at times. So for us to go out and get some second chances, I’m proud of our kids. “