Nov. 8, 2013
Notre Dame Head Coach Mike Brey
Opening Statement …
“It was good for us, because it was a hard game. The way it starts out, you think it’s going to be maybe like the exhibition games. And they make a run, which is what college basketball is all about, and you can’t really get away from them. And there’s some game pressure on you. I love that it wasn’t easy for us, and some guys didn’t play as well as they wanted to, and there’s some hard stuff that happened. Again, we were extremely efficient offensively, we moved the ball very well, defended well enough, even though I thought we had some breakdowns, we defended well enough to get out of there. Still got to be better moving our feet on drivers, still got to be better rebounding the ball.”
On redshirting sophomore Cameron Biedscheid …
“We’ve made a decision on the five-year program. He and I have talked about it for a about a week and methodically come to that decision. It’s just best for him all the way around and his development. It’s something he really had to feel good about. We do have a track record here of putting guys on the five-year programs, lifting them more, what we do with skill work, certainly they can spend more time plugged into some academic stuff, as well, if they need do. We talked about Tom Knight and Jerian [Grant] a little bit about that.”
On his team responding to the pressure of the first game …
“Those three perimeter guys have been through so many battles, they keep us poised. There was never any panic, and that’s what you liked. I didn’t really want to call any timeouts. I wanted us to kind of just play through that, and I thought Eric and Jerian, and Pat [Connaughton] kept us steadied. I thought Austin Burgett was a key tonight, because it was hard to play two big guys. And he gave us a defensive guy on a smaller forward and really helped us. It wasn’t a night for two big guys.”
Jerian Grant – Senior – Guard
On team consistency …
“For sure, that’s a huge thing with our team. We want to be consistent. As an individual, being consistent. As a team you, know we’re going to have to play better as team. But just staying consistent and playing well as a team.”
On playing with his career high in mind …
“No, not really. I knew I was making a lot of shots. I wasn’t really keeping track. But when I’m making shots like that, it feels good.”
On the new hand check rule …
“We knew they were going to call it close like that. And throughout practice, when one guy touches another our coaches are calling it. So, we really emphasized that in practice–I think its going help us throughout the season.”
Pat Connaughton – Junior – Guard
On getting Jerian Grant the ball …
“When he’s shooting like that, you’ve got to get him the ball. All you have to do is get back on defense. Really, the three of us like to share the ball with each other. And whenever one of us is hitting, we try to make it a point to get them some shots.”
On new faces on the team …
“That’s something we were talking about during the summer. And something we we’re excited about this year. We’ve been playing together now for two, three years now, so it is something that we we’re looking forward to and we want to continue to get better.”
Eric Atkins – Senior – Guard
On playing Miami (Ohio) …
“The stakes are higher now than in any other season. They really got after us on the offensive boards, which no team other team has done so far.”
On the difference in toughness from the exhibition games …
“It’s a lot tougher from the exhibition games. In the exhibition games, I think they were DII schools. So the level of competition is a lot higher. These guys’ bodies are bigger and they’re way more athletic, so that was a big difference.”
On having game pressure …
“It was good to have game pressure. We haven’t had game pressure other than practicing game situations, so to really have that in this game was good for us.”
Tom Knight – Grad Student – Forward
On where the team is headed …
“We can end up in a good place. I think we have a strong team. It’s probably the strongest one we’ve had since I’ve been here. We have the pieces it takes to make the NCAA tournament, but we’re looking at one game at a time right now.”
On how the team can improve …
“I definitely think we go t out rebounded today, so that’s definitely something that we need to improve on. I had a few rebounds in the first half. One of the coaches pulled me aside and said, ‘Hey Tom, Eric has more rebounds than you, Garrick Sherman and Zach Auguste combined,’ and that’s no good. So it’s definitely something to improve on. The guards are doing their part when it comes to rebounds, and not it’s time for us ‘bigs’ to do something.”
On toughness of getting motivated this early in the season …
“It’s not tough. It’s exciting to put on a jersey and play in front of a crowd. You practice everyday, but you do it to get to the game.”
Miami (Ohio) Head Coach John Cooper
On Jerian Grant’s performance …
“When you have a player that can make shots, when you have a guy when the shot clock is going down, you can get the ball in his hands and he’s able to do something with it. So many times, you hear people talk about ‘coaching,’ well, at the end of the day, that’s ‘coaching,’ late in the shot clock. It wasn’t some great design or a play, but he has the ability to do that and that gives you confidence as a team, too – when you have someone that can do the things he’s done. Obviously, he started off well. He hit some threes from deep and was feeling it. He was nine of 14, five of eight from three, so he certainly shot the ball well and he’s got good size.”
On Reggie Johnson’s play from the first half to the second half …
“I’m not even sure I saw a difference. Obviously he didn’t score as much in the second half, but teams make adjustments and everything else. But, for the most part, I thought Reggie played very well. For me, it’s important that you try to stay within yourself and take good shots; I don’t think he took many bad ones. I can remember one that was questionable, but I can also understand that when you get it going, you’re trying to see if it’s still there, and he had a run there in the first half where I think he maybe had about 12 points, so that certainly helps. But for me, it was fun to watch Reggie because he’s improved. He’s gotten better from his freshman year to his sophomore year and, now this is the first game, but in understanding who he is. For him to use a shot fake, it took him literally until the end of almost his freshman year to understand the shot fake, and now he understands that. What you hope as a coach is that kids continue to get better and better and more mature as a kid.”
Reggie Johnson – Miami (Ohio) Sophomore – Guard
On how it feels to play Notre Dame …
“It’s a big game because they have a legendary reputation and they were the No. 21 team in the nation. It was a good game for us. It felt good. I was just walking around looking at all the historical stuff, so it was a big game and it felt good. It was good that we played good against them. Hopefully we’re able to build off of that.”
On his overall takeaway from the game …
“I think we did good. I think we showed that we can play with a good team. I think we showed that we’re going to be better than last year. I think we showed a lot of good things but the bad things–we just didn’t get the win. But as far as taking things from it, there’s a lot of good to take from it. We’ve got a good team. We’re coming with a whole different approach than last year so we’re going to be a good team.”
On moving forward from here …
“Our biggest improvement is finding a way to finish games. We got them down to I think five points and they took away. So finding a way to win games. Our biggest thing was boxing out and getting rebounds, but we outrebounded them so that was one thing. Not turning the ball over, and getting good shots. Just the basics.”