Jan. 8, 2014

Recap | Box Score | Notes | USATSI Gallery

Notre Dame Men’s Basketball
Notre Dame vs. North Carolina State
January 7, 2014
Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center – Notre Dame, Ind.

Notre Dame Head Coach Mike Brey

Opening statement…

“We never could get into much of an offensive rhythm. I thought tonight for the first time we had some growing pains with this group. Their size around the basket bothered us, especially in the first half. We did a little bit better on the backboard in the second half. You needed to score some more to escape them. They made some really big plays and big free throws. I give them a lot of credit coming in here and playing loose and putting it on us.

“Maybe our energy wasn’t great to start. That was a little disappointing. But we came back and gave ourselves a chance again. We were in position at the 10-minute mark down four and you feel like you can close it out and make a run…we could never get three great offensive possessions to tie it or make it interesting. That’s what we did against Duke. We also had some really tough turnovers at key times. It’s young guys being young. We’ll watch the film tomorrow and get them to learn from it and now we’ll see who we are on the road in this league on Saturday and Wednesday.

On bouncing back from an emotional win Saturday against Duke…

“I was worried about it. We invested a lot. I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a little residual fighting through that. Even though I thought in the second half we started to find it a little bit when they started missing, we just couldn’t get two or three offensive possessions in a row that looked like us. Then you get a little tight and you feel the weight of the world and you aren’t as loose when you are lining up those shots.”

On the play of Garrick Sherman tonight down low…

“It was hard for him to score in the post due to their size, but he did a great job on putbacks, on ball screening and rolling and he battled on the defensive boards. He got 18 rebounds. He’s playing so well. Our big three need some rest. It’s been a physical stretch from Saturday afternoon through tonight for those guys. We need to get them some rest before we go on the road. But I’m really pleased with how Sherman is playing so I don’t want to overanalyze him.”

On what to take from these first two ACC games…

“I think there’s a lot to build on. When you play .500 basketball in a league like ours you can be in position for the postseason, so I always keep that in the back of my mind. We’ll take where we are at right now. We are disappointed we aren’t 2-0. We talked about getting to 2-0 in league play, but we didn’t get there so we’ll flush it quickly. What I’ll take is this group has done some good things since being back from Christmas break. We just have to get our young guys more confidence and experience. That’s just playing them and practicing and teaching.”

On possibility of changing starting lineup to instill confidence in younger guys…

“I think you’re always open to changing the starting lineup with this group. I never knee jerk after a loss and say we are going to start differently, but I think we have three spots that are pretty solid with the other two spots could be a revolving door through league play. That may not be demotions. It may be to help two guys by jumpstarting someone by starting him. It may be helping a guy by bringing him off the bench; we’ve done that before. So that’s something we’ll think about before Saturday but I don’t want to knee jerk. We’ll digest it here for a day.”

Eric Atkins – Senior – Guard

On what the team can take away from the loss…

“This game was a lot different than the Duke game. They were a bigger team. We need to clean up our defensive rebounding because they (North Carolina State) beat us up on the boards in the second half – that was the biggest thing.”

On how difficult North Carolina State was to guard…

“They were difficult because of their size. They were tipping the ball around and getting extra possessions, which was tough all game. “

On the turnovers… “We were not good with the ball today. We are going to have to clean that up if we want to win these types of games. “

Garrick Sherman – Senior – Center

On the loss to…

“This basically eliminates the (Duke) win from Saturday. We have to go back to work and focus on our next game Saturday (at Georgia Tech). Each league game still counts as just one win or loss. Tonight was only one loss.”

On adjusting without Jerian Grant…

“Tonight we would go to a high ball screen and before we would go to Jerian (Grant) and right now we don’t have that. Eric (Atkins) is taking over that roll, and it is new for him and I know he’ll grow into it and I have all the faith in the world in him.”

On getting consistency from everybody…

“It tough, but it is not an excuse. We believe in everybody we put on the court. We do have a lot of room for improvement though.”

Pat Connaughton – Junior – Guard

On learning after a loss…

“There are learning experiences as a freshman and until you finish your career. Us as leaders have to teach them (freshmen) pick up and try and bring them through the process as quickly as we can.”

On teaching the freshmen faster…

“It is just showing them that we have confidence in them. They are out there for a reason and they cannot get down on themselves after mistakes. That was one of the biggest things I learned.” On guarding North Carolina State inside…

“I think it was just a matter of getting that first miss especially in the first half. When we let them get into a groove of grabbing offensive rebounds and getting second chances in the first half it is going to be there in the second half. We have to put a stop to it early in the game so they do other things. It is tough to come out of a hole each and every game.”

NC State Head Coach Mark Gottfried Quotes

Opening Statement…

“For our team, this was a great bounce-back win. We had a tough second half against Pitt and I liked the fact that our guys showed some resiliency and bounced back and beat a good team today. Notre Dame, I think, is very good. They’re hard to guard. I thought our guys did a good job of following the plan that we want to use. We had good balance in our scoring. I thought defensively we did a good job in the second half of never letting them get in a good rhythm. This was a good team win for our group.”

On Anthony Barber’s play…

“At halftime, I was right behind it and when it left his hand, and I said `that might go in!’ It gave us a life. It really did. I thought he played really well. I thought Tyler Lewis came in and played really well. Both of our point guards were solid tonight. They made it hard for (Eric) Atkins to get going offensively. They helped our team run our offense very well. Both point guards did a terrific job.”

On his team’s balance…

“We’ve got a great scorer in T.J. Warren. He’s just terrific. There’s no question about it. But we also need some other guys to step up and score. We’ve got other guys who can score. T.J. was great tonight. He let the game come to him. He missed some shots that I think we all count on him making every night – he’s so good. But I like the fact that we had good balance. I think in the first half, everybody that played had a basket. Everybody scored and I thought that was important.”

On carrying momentum into the Wolfpack’s next game (vs. Virginia)…

“Anytime you win you feel better about yourself. The tough thing in this league is that each game, win or lose, can only count as one. You’ve got 18 contests and tonight only counts as one. We’ve got to get ourselves ready to go against a very dangerous team on Saturday, but it sure does make the plane ride a whole lot better tonight and we can get out of this (sic) hot weather up here.”

T.J. Warren – Sophomore – Forward

On if he changed his game to get other teammates involved…

“My teammates just encourage me in half-court sets. I just want to execute and be open. I let the game come to me, like Coach (Mark Gottfried) said. We did a good job of that tonight.”

On the importance of having four players in double-figures for the game…

“It makes it a whole lot easier when everyone is involved, being aggressive, and making shots. Everybody can’t focus on me, so we had other guys play big and make shots. It was a lot better.”