March 15, 2000
Michigan Player Quotes
Freshman LaVell Blanchard looking back on the season:
“It was up and down. It is hard to look past the wins and losses after a loss like today. Losing Jamal (Crawford) is frustrating, but you can’t use that as an excuse.”
Blanchard on the future of head coach Brian Ellerbe:
“We definitely want him back. I’m just sorry we didn’t produce for him. The team has been great, the coaches have been great and I am very happy at Michigan.”
Blanchard on the play of Troy Murphy tonight and the development of his own skills:
“That is what you hope for – to come out and perform like Troy did. It shows that you have to work hard to play at a high level.”
Notre Dame Head Coach Matt Doherty Quotes
On tonight’s game against Michigan:
“They are a good team. They have a lot of talent. They are young, but we are young too. We are lucky to come away with a win.”
“It was a battle to the end. This was a good team win. We came out bloody and banged up.”
On the use of man-to-man defense tonight:
“I think we were more active. Playing the man-to-man defense was effective for us tonight.”
On the growing depth of his team:
“It has been nice to watch the young kids grow up and get better.”
On Notre Dame’s next opponent in the NIT, Xavier:
“They will run and press. It should be an exciting basketball game.”
Michigan Coach Brian Ellerbe Postgame Quotes
On the game:
“I’m really proud of the way my kids and our basketball team competed today. It’s very unfortunate that we had to lose the way we did. But our kids competed very, very hard. I think they can hold their heads up high. It’s been a very interesting season but I think our kids grew up a lot.”
“There were a lot of questionable things that happened today on the court. I usually do take the high road and not say anything that could be taken out of context and come back to haunt me. But if you understand basketball and you saw the game, I think it’s very easy for you to see that (there were a lot of questionable things).”
On Notre Dame:
“They are a good team and we didn’t cash in on opportunities offensively at the free throw line in crucial times.”
On Michigan’s defensive effort:
“I thought today our kids played well defensively. We competed. You can’t force growth. We’ve had some very good defensive games and some very good offensive games. We need to get experience and we need to get stronger.”
Notre Dame Player Quotes
Troy Murphy, Forward
On the game:
“It was a tough physical game. We competed tonight. We came out and banged and hit some shots.”
On playing in the light of not making the NCAA Tournament:
“We’re disappointed, but we’re happy to keep playing in March. We’re just having fun playing basketball.”
On playing Wednesday night versus playing Tuesday night:
“It would have been hard to play. We were down Monday, but coach (Matt Doherty) was not going to let us have a let down. He drilled us in practice yesterday and tonight we were able to bounce back.”
Matt Carroll, Guard
On his and David Graves second-half shooting:
“I looked at David (Graves) at halftime and said ‘we can’t shoot any worse, so we better let them fly in the second half.’ We did and some of the shots fell for us.”
David Graves, Forward
On the game:
“Defensively, we buckled down in the second half. Our defense is what won the game for us.”