March 25, 2004
Coach Mike Brey Quotes
On the game…
“Oregon was a great opponent and you have to give them a lot of credit. Though I will admit we let them be too loose at the three-point line tonight and they took advantage of it. They gave us every opportunity tonight and at the end we just didn’t get it done.”
On the seniors last game…
“I am very proud of our seniors and how they played tonight. They are a very good group and I am happy we could help them get to this point in their lives and prepare them to move on to life after college.”
On Oregon…
“Brooks has been out for a while and he came back for them and played a great game. Jackson was just fabulous and Crosswhite also played well tonight. We gave up too many three-pointers, which is something we can relate to as teams usually let us take all the three-pointers.”
On Rick Cornett and Colin Falls…
“I am so proud of Rick, he has really helped us with Torin [Francis] being out. Losing Colin was tough, after his eye injury he just could not get back into rhythm.”
On the crowd tonight…
“The fans were fabulous tonight, and it was a great environment to play in all season. The crowd gives us our energy. The fans helped to keep us in games like this all season long and we are very grateful to them.”
Notre Dame Player Quotes
Senior Guard Torrian Jones
On the final steal…
Chris thought that he was being held and that he couldn’t get to the pass but it was just my carelessness with the ball. I should have held on to it for a little bit longer and made sure he was open until I passed it. I thought he was open so that I could give it to him but I guess he wasn’t.
On getting tough looks in the 2nd half…
They made every single one of our shots tough. You have to give a lot of credit to Oregon. They scouted was well and they knew what we were going to try to do and they were able to stop was from being efficient on the offensive end tonight.
On Oregon’s ability to pull out the win….
Guys were just making great plays for them. Besides Jackson, who made some great plays down the stretch, guys like Joseph made big shot after big shot and we were not expecting Brooks to be as efficient from the three-point line either. Their inside guys also played well. They might not have made big shots but they were a presence down low.
Junior Forward Jordan Cornette
on looking towards next season…
I don’t forsee us losing as many games next year because we have some good guys coming back. You have to learn from a season like this. Not making it into the tournament is just fuel for next year. It shows us where we want to get to next year and where we don’t want to be.
Sophomore Guard Chris Quinn
On tough losses during the season….
It is tough but I think that we can learn from this season. We can learn especially from early in the season when we were not playing our best ball. The guys that are planning on coming back have to pay attention to what happened this year and to learn from it. We need to try to step up our game and get ready for next year,
Junior Guard Chris Thomas
On the end of the 2nd half…
We came back but then we kind of folded there at the end. I should have come back to the ball when Torrian threw it to me. The guy ran up to me and kind of surprised me. He grabbed me and then I grabbed him and the ball went out of bounds. It is unfortunate but we had our chances. If I would have taken some less crazy shots, maybe that would have made up for the points we missed at the end.
On being expected to step up….
Our guys expect me to step up and Oregon played great defense, but their defense couldn’t hold our guards and we were going one-on-one with them all night. You feel frustrated because you see them getting easy shots and you wonder why you are not getting the same easy looks. Every time down the floor it seems like we wanted to conserve all of our energy to make up the points in some of the deficits we faced. Every time we were down it felt like everyone was looking at me to step up. A couple of times I did step up and made the right plays, but sometimes I didn’t.
Oregon Quotes
Coach Ernie Kent Quotes
On the advantage of being healthy…
I think the difference in the game was that we were a little bit healthier . We’re really playing our best basketball right now because we’re at full strength. Maybe if they’re at full strength it’s a different game, but what a tremendous job on our part to come back in this environment.
On his team’s defensive effort…
I thought the game was won on the defensive end of the floor. We did a nice job shutting down a very, very good three-point shooting basketball team. I told these guys in the locker room that we’re the number one defensive team in the Pac-10 conference at defending the three-point shot and that this was another game that we needed to do our job. I thought they responded quite well by putting a lot of pressure on them and basically tried to take the three-point shot out of their arsenal and make them beat us with the two-point shot.
On his team’s depth…
With us, we play so many people. There are so many games when we go eleven or twelve guys deep and just play. Where that also helps you is in practice and we’ve done a good job not wearing our guys’ legs out. Just starting the game we were a little bit sluggish, but for the most part we’ve got great legs because we’ve not worn anyone out over the course of the year.
On Luke Jackson…
“He turned to me with about six minutes left to go in the game and said ‘Give me the ball,’ and when he says that, we put the ball in his hands because he is a great player. He was out of rhythm early and they did a good job on him as well. They shut him down even in the second half until the last six minutes where he wanted to take over the game and I thought he had enough energy left in his tank. He’s carried us all year long and if anybody has a reason to be fatigued, it’s him.”
On how his team responded to adversity…
“This crowd was tremendous . The adversity of having a quick turnaround and being on the road and being at Notre Dame allowed us to rise to another level, particularly coming out of finals and everything else. “
Oregon Player Quotes
Sophomore forward Ian Crosswhite:
On game…
“That was a hard fought game. Those guys were tough. We knew it was going to be a close game. They play a slower style which drew the game out and kept it close. We made some mistakes down the stretch and they got back into it. Our go-to guys stepped up in the end and we got the win.”
On team effort…
“It was a good win in that it was a team win. Everybody had to play and they came on the court and did their jobs. It is great to see when Luke has a sub-par game that we could still come out and win.”
Senior guard Andre Joseph:
On personal effort…
“I was trying to carry my team. They seemed a little slow out there and I was trying to give them some energy. Whether it was shooting, passing, or defense I was just trying to give it to them.”
On nine first half turnovers…
“A lot of it had to do with the jitters. We flew out here yesterday and maybe the crowd got to us. But we calmed down in the second half and we played well.”
On fatigue…
“You get kind of tired but that is when you have to play from the heart. It is for a chance to play in New York. For the seniors, it is our last game. Everybody tried to leave it out on the floor.”
Senior forward Luke Jackson:
On game…
“It wasn’t my night and I had to sit down and watch. All the other guys stepped up really well on our team tonight. Even though I wasn’t playing great, I am happy that we got the win and I am happy for the other guys that they played so well. It feels good to go to New York, that was our goal. Down the stretch I am so thankful that coach gave me the ball and had faith in me.”
On playing in Madison Square Garden…
“It is not like it is the Tournament, but we’ll take it. We are excited to be in the N.I.T. Final Four and we are going to try to win it.”
On injury to thumb…
“I don’t want that to be an excuse, but I was having a hard time catching the ball and I just had a really bad jammed thumb. I had it taped and I took it off because it was affecting the way I was playing. It was just going to be sensitive and that’s the way it was.”
On final four free throws…
“I knew all we needed was one. Tonight was a rough night for me, but I got one and that’s all that mattered.”