Jan. 25, 2000
Notre Dame head coach Matt Doherty
On the game:
“We never got into sync. They played good defense, as good as any we have faced this season. They were acitve, long and quick. (Miami coach Leonard) Hamilton had them prepared.”
“They were a good team and just outplayed us, especially at the defenive end.”
“Our defense was active. We held them (Miami) to just 63 points. We just didn’t have the answers.”
“I’m disappointed for the fans. They came out in numbers and wanted to get excited. We just didn’t give them anything to be excited about. Hopefully, they will come back.”
“It was a good effort. The offensive execution against a good defense wasn’t there and that’s on me as a coach.”
On his team’s shooting:
“Give Miami credit. They didn’t give us many open looks.”
On the officiating:
“I thought they did an excellent job. When there was a foul, they called it. Their defense was active and we didn’t recognize situations.”
On the insertion of Jere Macura and Ivan Kartelo into starting line-up:
“We had to change our lineup because a couple guys were not mentally prepared at the pre-game dinner. Starting is a reward. I don’t know if that put Harold (Swanagan) and David (Graves) into a funk or not. We got some fouls early and that put Ivan and Jere on the bench.”
Notre Dame Player Quotes
Troy Murphy on the game:
“They did a heck of a defensive job. I tip my hat to them. It is frustrating to come out and lose by twenty and have them smile when they walk off the court. We just got drilled tonight. This has to be our worst loss of the season.”
Murphy on the inability to score points:
“We really didn’t do too well on the offensive end. We had two good practices this week, too. We just didn’t bring it. Our shots were not falling and it wasn’t going our way tonight.”
Martin Ingelsby on the Miami defensive effort:
“They are a good defensive team. We were not hitting the shots we were hitting against Pittsburgh and they really got into us and knocked us out of our rhythm offensively.”
Ingelsby on the half-time adjustments:
“We just went out and hit some shots and tried to get the ball into Murphy a little more. We thought we had them but they came back and hit some shots and we couldn’t overcome that. We just didn’t have it offensively. We have worked on our offense a lot, but just didn’t get it done.”
Miami Head Coach Leonard Hamilton Quotes
On Notre Dame basketball:
“I think our players’ effort tonight was an indication of the respect that our players have for Notre Dame’s basketball program. The coach has done a tremendous job with the team this year. They’ve been playing within themselves. They’ve got one of the top four or five players in the country. They’re a tremendous shooting team and our youngsters went into the game with a clear understanding that if we were not on our defensive game tonight we could very well have our head handed to us.”
On the effort of his team:
“We knew we had to have this kind of effort in order to win and we were fortunate because our kids were extremely focused. They were very patient against their zone and defensively this was probably our best effort of the year.”
On defending Troy Murphy:
“We just wanted to defend him. We didn’t do anything differently than we normally do. He worked awful hard inside. He is a great, great player and we just tried to defend him. But we felt going into the game that, even though Murphy is their go-to guy, if we did not defend the rest of their team, we could very well be in trouble. Our kids felt like we had to defend all of them and do a great job on Troy Murphy.”
On Miami’s defensive effort:
“Our kids did a nice job defensively in transition. I thought we did a nice job in the half-court. We contested shots very well. In order to beat Notre Dame, especially on the road, we had to have a complete defensive effort. I didn’t think there was any shortcoming on their part. It was one of those games where our kids were very, very focused and we got a lot of deflections. But when you play a team that is playing as well as Notre Dame is right now, you have to do that if you’re going to have any chance of winning the game.”
On winning on the road:
“We don’t even think about it. We don’t talk about it. We try to create an atmosphere in practice every day to be consistent with our focus so that we don’t try to distinguish whether we’re going to be on the road or at home.”
Miami Player Quotes
Miami Center Dwayne Wimbley
On Guarding Murphy:
“You know he’s one of the best players in the country so you have to focus on shutting him down. He does work hard for the ball, though. I will give him that. It was tough to guard him. He’ll be a good player at the next level.”
On Miami’s Defense:
“This is the best I’ve seen (us play defense) all year. Every time anyone touched the ball there was someone in their face. Every time Murphy touched the ball, there was someone in front of him and someone behind him. This gives us a lot of momentum for the rest of the season heading towards tournament time.”
Miami Forward Elton Tyler
On Defending Against Murphy:
“We played good team defense and it was hard to score against us. He’s one of the best big men. He’s smart, strong, and skilled. We just had a good game plan, worked hard on it in practice, and it worked.”
On The Team Effort:
“Everyone was on the same page, scrambling, and picking up a man. This is the best game we have played at identifying open people.”
On The Toughness of This Win:
“It wasn’t easy. It was a lot of hard work physically and mentally. There was nothing easy about this win.”