Nov. 21, 2014

Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery

Notre Dame Head Coach Muffet McGraw

Opening statement …
“I was really pleased with the game. I thought we started slowly. We couldn’t figure out why that was happening, but we worked it out. Mychal Johnson came off the bench and gave us a huge lift and Jewell [Loyd], as she has done all year long, started us off in a great way and set the tone for us. We finally started rebounding and I think that’s what changed the game. I think it was 13-13 and we finally began to hit the boards and Mychal came in and hit a couple threes and that was pretty much the game.”

On Mychal’s play off the bench…
“We always are looking for that spark off the bench and who that is going to be. Sometimes it’s Maddie and today it was Mychal. It’s always great to look down the bench. We have so many options and she took her opportunity today, on her birthday to come in and have her career high. She’s really somebody we count on to guard the ball. We want to give Lindsay a break from the point guard. We bring her [Mychal] in so she can guard the ball. She’s really tenacious, she’s smart, she knows how to play defense, she rotates well, and she can get up and guard the ball. She takes pride in her defense. That’s something we really need and I’m pleased with where she’s at now.”

On the upcoming back-to-back-to-back schedule…
“We really try to budget our time at practice. So, we didn’t practice as long Monday and Tuesday, and we knew Wednesday was going to be a really tough game. Really, as it turned out, foul trouble was a blessing in disguise, because Lindsay and Jewel were the only ones who played significant time. Nobody else played more than 23 or 24 minutes. It was good today to be able to rest everybody for most of the second half. Three games in three days will be like the ACC tournament and that’s how we’ll approach it – similar to what we do in that situation. This was sort of an NCAA tournament, with a Wednesday and Friday game. It’s great preparation for us. We definitely have to have walkthroughs instead of full practices.”

Mychal Johnson – Freshman – Guard

On how she played…
“Like coach said, whenever I come in the game, they tell me I have the green light and I hear it from my teammates too. Defensively, I take pride in that. That’s something I really enjoy doing. “

On coming to Notre Dame under the radar and having something to prove…
“It’s not something that I had to prove. It was just that I was going to do whatever my coach and my teammates asked me to do for us to win.”

On recovering from her injury…
“It was frustrating but my teammates always encourage me and my coach is always encouraging me too. It didn’t seem like it took too long to heal, and I just constantly practiced all the time.”

Jewell Loyd – Junior – Guard

On watching Mychal play…
“I love it. Everyone on the bench is going nuts. We’re encouraging her to keep shooting and keep playing defense. Everyone coming off the bench is ready. We [the starters] love it. We love cheering them on. I’m their biggest cheerleader, it’s just great to see.”

On having a team with several talented players…
“It’s awesome to be able to depend on each other. We know that whoever’s coming off the bench is going to be ready and it’s not going to be a drop-off. That’s what we work on at practice and that’s where it all starts. If we compete and work hard in practice it will transfer to the game.”

On whether or not she liked sitting for twenty minutes today…
“I like seeing my teammates do well. I love cheering them on, and encouraging them and seeing them grow.”

Chattanooga Head Coach Jim Foster

On his general takeaways…
“We played well for about 18 minutes and didn’t compete at the same level for 22 more minutes. When you play a team of this ability, you can’t be that way. Jaz (Jasmine Joyner) has got to get a little bit smarter. I thought the first foul call was a very poor call, but you still have the foul, and then you have to be smart enough not to pick up that second one. It’s a transition opportunity where the offensive play got ahead of itself – that’s a shot you shouldn’t be trying to block. But we can’t afford to have her on the bench for a long period of time.”

On Joyner’s performance…
“11 rebounds and eight blocked shots: she obviously means a lot to our basketball team. But having said that, our young players have to understand how you compete at this level. It’s three sophomores and a freshman out there to start, and then young kids coming in the game. How you compete in games like this, how you compete against better players when the opportunity is there, it’s a little bit different from what you’re playing against on a regular basis. So you take something from that. We’ll have a lot of good footage, and we’ll be able to show them opportunities that were there with another pass or more communication.”

On Mychal Johnson…
“Well she made shots. They were two-for-six from the three without her, and seven-for-twelve with her. Once you make a shot or two like that, there has to be an awareness of where she is on the floor, and that’s one of the things we’re talking about with our young players. How many times does a player have to prove it? Once they knock down two, you can’t give them three.”

On his evaluation of Notre Dame…
“Too early. I’m not like these knuckleheads on television that have an opinion three games into the season. You have to grow as a team. You have to play in different situations. You have to see who wants the ball at crunch time. Everybody knows how good of a player Jewell Loyd is. We’ve seen the other guards. [Lindsey] Allen has to score a little bit more than she did last year. She has to take some steps. You probably won’t know next week, but the week after you might start to find out some stuff.”

On scheduling top teams…
“Why not? I have the ability to do it. We’re adding Connecticut next year. Why wouldn’t you want to play against the best?”

On coaching against Coach McGraw…
“You don’t think about it when the game is going on. I’m not in the same league as her, and it’s not something that happens on a regular basis that you can deal with. Any time I can get Matt to buy dinner, it’s well worth scheduling.”

Chelsea Shumpert – Sophomore – Guard

On the let down after the fast start…
“Yes, I think we competed well when we first started, and then we got into foul trouble, but we should have faced the adversity. But we’ll just learn from that as we go.”

On the positive takeaways from the first start…
“I just think we were really aggressive. We didn’t back down. We didn’t roll over. We tried to do the best we could do early so that they couldn’t get any momentum. But, like I said, we got into foul trouble, so that changed our game plan a little bit.”

On playing elite teams…
“These are just learning experiences. We grow as a team each time we play them. We’re just trying to position ourselves for a shot at the NCAA tournament. Trying to grow, trying to be one–that will help us down the road.”