NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST FOUR

March 16, 2022

Mike Brey

Paul Atkinson

Cormac Ryan

UD Arena

Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Media Conference

Notre Dame - 89, Rutgers - 87 (2OT)

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Notre Dame.

COACH BREY: Let me start by saying happy Saint Patrick's Day to everyone here. You notice Paul's shot went in at 12:02 on Saint Patrick's Day. Maybe there was a little bit of karma there.

If there's a better game in the NCAA Tournament, I gotta see it. That was an unbelievable college basketball game. And they're really good. And tough. And fearless. And I'm really proud of our group because we just kept hanging in. We've grown a lot in the mental toughness area.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for student-athletes.

Q. Paul, take us through that last play, if you would.

PAUL ATKINSON: Blake, I saw him driving to the rim. I knew he was going to go hard either get a foul or make a bucket. I just wanted to follow up if it was a miss and no call. I saw it. I just wanted to chase after the ball. Got it up and got a good bucket.

Q. Paul, how important was it for you to play well tonight? You said coming in you wanted to bounce back. 26 points and 56 points in the paint. Was that a pretty good bounce back for you?

PAUL ATKINSON: Yeah, I think it was a pretty good bounce back. I just wanted to battle for these guys. They haven't been here, I haven't been here in a long time and potentially my last year so just wanted to battle. A lot of people don't get this chance.

Q. Both Cormac and Paul, how do you summarize what you just, the tough game you just played in right there?

CORMAC RYAN: We have an unbelievably gritty group. We don't quit. And I think you saw that. I mean, so proud of how we played and battled. And our fight, man, is you can't really teach that. It's contagious. And we got it.

PAUL ATKINSON: They wanted to battle, too. And we just wanted to battle harder. We got some buckets to go in and we matched up and we played.

Q. You've played in so many games somewhat like this throughout the year in terms of it being close down to the wire. How much do those past experiences help? And you heard Coach Brey talk about the growth and mental toughness. What do you both attribute that to?

PAUL ATKINSON: I think Coach Brey said it more times than I count, it's a battle-tested groups. We've been through a lot of tough battles, had a couple of overtime games during the regular season. We stuck it out a couple games, sometimes it didn't go our way but we know how to win games.

CORMAC RYAN: Like, Coach Brey said this a couple times. It's like we're addicted to game situations. And man, it's fun. It's fun to be a part of. This is what it's all about, man. March Madness, like Coach said. One of the better games -- maybe the best game I've ever been a part of. And to do it in this atmosphere on this stage, it's a blessing.

Q. Cormac, in overtime when the ball was tipped and you caught it, what was going through your head? Because I believe that play really changed the game for you guys. It really got you guys going for overtime and now the win?

CORMAC RYAN: I mean, sometimes in basketball things go your way. And look, I woke up this morning. I slept great. Breakfast tasted good. I got the Wordle in two guesses. So sometimes you got a little bit of luck of the Irish.

That ball was thrown a little too high. I grabbed it. And there was one destination in mind. I was fortunate enough to make that play, and that was just the first of many, many plays down the stretch that this group made. What an unbelievable game.

Q. Just talk about Ron Harper. What kind of player is he on the court?

PAUL ATKINSON: He's a really good player, really talented, made a lot of tough shots toward the end. You saw, he's really skilled with the ball and controls the offense for them really well. I think he's gonna be a really good player wherever he ends up.

Q. How do you guys -- obviously a lot of adrenaline and excitement right now -- but how do you deal with the quick turnaround here before your next game?

CORMAC RYAN: I think soaking it in, being excited is great. But this is a mature group. And we know what's ahead of us. And we prepared for it. We were ready for it. We came into this game packed for San Diego. So we're on to the next one. And we're fired up and we'll be ready.

Q. Paul, what's it like to score the winning basket in an NCAA Tournament game?

PAUL ATKINSON: I haven't felt like that in a long time. It's amazing. Bunch of cameras on you. Big spotlight, last game of the night. It's amazing. Definitely got my teammates to cheer with. It's just awesome. Got family up in the stands. Couldn't ask for anything better.

Q. Can you talk about the range of emotions you guys have right now and your initial thoughts about facing Alabama?

CORMAC RYAN: Can't wait.

PAUL ATKINSON: What he said.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach.

Q. 22 years, this has to rank near the top of, five overtime games, four overtime games, NCAA Tournament games, just the swings that you went through.

COACH BREY: You know, those were in the regular season. And this one's in the real thing. And to play like that and to advance, I'm thrilled and I'm really proud of our group.

And they deserve it, man. They've been just an amazing group to coach. They've chased it together since last year. And we'll get our legs under us by Friday afternoon. But we'll need some time to do that.

Q. Could you just give us a synopsis of the matchup games that you were playing throughout, especially in the second half?

COACH BREY: You know what's amazing, in a game like that, and I've said this before, I can't remember some of them. There were so many big plays. We wanted to press and get a trap, and if we couldn't get a steal, we had to foul right away. And we got the steal on the inbounds play, which was just an amazing play by Cormac.

Of course, we couldn't get our hands on a couple of loose balls, but we had four guys diving on the floor. It wasn't like effort -- and then all of a sudden the one they got and dunked it, I'm like come on. And when Harper threw the one off the board -- he's a great player -- but I'm like, come on now.

But I love what we did at the end. We weren't going to call timeout. Our guy that can get to the lane the best, we came up and had two ball screens for him. And he distorts things. He turned the corner and somebody had to help and Paul cleaned it up great. But I thought our defense in the second half was there. I was on them hard. They had 41 at half. And they were scorching us. So our D was better.

Q. You mentioned this may end up being the game of the tournament. Who knows? We'll find out over the next few days. But what does it feel like to come away victorious after a game like that?

COACH BREY: I'm thrilled. You want to walk down -- I've been on both sides of this. You talk to the Rutgers coach and congratulate him because, you know, it comes to an end quick. And I wanted to talk to some of their players because I think they've got a heck of a team. And they are fearless. And, man, do they have some guards.

But you just kind of drink it in maybe because I'm a more a more experienced coach. It's neat to see your kids celebrate because they worked really hard. They've dreamed advancing. They dreamed getting into the tournament. They dreamed advancing in the tournament. And to see that locker room is really cool.

Q. Obviously Paul had a fantastic game tonight, but it seemed like that was the focal point on your offense in the first half. He had a huge first half, obviously he stepped up in the second overtime. Was that the strategy of the first half there to go to him?

COACH BREY: We felt we could throw it into him and he could score in the low post. And he did. And then for a while there we liked the matchup as Nate as the only big guy, because when he ball screens, they had to make a decision. And as far as helping off of him. And we had some amazing drives after some movement. We really drove it well. And then we came back to two big guys to finish the game.

And thank God for long timeouts because you're in there with your staff kind of debating, and eventually I have to make the call. My butt's on the line.

Q. You talked about many a times how a win here can springboard you into the rest of the tournament. Is this the type of win that can pretty much rocket launch you the rest of this March Madness tournament?

COACH BREY: Did UCLA win overtime last year against Michigan State in this game? Sunday night at my house, I said we're going to try to channel UCLA. And talk about coachable guys, huh? And so I'm going to damn sure convince them over the next 48 hours or 36 that it's our time.

Q. Nate's play especially off the bench and the aggression that he showed at times in the second half. How important was that? How much do you think maybe some of the other guys fed off of that?

COACH BREY: I'm really proud of him. He's really grown. And on this stage, this was a new stage for these seniors. Nate, Dane, Prentiss, especially, I thought they delivered. I was thinking to myself can they deliver, they delivered in the regular season, can they deliver, I'm really proud they delivered were ready to roll.

Q. Big picture, my next question, how important you talked about not only getting back here but advancing here. So how big is this statement? What does it mean?

COACH BREY: To win a game in -- I don't care anytime you win a game in this thing, it's huge. And again we're going to talk -- we talked about -- my quote was let's use Dayton as a springboard. And I will continue to say that for the next five hours in the air to San Diego.