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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS: NEW ORLEANSMarch 18, 2010Mike BreyBen HansbroughCarleton ScottNEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA Old Dominion – 51 MODERATOR: Coach Brey, your thoughts? COACH BREY: Give a lot of credit to Old Dominion. I thought they played really well and tough and made veteran plays at key times. You know, we kept giving ourselves a chance. It was one of those grind-it-out games. We had some great looks over their zone that didn't go down. And if you're going to win, you've got to knock down a couple and kind of get them out of that zone. We never really could do that, and it put a lot of pressure on us. I'm very proud of our group. I'm extremely proud of how they finished the season. It's just amazing how fast it can end. You know, it comes to a quick end. But Old Dominion made more plays than us. MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes. Q. Can you talk about what happened in the second half. There were a couple points where the team seemed to have trouble scoring. What was going on there? BEN HANSBROUGH: They really just mixed up defenses. They got in that zone. Like Coach Brey said, we had to make a couple shots over it. Tonight wasn't our shooting night. And they made a couple of really nice plays. Hit a couple of outside shots and we couldn't hold on to the lead for long enough. Q. With not being able to get much going in the post, it seemed for a while you and Tory, penetrating was really the only thing you guys could get going. Can you just talk about that? That is something different than what we've seen in the past? BEN HANSBROUGH: Yeah, that's one of the things me and Tory have been able to do. Especially when teams have been guarding us man-to-man. Get in the lane and create for each other, make a couple of assists. But then in that zone, that three-two zone, they kind of took us away from that. Every time we'd catch it they'd be right there. They just kind of mixed up defenses on us, adjusted a little bit. And we just couldn't hit the outside shots like we usually do. Q. Did you notice a difference in the way they came out after halftime? You scored the first basket then kind of had a dry spell there for a few minutes. Could you notice something significant that changed after halftime? BEN HANSBROUGH: Yeah. They came out, got on a run, tied it up and then they went up by one. But the game's a game of runs. They got up by one, then we got up by four or five. They were in that zone, sunk back in that zone and we just missed a couple of outside shots. It's a game of runs. When the clock ran out they were on top. CARLETON SCOTT: We knew they were going to come out throwing punches. You expect any team to come out in the second half throwing punches. So we had to be prepared for that. We knew it was going to be a dogfight. We knew they weren't going to lay down; they're a great team. We were just two teams battling it out, and they came out on top. MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Brey. Q. Luke obviously didn't have the game he wanted to have to end his career. Just talk about the way he wasn't able to get into the flow? COACH BREY: Yeah, it was tough. He got the two fouls and I thought he could never really get into a flow. Also when you're playing against zone for long periods of time, it's probably a little harder to establish him, you know, offensively. Really against them in the second half it became the Syracuse mentality in our league. Obviously they play zone. You can talk about getting into the gap. You can talk about hitting the short corner. You can talk about hitting the foul line. Eventually, to beat a team that's going to sit in that, you've got to make some shots, two or three in a row, to kind of change the climate. We could never do that. So the tendency is they got more confident in it. We defended like heck to keep giving ourselves a chance to win. We couldn't get two offensive possessions in a row to kind of give us a little bit of confidence. But it's trickier with Luke in the zone because you can't run sets for him. He's got to kind of hide behind it. I thought he got on the backboard a couple times. That helped us. Q. Things looked so good for the Big East last week at the tournament. Have already lost three teams in the NIT, you guys, and now Villanova's in overtime. And one coach has already lost his job. And I know that was a team that you thought was going to be in the tournament possibly. I was wondering if you could comment on the losses and also the loss of the coach. COACH BREY: Maybe we beat each other up so much over 18 games, you know. I know we've had some tough luck in the NIT, us, Villanova. Once you get into these one-game shots, anything can happen. You know, I think when the smoke clears after the NCAA Tournament, I believe we're the toughest league in college basketball. The reason I say that is because when I'm on the road in July, all the coaches from the ACC and Big Ten kind of shake their head and don't want to play in our league. I'm sure we're disappointed that we lost three in the NIT and we went down, but it's when you play 18 games of that thing, it's a bear. It's exciting. There is a lot of drama. You're right about Seton Hall. I thought they were right on the edge about getting in. Now we have a new coach at Seton Hall and a new coach at DePaul coming in. I think I always look at now with the way the league has come, fighting to the top eight. Fight and scratch to the top eight. If you can get into that territory, you have a chance to steal it and get a bid. And we were fortunate enough to do that. I think a lot of people have that philosophy annually. I just know the 18-game toll from December 30th, it takes its toll. Q. Were you surprised about Seton Hall in particular? COACH BREY: The coaching change? Q. Yeah. COACH BREY: I was a little bit. I was a little bit. I thought 9 and 9, that was -- I talked to Bobby after our game in New York. And after we beat them, I was kind of trying to talk about them in the press conference because we were in pretty good shape. It's funny how they kept hanging around. And maybe the last four out. You know, all I know is that job is close to a lot of players, so you can always get players quick at Seton Hall. So whoever they get, they'll have players quickly. Same with DePaul, you know. Q. The last couple games it seems like there's been maybe a four-, five-, six-minute run in the second half where you guys haven't been able to knock anything down. What can you do as a coach to bust out of those? Is it cold shooting? Is it a byproduct of the slower-paced offense? COACH BREY: You know, I just think for us you got to -- it just sounds so simple, but we had had some really clean looks. You've got to make some shots. We'd been a good shooting team. It's not like I'm saying something the percentages say we can't do or haven't done. The percentages say we're pretty good out there with the right guys shooting the basketball. We're a little bit different scoring team given how we're using Harangody. So that's a little bit. He's not in there and going on those 10-0 runs. But the tempo has been best for us, we felt. It does put you in game situations a lot of times. It does put you in a situation where you may not pull away from anybody. But we just felt it was best for us to continue playing that way. Probably what hurt us a little bit, too, was we had some transition opportunities. Certainly Carleton got a dunk early. But we turned it over and a couple of easy transition opportunities. When we take those, I was hoping we could be better. That's probably because we have slowed down. We haven't done them as much. We're not as good at them. I thought about this a lot thinking about next season, I think there is a balance point there with tempo. Q. What was your message to the team, especially the seniors after the game? COACH BREY: Well, there's a lot of emotion in there, especially from our seniors. When you invest like those guys have invested in our basketball program, man, it comes crushing down. Also, when you have been on a run like us and it comes to a stop, you're coming from way up high, you know. But I thanked them again for all they've done for our program. Certainly they've been the winningest class. There is no question. When Jackson and Harangody showed up on our campus, the climate changed in our practice facility, in our locker room. We got tougher, we believed more. The coach believed more. They did all of those things. But more than anything, I've always thanked those guys, and I'll get a chance at the hotel. I told them I want to talk to them back at the hotel when the smoke clears. They've been great ambassadors for our program and our university. They are great Notre Dame men. They'll graduate in the spring. They've handled their business the right way. They're class acts. That's what we talk about our program, being a class act. Those guys are that. You know, they'll graduate in a little bit. They'll get on. They'll all get a chance to play professionally a little bit at different levels, and now it's my job to help them with that. Q. You talked about on Sunday how you were ready to start right then. Do you think maybe the team lost a little bit of an edge having almost a week off? COACH BREY: Fatigue? Oh, no, you know, we played three games in three days. We needed a little bit of rest over the weekend. Then we got right back into practice. I felt it was good for us to play Thursday and get back and start playing, because we felt we were playing pretty well. I don't think -- you know, you look at the first half and how we started, we got out of the gate pretty good. We were really ready to go. I don't think there was any loss of edge or hunger or satisfied. This group really dreamed about keeping the run alive and making another run. They talked about that. We talked about that. I don't think there was any comfort zone. Thanks. End of FastScripts |
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