Mike Brey Notebook: ACC Teleconference Call 1/22
Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey spoke on Monday morning on several topics during the ACC Teleconference call but injuries were the unfortunate topic of discussion as the Irish head into an off week.
On the bye week:
“I’m hoping our bye week gives us a chance to get some guys rested and get Matt Farrell back to 100 percent game shape before we play on Saturday. I love how our group has been fighting.
“We haven’t been able to get over the hump the last couple games, but we’d love to bounce back on Saturday.”
On Matt Farrell’s injury:
“He’s not completely back. I’d say his ankle is about 90 percent and then we’re almost playing him back into the game condition. We stole some rest for him the other day. I was hoping we could get to this stretch and get the ankle 100 percent and the game condition back to where it needs to be.”
On Bonzie Colson
“He’ll get on the bike a little bit this week, but he’ll have the boot on. They’ll do an X-ray in early February to check to see the healing. It will not be before eight weeks. That’s really the end of February.
“Realistically, if we get him back, we’d have back for Brooklyn, and maybe we’ll have the team we had in Maui ready to go in Brooklyn. I by no means want to jeopardize his professional future by rushing him back.”
On dealing with four losses in a row:
“Our leadership has been great. We certainly understand the hand we’ve been dealt. No one is hanging their head, and we’re grinding trying to figure out a way to get over the hump.
“I’m racking my brains on how to help us more offensively. We’re defending and rebounding well enough to win. I’m thrilled about what we’ve done on the offensive boards, but for us, we’ve in the 50’s on the road for a while. Somehow we won one of those, but that’s not going to be enough to get you over the hump. We’ve scored a little better here at home, but I’m just trying to help us offensively.
“It’s positive what John Mooney has been doing lately. He gives us another scorer and stretches the floor.”
On offensive identity:
“I would say we’re maybe feeling it out. We take care of the ball, and our assist-to-turnover ratio is good. We’re throwing to the post to Martinas Geben a little more. He’s playing well, and we have to try something.
“We’re playing two big guys a lot more, so screening off the ball to help our perimeter guys is something we’ve tried to stress.
“When it comes down to it, Matt Farrell makes us go. Him doing stuff off ball screens, making a play, we have to get him 100 percent to have a chance to win league games.”
On DJ Harvey:
“That’s another body you’d love to have in Bonzie’s absence. The bone bruise is four weeks and maybe a little earlier than mid-February. He’s making progress, but it’s going to be a little while. We could use that body back.
“He was doing some really good things for us and getting confident.”