Mike Brey Notebook | Capital Exhibition

Notre Dame basketball coach Mike Brey spoke following Tuesday's exhibition win over Capital. 

On Rex Pflueger returning to the court:
"He got cleared four days ago. He's practiced almost all of practice every day. My feeling was start him. He's loose and our goal was 15 minutes and we had him at 13. 

"It's neat seeing him out there. He's practiced for four days. How he defends and how he finds people - just having him back as a veteran and his voice out there can help us. We'll keep plugging with it, but he's on a limited pitch count. 

"It's great having him back." 

On Dane Goodwin stepping up:
"We were sheepish on who would shoot it last year at times. He's been more aggressive after turning a lot of shots down as a freshman, which is natural. He's hunting his stuff and driving it. 

"The mental side of it knowing him the competitor, he wanted to play well and he certainly did. I loved his aggressiveness." 

On John Mooney:
"He's just a machine. He and Juwan (Durham) have been playing together a lot and that's how we've been starting. I expect that's how we'll start for a while. They like playing together. They're almost a little too unselfish and pass up some shots. 

"Johnny, we have to keep him fresh. He's just a machine and he should have a great year. He just gets it done. He gets us started offensively a lot." 

On Nate Laszewski:
"He's been in the mask a while. He's shot it a little better than he did tonight. He's more active and sticking his nose in there more. You just think back to at Pittsburgh, Georgia Tech in the ACC Tournament and there are some nights where we are going to get more of those out of him. 

"The mask may come off in a week. The nose was broke a while ago and it's now precautionary. I want to say it was broke three weeks ago. He's probably close to getting out of the mask." 

On figuring out a rotation:
"The minutes probably won't look like that on Wednesday. Heck, they might not look like it on Friday the way they've played Louisville. 

"All guys coming off the bench, we need them all. Chris (Doherty) will be back by Friday, he had the four wisdom teeth taken out. 

"That's ten guys. I think we're going to need all of them throughout the year. I don't know if I'll get them all in the game at Chapel Hill." 

On Robby Carmody:
"He's a downhill, physical guy. He drives it for us. Sometimes we can move it around the perimeter too much like a hot potato. I told him if he gets it on a ball reversal, just drive it. He makes stuff happen. 

"The thing interesting watch tonight was him pick up the other point guard 3/4 court and just wear a ball-handler down. Prentiss (Hubb) does that and I don't know if you need TJ to do that, but Robby can do it. 

"He's been healthy and physical. There's a great toughness about him." 

On games helping get ready for UNC:
"I don't know because this has never happened before. The one thing I think happened is because our guys know they've got a league game right out of the gate, I think our practices have been at another level. 

"They see what's coming right away. These guys have good work habits anyway, but I've reminded them. 12 days. 8 days. 

"It's almost helped us be better in practice because of how we start next Wednesday."