Mike Brey Notebook | North Carolina
Notre Dame basketball coach Mike Brey spoke following the 76-65 loss to No. North Carolina on Wednesday night.
On North Carolina freshman point guard Cole Anthony:
"The thing about Cole Anthony that I really respect, of course we recruited him, when he was in 10th grade, he didn't want to shoot jump shots. He didn't have confidence in his jump shot. That's where he has made unbelievable strides.
"I thought his dagger threes were a big part of it. I love how we played. We came ready to battle. He just got on one of those rolls that we've all seen on the AAU circuit. You guys just didn't see it yet, but you saw it tonight. I thought that was the difference for us."
On the loss:
"For us to beat these teams, we had some great look and we gotta make more of them to beat a team like that. We had great looks. We had 16 assists. We moved it, but we're going to have to make more from out there to escape.
"We're disappointed. We thought we could sneak into town and steal one. They have new faces. We're kind of growing up and getting healthier. We're disappointed.
Certainly, a lot of respect for North Carolina and Cole is fabulous."
On Rex Pflueger, TJ Gibbs and Prentiss Hubb:
"We gotta build on this. I really love how they played. I thought even (Rex) Pflueger was back in his role of moving the ball, taking charges and playing defense doing all his little things.”
On guard Robby Carmody:
"I was really impressed with Carmody and how he fought. He has not been in this atmosphere because of the injury."
"We gotta try to get some positives out of it. Now, we play at home for a couple games before we go play at Maryland, another top 10 team. We have to find some things to build off of here."
On team not being afraid to shoot it:
"I think we stepped up and fired. We even took a couple that maybe were bad and quick. The way our system has been built through the years is we move it, drive and kick it. If you got it, pull up and take it.
"I know the arc is a little further out, which we're all trying to digest. I don't know if we have enough data. I didn't want to say anything about it when we started practice. Good shooters shoot from deeper than this new line too.
"We got good looks and we were good with the ball. We couldn't withstand Anthony's phenomenal push and his jump shot-making. That's where I'm so impressed with what he's done."
On UNC taking John Mooney away:
"They kept fresh bodies on him. You can get him low post touches and they loaded up on him. They have some size and strength that can come at him a little bit.
"I thought he did a good job of finding open people because they were aware of him. Those open guys for us to escape, you have to make some more of those."