Mike Brey Notebook | Presbyterian

Notre Dame basketball coach Mike Brey spoke following the 63-53 win over Presbyterian on Monday evening. 

On the win:
"It's a group who is growing and trying to get confident. You look for some things to hang your hat on. We called timeout and they cut it to two. We could be in trouble and we executed and did some things. 

Laszewski made some plays in crunch time and it can only help him get more confident. I thought Juwan Durham was flying around and bouncing around more.

"I thought Rex Pflueger and TJ Gibbs just steadied us the whole night."

On John Mooney being out with a stomach virus:
"When I got the news on Johnny at 9 a.m. this morning, I was worried. I'm thrilled for him to be ACC Player of the Week. He was trying to get it all of last year with all those double-doubles and never got it. He gets it and then he's sick. 

"I'm thrilled for him to have a week like he did. He should be fine by Thursday. Just a little stomach virus." 

On Mooney making the call not to play:
"He tried to eat some stuff. He came in and I told him to go home and I'll call him later." 

On Robby Carmody being out:
"We'd like to have that back too. I feel we'll have him back on Thursday. He's still in the protocol. He was still fuzzy from getting his bell rung the other night."

On Pflueger sparking the team:
"He has always guarded. His offensive tempo - he's not forcing anything and letting the game come to him. He's always been a great passer. 

"He's playing like an old dude who lets the game come to him. I told him at halftime it's the best tempo he's played with. 

"We sure jacked him to 35 minutes real quick. We'll give him tomorrow off." 

On the importance of getting the win down a couple players:
"Someone said you won't need John Mooney. We need everybody against everybody we play as we're trying to develop and get confident. 

"They cut it to two and we called timeout. We've done some things with game pressure on us in a couple games that we weren't able to do last year. November 18th - I look at that as progress for us. There's a little more belief and that we're going to get over the hump to finish this thing, especially how we executed some sets. 

"We really just did it. Let's build on it and we have our hands full on Thursday." 

On offense struggling:
"We can get Mooney back. We were searching a little bit. We even went five guards for a while and came back with the two big guys. A lot of stuff runs through Johnny. If he's not scoring it, he's handling it or dribble exchange. We were a little lost at times. 

"You figured you weren't going to score 75. Can you defend well enough to get out of the building?" 

On four games in 10 days:
"In practice yesterday, we were a little tired. We didn't do much on Saturday because Friday night we played. We just stretched. 

"Yesterday, we didn't have a lot of juice. It wasn't guys weren't working hard or being lazy. We were fatigued. Then you have seven guys. We have to get our energy back by 8:30 on Thursday and then there's a little break." 

On Toledo:
"They're really well-coached and they're old. They know who they are and they shoot it. They made 14 threes at Marshall. I told our guys they can with the MAC. 

"They're coming in here thinking we're a big win. They're a big win for us if we can get it. It will be a resumè win. 

"I have to rally our fans. They need to be out at 8:30. Get a nap. We need you. This is kind of an ACC preparation. They're really good."