Mike Brey Notebook | Toledo Win
Notre Dame basketball coach Mike Brey spoke following the 64-62 win over Toledo on Thursday night.
On Robby Carmody's shoulder injury:
"Just a bruise. Tough luck. The kid had bad luck. It was a great drive. He had a great drive earlier. I love him because he's our driver. He's a little reckless, but it's a bruise. It's not a tear or separation. He'll be fine by Tuesday's game."
On the win:
"I am so proud of our group. It didn't look good for a lot of time. To get away with a win tonight and do some tough stuff and believe we could steal a win against a really good team - I'm thrilled about our defense.
"I think we had 22 stops in their last 26 possessions against a really good offensive group. Hopefully, something for us to build on."
On Nate Laszewski's buzzer-beater to put the game into overtime:
"He was due wasn't he? He had made one earlier in the half. I had flashbacks of a little bit to the Maui inbound. One thing was consistent, Rex (Pflueger) was the quarterback.
"He waits and he waits. It was five-seconds to get it in. He let Martin Geben get open and he let Nate get open.
"I thought Nate was doing other stuff. He wasn't making shots, but he was defending and rebounding. He's more ready as a college player this year. The shooting will come."
On the backdoor play to take the lead in overtime:
"It was out of our motion. It wasn't a called play. I think two senior guards just connecting and communicating."
On Rex Pflueger:
"How about Rex Pflueger? I could care less about his shooting. He makes every play. Every big play. Every clutch play. He's such a winner.
"I thought he and TJ (Gibbs) were good down the stretch."
On not being able to make shots:
"We're going to win games in double overtime. I think the law of averages will kick in. I'll say this, we had some good looks. I thought we settled for some shots instead of driving it some when we could've. I think that could help us a little bit more.
"We were defending well enough. They had 27 points (at halftime). I said we're going to have to make some of those to beat a good team. We made enough at keys times to escape. We're going to have to make more to beat ACC teams. I'm aware of that."
On shooting being similar to last year:
"There's a will about this group. Pflueger is the key. You look and see some of the stuff he does and how much we missed a winner. For them, this is a great reference point no matter how bad it looks at times the rest of the year - and it will look bad. You can always go 'Look at Toledo. We were dead in the water like seven times.'"
On Toledo stating they gave the game away:
"The one thing we didn't talk about was our pressure and our traps. We really were good. I think we can do that better than maybe any other team I've had. They have to be disappointed. I've been on that end of it. You play well enough to win it and you have an out of bounds under with 1.5 up three and you can't get out of the building. I've been there.
"You got to give us some credit. I thought we really made some key plays and we really guarded in the overtime. We had them on their heels. We have great confidence in being able to guard. We're still figuring it out offensively and we'll go back to work on that tomorrow."