Mike Brey Notebook | Indiana Loss

Notre Dame basketball coach Mike Brey spoke following the 62-60 loss to Indiana in the Crossroads Classic on Saturday. 

On the loss:
"It's hard to beat good teams even when you get up five with three minutes." 

On why the Irish couldn't finish:
"I have no idea. Probably their defense." 

On offense clicking in the second half:
"We were playing a little faster. We were getting down the floor and we got some stuff in transition. We actually got stop. We had nine out of 10 stops. We didn't have to take the ball out of bounds and play against a set defense. We got some early offense.

"When their defense was set with their athletic ability, which took it's toll on us over 40 minutes. It was hard to get anything good. I love how we gave ourselves a shot, but we have to see if we can finish better." 

On being down 17 and rallying:
"I think it was more of our old guys talking. Their leadership is good. It's a long game. There was a lot of time left when we were down 17. There were going to be a lot of possessions. 

"I wish we could have dug in defensively in man-to-man better to start the game. I don't think we did that at all in the first half, so now you're digging out of a hole. Sometimes you almost don't deserve to win it when you've played defense for 15 minutes instead of 32."