Notre Dame basketball coach Mike Brey spoke following another disappointing loss on Wednesday night.
On the loss:
"We were outplayed by some men on both ends of the floor. Again, I think you have to give NC State credit. They're playing great and they're a physical, tough group of kids that kind of put on us today - both ends."
On lack of urgency from the team:
"I'm not sure. I thought we practiced a little better to come out and dig in, but we didn't have much. We really haven't had much the last two games - fighting.
"You can't use pandemics and all that as an excuse. It's a little bit of the pride of digging in and competing. We did that to get out of a hole at 0-5, but we haven't shown any of that lately.
"And we have an unbelievable challenge on Saturday."
On not being able to replicate getting off the mat:
"We were better defensively. We were able to protect the paint better. Our physicality around the basket - not that we're the most physical group, but we got more than we're showing. I know that.
"When we don't get a good offensive possession, we hang our heads on the defensive end. That's an amazingly difficult trap to fall into."
On lack of toughness and urgency on defense from a veteran team:
"Probably getting beat up for two weeks. We've kind of been beat up a little bit. You're wounded quite frankly. It's disappointing. I thought we showed at the end of the 0-5 stretch and then we kind of spun out of it a little and fought. We only had two games guaranteed left on our schedule and so I just kind of talked to them calmly about figuring out what we want to do in Greensboro by how you compete and dig in against a great team on Saturday."
On practice leading up to the NC State game:
"I thought we were more ready to go after it a little bit. I really did. That's what was disappointing. I thought we got a little energy back on Sunday and practiced pretty good on Monday and Tuesday. We didn't practice long, but I thought we'd be in a little better frame of mind.
"If you can make some shots early against a great defensive team, you feel a little bit better. We were holding on for dear life the whole time."
On 'Fire Brey' chants after the game:
"I'm committed here. I'm certainly committed to this group and how it finishes for us this year. We do have a good group coming back and we have a real good big guy coming. I thought about that a lot as we have dug through a little bit of everything.
"I'm also realistic about the big picture of things too. You want to continue to be effective here. I don't need to be told if I'm not effective. I'm a pretty good judge of that. That was well warranted by our students because that was a poor performance. They should have been on me.”
