Mike Brey Notebook: Maui Invitational Title
Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey spoke about the 67-66 win in the championship game of the Maui Invitational on Wednesday night.
On the win:
“What a great college game for November. They are really good. We couldn’t guard them man-to-man. Thank God our zone got us back in the thing.
“I’m really proud of our group. You can tell we have guys that have played in big games and won together. For us to make a bunch of plays in the last 20 seconds to steal a win, I can’t say I’m surprised because it’s a group that’s won a lot."
On motivation heading into the tournament:
“We said we wanted to have our name up on this wall. We felt our program was one of those programs that deserved to be on the Maui wall. I’m thrilled it will be there, and we’ll back in four years to check it out.
“Maybe there will be a picture of me with a T-shirt on up there.”
On the momentum of winning Maui Invitational:
“It’s a big confidence builder when you can win an in-season tournament. We won the Legends Classic last year, but this is the premier tournament. Everybody watches this one. I bet a lot of people were watching with cocktails in their hands back East tonight.
“When you have two guys like that, they make me a better coach. They are flat out assassins, and you saw it tonight. They are killers and amazingly competitive. They have that edge.”
On inbounds play in final seconds:
“We never ran that look out of it. When we have smart guys and guys with high basketball IQ guys, Matt came off it first, and he takes a lot of traffic. Bonzie came off it. I kept telling them don’t rush it, and Martinas did a great job diving hard. Rex is great taking the ball out of bounds.
“I would have been shocked if Martinas missed. He’s playing too well. He’s had an up and down career, but of course, he won the Gold medal in August at the World University Games. He deserved a moment like that. Rex did a good job of finding it.
On zone defense:
“They run their man stuff, and it’s so downhill. It’s coming down on you hard. The first twenty minutes and early in the second half, we couldn’t deal with it, and we’re a pretty good defensive team. They have some men, physical guys, and old guys.
“We haven’t played a lot of 2-3 zone, and we had to change their rhythm. We did a great job of rebounding out of it. It was a key, and we played pretty much our starters the second half. They played well off each other and covered. It saved us because we couldn’t guard them man-to-man.”
On dress attire:
“We play a lot south of the Mason-Dixon Line. I’m wondering if I should rock this look on Tobacco Road. I’m keeping this look for Maui. I’m wondering if the Maui Invitational will put in a dress code for coaches or if more coaches will go with the practice look.
“I also want to know how many of these shirts we sold in our bookstore the last few days. They got a lot of pub I hear.”