Mike Brey Notebook: Indiana
Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey previewed Saturday’s game against Indiana on Thursday afternoon.
On lack of success at Banker’s Life the last two years:
“We’ve had some tough ones there. We were on a good run before the last two games there. Getting off to a good start helps. We have a heck of a challenge when you think about Indiana. (De’Ron) Davis gives them such a physical low-post presence. How do we guard that and help on defense?
"We know it won’t be a neutral site atmosphere even though it’s listed as a neutral site game. Hopefully, because we’ve played on the road already, you might be able to handle that environment a little better.
On freshman DJ Harvey:
“I’d like to get him going again. We don’t win Maui without him playing well. He’s been a little young lately. It’s probably a little academic demand in his first year at Notre Dame too.
“We’re going to need him and the rest of the bench moving forward.”
On Indiana with head coach Archie Miller vs. Tom Crean:
“The one thing they are doing is really guarding teams in the halfcourt. They defend and have active hands. They are really kind of jamming it up like Virginia. You have to move them.
“I’d love to see if we can get down the floor quicker and gets some easy buckets before the defense is set. That helps you against Indiana, but it also helps us. We tried to do that a little last Saturday.
“You’re dealing with a lot of ball screens and post feeds. The one thing they take pride in is how they have outscored everyone in the paint. They have beaten everyone up in the paint. Not letting them play volleyball on the boards is going to be a big key for us.”
On Matt Farrell being more aggressive:
“That’s an ongoing discussion with him. I reminded him when we scrimmaged. I told him if he has just a little window to take it. He can’t turn them down. He needs to hunt it for us early.
“I wasn’t hitting him as much during the game, but the assistants come over were telling him to keep taking them. His teammates have been on him about that too. Bonzie and those guys get on him when he turns stuff down.
“He’s got to score for us.”
On moving on from Ball State:
“I thought we got down the floor. It was great to see Matt and TJ play well together. They were in attack mode. Playing quicker on misses and makes helped us do that. We turned a couple over early because we were playing fast, but I’m going to have to live with that a little bit.
“We’re going to throw it away a little more playing fast, but if it gets us into attack mode and Matt/TJ jumpstarted, it’s going to help us.”
On the Crossroads Classic:
“It’s the seventh year, and it’s been a great idea to have the four in-state schools play. You have a sold-out building, and you really have a great atmosphere. We know how the state of Indiana loves basketball.
“I’ve been encouraged the last couple years that our people have now started to come out more. I was leery because historically we haven’t drawn well in Indianapolis because our people didn’t come out, but they have been. You feel better about the thing, even though we’ll be outnumbered. We’ll have a pretty good section on Saturday.
“When you’re recruiting in-state kids, I’m sure they are all at it. They have tickets to it. We can’t leave tickets because it’s not a home game, but I bet they are all there, so it’s a nice showcase for your in-state recruits.”
On future of Crossroads Classic:
“Indiana, Purdue and Notre Dame are all getting into a 20-game league schedule. What is the future of this down the road and how does everyone feel? For us, you’re playing a Big Ten team. If you win it, it’s a resumè win, and if you lose, it’s not a bad loss because you’re playing a power team.
“The 20-game league schedule is going to be interesting moving forward.”
On goals for the next three games:
“This is our seventh of 13 non-league games away from our building. I’d like to see us get off to a good start, defend and compete. When we get back next week, we haven’t played much at home, and we haven’t well at home, so I’d like to focus on those things before we host two ACC home games, which will be very important.”
On Notre Dame being the “forgotten” program in the state:
“We’re in an interesting situation. We’re in the middle of the Big Ten footprint, yet we played in the east coast leagues in the Big East and ACC. People in the state have respect for our program lately.
“I think because we’re not in the Big 10, it’s a Big 10 atmosphere. It’s Fox TV, Gus Johnson, we should call it the Big Ten mini-tournament. I’m not always comfortable with that, but its what we signed up for.”
On possibly adding Butler to schedule:
“We really haven’t talked about it. The way this is setup, it’s always going to be the Big Tens that we play. When you think about moving forward with 20 league games, I’d like to get out of the Midwest footprint when we play non-league games. We’re always going to play the ACC and Big Ten. You have two Big Ten teams and playing in the Midwest, so you’re regionalized.
“To go play UCLA or maybe start something up with Georgetown, St. John’s or a UConn. I don’t want to regionalize us too much. I have the utmost respect for Butler, but it’s pushing it to jam them in there right now.”
On playing in the Jimmy V Classic next year:
“We haven’t been there in a while. I don’t know who we play, but we’ll be in the Jimmy V. We have UCLA on the road, the ACC/Big10 at home, Purdue, so we’re going to have enough there.
“I do like Madison Square Garden. To get back to the Garden – it’s been a while.
On scheduling with 20 league games:
“We’ll have two (ACC) games before January 1st. One of the things we actually proposed in our ACC coaches meeting was Tuesday and Wednesday night opening the basketball season with ACC basketball. We’d play right out of the gate.
“I think it’s a great idea. We have to start thinking a little bit like that.”
On his idea of playing ACC games to open the year even if it’s at Cameron Indoor:
“Well….(laughs). If I can get it over with in December, then yeah. If I can knock that out December 3rd, it might not be a big deal.”
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