Mike Brey Notebook: Dartmouth
Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey spoke following the 97-87 win over Dartmouth on Tuesday night.
On the win:
"Usually, when a team hits 15 threes on you, you lose. They were firing. Some were good ones, some were flat out bombs. I had a little flashback to the Leigh game about 10 years ago when they made 14, and the only way we were going to win was to outscore them.
"We scored enough to escape. Bonzie and Matt Farrell were fabulous. They made sure we didn’t lose.
"I like that we scored and our offense was flowing on this floor. It hasn’t been flowing great on this floor, and maybe we can get one more night when we’re feeling good offensively before we go home. Hopefully, it can give us some momentum before we start league play."
On forward Bonzie Colson:
“The three-point shot – he hasn’t shot a good clip to date, but we don’t want to tell him not to shoot it. I thought it was going to be a matter of time before he started to hit it like he did at the end of last year. His practice numbers are very good. He’s high 30s in practice.
“It’s an amazing performance. The shots he made. The steals he came up with – he’s just one of those guys that makes sure his team doesn’t lose. He’ll kill himself making sure his team doesn’t lose."
On bench:
“I was hoping the way the bench played in Indianapolis that I could take a step with them, but that wasn’t the case. We have to keep coming back and working with them. Our starters had to win the game for us tonight.
“We still have to keep working with John, DJ, Nic, Torres, and Burns. It’s going to be a revolving door all year."
On guard Rex Pflueger:
“He’s always defended. He had a tough offensive day down there on Saturday. I told him ‘Look, don’t worry about bouncing back offensively. That’s not who you are. Defend, rebound.’
“He’s a great passer, and he finds people. His drives early in the game loosened them up, and he made some plays for us.”
On the mindset of the team after giving up a 16-point lead:
“The last time we played here, we game pressure, so no matter who you’re playing, you have some stuff happening. You figure it out to escape. That’s something to build on in December. We reacted with some really good offensive possessions and some key steals at key times.”
On hot and cold shooting:
“We have some really high strung guys, especially the four of them, Rex, TJ, Matt, and Bonzie. I really tried to talk to them about it where we don’t get angry if we miss a shot or if something breaks down. I wouldn’t want it any other way. It’s a great edge and makes them great competitors.
“It has been a negative at times when we haven’t been able to get on to the next play. We talk about it a lot. In the second half, our huddles were better. Bonzie was saying great stuff. It wasn’t like ‘Oh my God.’
“It’s a dynamic of this group that’s very interesting for me to manage. We’re going to have to manage it the rest of the way to see if we can get out of the swings.”
On defensive problems:
“Our post defense, we have to be better. We have to look at if we’re going to play that differently. We’re going to have to make some decisions when we come back for ACC play. That’s what has been disappointing with our guys off the bench. Our frontline subs – they can help us there, and we need them to do that for us. They haven’t done that well enough.
“Martinas will battle, and he gives you a big chest. Zone helped us tonight, and we’re going to play some zone this year. How we guard the post man-to-man, we have to think about some things before league play. I don’t have those answers yet.”
On slow starts at the start of the first and second half:
“I’m not sure I have the answer to that. It’s always great to make some jump shots early. We had some open looks we didn’t make. One of the things we can do is drive it better. When we swing it and drive it, we get fouled. We got to the bonus quick because we were driving it so much.
“I’m not losing a lot of sleep on it. The game is long. I just don’t want us getting emotionally off our rocker if we’re not in a good offensive rhythm to start the game. We need more growth as the ACC comes.”