Mike Brey Notebook: North Carolina
Notre Dame fell 69-68 to North Carolina on Saturday night. Head coach Mike Brey spoke after the game.
On the loss:
“That’s a tough one to swallow. You feel you were going to get it today. I loved our mental and physical toughness throughout. Some of our younger guys are being thrown into some tough game situations and making some really impressive plays. It can only help us long-term. You have to have a short memory. We talked about a short memory last Saturday after a great win, and you have to after a tough loss like today too.”
On refocusing team:
“We have great leadership with this group. They are angry. I told them to be angry until 7:00 on Tuesday. I think it’s a good frame of mind to be in. The other thing we need to do is get Matt Farrell back at practice on Sunday and Monday.
“If all goes well, start him. It’s time for him to come back. We’ve done a heck of a job without him, but we need him."
On point guard Matt Farrell:
"He’s about 80-percent. We just didn’t want to mess with it tonight. This is a long, long road. If we can get him Tuesday and Saturday, then we have a bye week after Clemson. The goal would be to have him close to 100-percent by Virginia Tech and then there is a lot of basketball to play.”
On minutes:
“We were fatigued as heck, and I think they were too. Our eight guys are rotating through. We played smaller, and that helped us offensively, but we were thoroughly exhausted.
“With those eight, they’re going to have to fight through it. Hopefully, we will have a ninth join the part on Tuesday."
On Farrell’s return
“It will energize our guys. We need that now. They need to know we’re getting Matt ready for Tuesday. I think it will help the whole atmosphere.”
On rebounding:
“We rotate those four big guys, and they’re fresh and flying around. It has helped us offensively with two scorers out. It also gets us to the bonus quicker. It’s a thing we’re kind of hanging our hat on a little bit.
“When we downshift, it’s a little different, but DJ Harvey can get you eight or nine rebounds. He rebounds a little like (Pat) Connaughton from that position."
On Nik Djogo:
“It was big. I thought the third one almost went off the shot clock. Nik continues to get better and tougher for us. To play like he did in this atmosphere in this game – I’m impressed with all four of those guys, and how we’ve asked them to deliver and for the most part, they have done a heck of a job. We have to keep building their confidence.”
On TJ Gibbs' final shot:
“Our veteran guys out there are pretty darn tough. We were able to talk about what we wanted to do. He got a tough first shot and got a second shot. I don’t know if it beat the clock, but it was close. You have to go see if they will foul you in that situation.”
On bouncing back:
“I have every reason to believe we will really bounce back well on Tuesday. One of the big reasons is if we have Matt Farrell in our lineup, that’s the injection we need right now."
On angry guys in the locker room:
“Hell yeah. It’s good stuff. I’m going to be pissed until 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday night.”
On Bonzie Colson and Farrell communicating:
“We miss them on the road the last two games. Those guys are helping the young guys. They’ve been awesome in timeouts. Bonzie came up and suggested a different set, which was a great suggestion to me.
“It’s good having them back around, but Farrell in uniform doing his thing is needed.”
On the crowd:
“The crowd was fabulous. Our crowd gave us every chance. It’s neat to see our fans know we really need them right now given where we are health-wise. We had 1,300 students come back early. The dorms aren’t open. They came back early and found a place to stay.
“We need that in every league game. I can’t thank our fans enough.”
On Bonzie Colson:
“He’s not moping over there. He’s trying to help his team. That takes a hell of a guy. A Player of the Year candidate sitting over there for another seven weeks, yet he’s so engaged helping his guys. I take my hat off to that young man."