Mike Brey Notebook: Louisville
Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey spoke following the 82-78 loss to Louisville in double overtime on Tuesday night.
On the loss:
“I feel for our guys. There’s another night we just really battled and couldn’t get over the hump. I love our group, and we were a little short-handed again. We’ve got 12 league games left.”
On freshman DJ Harvey’s injury:
“We’re hoping it’s just cartilage. MRI will be tomorrow. Maybe we rest it and scope it, and then he’ll be back. Hopefully, it’s not an ACL.
“There was no one around him, and he grabbed it, took a dribble and went down. He was in a lot of pain. It hyperextended. It looked weird.”
On impact of Harvey's injury:
“It’s kind of who we are this year. We have been very lucky on the injury front over time. It’s a cycle. You go in and out of it. We’re in one now and you just try to manage it as best as you can.
“I don’t think we’re going to have him for a while. I’m hoping we can get him back in February.”
On possessions late:
“I’d have to watch the tape. You have to give Louisville’s defense a lot of credit. They have great length, switching and have big guys out on us. I loved the look we got at the end of regulation. I thought he got a pretty good look up top at the end of the first overtime.
“He probably didn’t have the lift or the legs that he usually has, but that’s about as good as it was going to get.
“We tried to go to Martinas in the post, and that helped us. Maybe that’s who we have to become moving forward and throwing it down in there to let him go to work.”
On sophomore guard Nik Djogo:
“He’s been great. I’m really proud of him. He keeps coming and making progress. With DJ Harvey down for probably a while, he’s going to play a lot of minutes.”
On next step for Djogo:
“I think that defense and off the ball guarding. He’s never really had to guard, but there are moments in practice where Matt Farrell and TJ Gibb can’t score on him because he’s so long.
“We need him to get good fast because he’s going to play a lot of minutes for us. I like where he’s trending right now. He’s come a long way since October.”
On guard Rex Pflueger fouling out with six minutes left in regulation:
“That was too bad. He’s usually pretty smart about fouls. That was a big loss in the overtime. Right now, I think we’re first in the least amount of fouls, but we just can’t afford to have a main guy even get in foul trouble.”
On Martinas Geben’s 11 offensive rebounds:
“He’s unbelievable. He’s playing so well. I’m so proud of him. He deserves it, and he’s a confident guy right now. As I am trying to figure out how to help this group, we have to throw it into him more and let him go to work.
“He’s as good as any big guy in the league right now. Thank God we have him.”
On keeping the team focused:
“If I know our seniors, we will keep plugging. I told them last year we lost five out of six in the ACC and we found our footing. We scratched and clawed to the end. I’m not sure we can get to 12 leagues wins and the double-bye. I don’t know if that’s realistic.
“Can we scratch out five or six more and go to Brooklyn and Colson’s maybe back? That’s the world we’re in.”
On emotions after the loss:
“I think we were exhausted. It was exhaustion in there. We need 48 hours just to get our energy back to see if we can steal one on the road. Clemson is playing really well.
“We need to get to the bye week. If we can get to the bye week 4-3, I would have a party. That would be as good as it gets, but we need to get there and shut it down to get some guys some rest.
“Get Matt to 100 percent by the time we play Virginia Tech and see what we have in us down the stretch.”
On Matt Farrell’s return:
“The size bothered him, and fatigue got to him. It’s not like we can take him out and rest him. I was asking him at every timeout. He was really tired. He hadn’t played heavy minutes in a while, and we tried to get him off the ball and let TJ handle it.”