Mike Brey Notebook: Florida State
Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey gave some injury updates and spoke about Saturday's big game against Florida State.
On the health of DJ Harvey:
“I’m hoping, and it’s realistic he’ll be back for Boston College a week from Saturday. Anything before that would be a surprise for me. He’s been pushing it more the last two days.
“He’s not doing 5-on-5 yet. He’s doing 5-on-0 and shooting drills. He hasn’t gone live yet, but possibly on Friday. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, we have to cut him completely loose and have him ready to play at Boston College.”
On the plan for Bonzie Colson:
“The X-ray last Monday was positive. We’re going to X-ray him again next Wednesday. If next Wednesday’s X-ray is a thumbs up, we’re going to let him jog and move a little bit and start bringing him back.
“He really wants to come back and play. I’m going to be the guy that’s going to be the voice of reason on being conservative. I don’t want to bring him back too soon. I don’t want a risk of a re-injury and where are we in the midst of things?
“The pure part of it, he just wants to play with his teammates again. That may be cool no matter where we are in things. I know he’s been frustrated, but we’ll cross that bridge in maybe two weeks.”
On the culture of the program:
“I really talked about that in our first team meeting. There’s a really strong foundation here, and we have that succession plan of leadership. We’ve been really proud of groups taking ownership of themselves and this group really does.
“They’ve had each other’s back and picked each other up through a tough stretch. It’s a combination of me reminding them and our old guys knowing what we’ve built.”
On the power of the culture being built:
“They really believe in it. You only have the one freshman. They’ve been really good, and I’ve been proud of our leadership in this situation. They are hanging in there and haven’t been distracted.
“There’s a maturity in this group that has been good about handling the situation we’ve been dealt.”
On getting two wins in a row:
“We would love to score again and get into that offensive rhythm. I’m hoping we can put back-to-back games together. We like playing here. Florida State is a better defensive team than what we played against the other night.
“They aren’t smothering you like some of the Florida State teams of old. For us, if we get into those 80s and we’re feeling good, it helps us all the way around."
On health Matt Farrell and John Mooney:
“You could see with Matt, he was close to 100 percent on Tuesday night. Another couple days of practice, I think he’s back.
“I think John is back at 100 percent. I thought his performance was great. We need him healthy because he scores for us.”
On atmosphere on Saturday:
“I think it’s going to be great. It’s an honor to welcome back the ’78 Final Four team. They’re truly an inspiration for me and our program.
“This game has been sold out for a while. I think Florida State does something for our fans all the way across the board and gets them ready to go. We’ll need it. Our atmosphere has helped us believe. I can’t thank our crowd enough and our students for having our back through a tough stretch.”
On what two wins in a row would mean:
“You go win two in this league, and you’re all of a sudden in the middle of the pack in the league. The middle of the pack of the league, there is still shouting distance to the tournament.
“It would be huge for us. We know we have a tough one coming not too long after that with North Carolina on the road on Monday.”
On Tuesday's offensive explosion:
“I hope we have some bullets in the gun for Saturday. We used a lot of them. Our movement was good with Matt and TJ moving together and playing off each other.
“Rex’s playmaking has been fabulous. He’s rotated into finding TJ, Matt and the big guy for dump offs and then he’s going to hit a big one. He’s not hunting his shot as much, and he's just a playmaker. I thought he was great with that the other night.”
On Farrell playing off the ball:
“Sometimes I just tell Matt to get off the ball and be ready to catch and shoot. We had that one dribble exchange in front of our bench, and Matt just rose up. They do it well on their own, but every now and then, I just want to get TJ to initiate and get Matt off where we can maybe hit him for an open shot.”
On 21 assists on Tuesday:
“We looked like the offensive philosophy of this culture and program on Tuesday. It was exciting for everybody and mostly for our players. I want us to watch it again and talk about it.
“We do have some more threats and weapons that can stretch the floor and make a shot. We’ve always been a good passing group, but you can pass it, and it gets to the open guy who isn’t the guy you want to take the open shot. We played against a lot of teams like that through the years, and we benefited. We’re one of those teams, and I’m hoping we’re getting out of being one of those teams.”