Mike Brey Notebook: Hampton

Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey spoke following the 84-63 win over Hampton to open the 2018 NIT. 

On the win:
“You have to start somewhere in this tournament. I thought we were excited to play and got over not making the NCAA Tournament. I thought we defend well against a pretty good offensive group. 

“We’re thrilled we play at Noon on Saturday.”

On first win out of the way:
“You feel that you’re in the tournament now. We can look around at the bracket, and some other games happen. Tomorrow, Penn State and Temple play. You can start to see the route to get back to New York. 

“One down and two to go to get to The Garden. These kids haven’t played in The Garden, so it’d be great to get back there. I’m proud of this group. They’ve handled everything this year like men.” 

On knowing the team was engaged:
“We were good yesterday. Guys were bouncing around, and practice was good. We went to dinner last night, and they are getting on each other. Kids are amazingly resilient. They helped the old coach stay resilient when you see that kind of vibe coming off of them.” 

“Our seniors are men. They want to keep playing.”

On injury to Elijah Burns 
“He has a little bit of knee situation we are going to take a look at on Thursday to see what the deal is on that. We’re not sure.” 

On new rules:
“It was interesting. I kind of liked it. I’m glad I get another chance to digest it. I liked the flow of it with the fouls. The timeouts were are so long, but given our lack of depth and our main guys need to play a lot of minutes, I do like that right now. I can rest my key guys. 

“We were 7-for-27 from the three-point line. That thing is out there a little bit further. Practicing and playing tonight, it does open the floor some more. You saw post players that caught the ball further away from the bucket. You saw great cuts down the lane because there was room. I thought we got more of it because they were catching it further out and there was more room to cut to the bucket.”