Mike Brey Notebook | 1.3.19
Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey spoke on Thursday afternoon as his team prepares for Syracuse on Saturday.
On continuing to play well at home:
“I’m hoping we have some of that. We’ve played a bunch of home games. Other than Radford, we’ve escaped. When you’re playing league play, you have to earn and establish it again.
“This is new territory for this group. A home league game against some veteran guys in Syracuse.”
On F Nate Laszewski:
“I think he’s starting to find a rhythm and we’re finding him. Certainly, he’s a shot maker for us. He can rebound for us. I’ve challenged him to be a better defensive rebounder.
On G Dane Goodwin:
“I like where Dane is. He’s got to score for us and be aggressive. He couldn’t get stuff the other day, but he had been scoring for us. I think he can be a better individual defender. He can sit in a stance and keep guys in front of him and he’s better than that.”
On F Juwan Durham:
“I’ve loved what he’s given us. He’s never been in foul trouble. I just want him to keep being confident and to defend and rebound. The shot blocking really saves us sometimes. He’s been good with the ball when we throw it to him in the post.
“I talked to him about not worry about scoring early but can he block some shots and rebound early to get a feel of things. He doesn’t have to worry about scoring early or making a post move early.”
On teams trying to get Juwan Durham in foul trouble:
“I’m not sure he has that much on the scouting report, but if he does, that’s unbelievable. Where he gets his foul trouble, he’s a great help side blocker but when people get into his body that's where he’s had some problems. He has good hands like a guard and he has the tendency to strip sometimes. He gets a couple in practice, but it’s a bad habit.
“I was thinking on the plane, he hadn’t played enough to be in foul trouble. He’s starting and now he’s in foul trouble. I pulled him off after he fouled out on the sideline and said he’s just getting better. It’s new territory for him and let’s keep working.”
On possibly taking the redshirt off Chris Doherty:
“We’ve thought about it and that’s why he’s dressing. He’s in uniform. It has to be really bad for me to do that. I don’t want to do that and I’m hoping I don’t have to do that. I think we have to have him dressed. He gets to go through the pregame routine and that's good for development.
“I told him he has to dress and we're going to try our best to keep him as a five-year man, but I’m not sure that's going to happen. I’m hoping I don’t have to do that. I haven’t been close to touching that in any game, so hopefully that stays the course.”
On health updates for Nate Laszewski and Nik Djogo:
“It was a knee to knee. Yesterday was good for us to get some energy back.
“Nik is back. He was sick as a dog and we couldn’t even take him. He can help be a four-man as well.”