Mike Brey Notebook | Boston College Win
Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey spoke following an impressive win over Boston College on Saturday afternoon.
On the win:
“As TJ (Gibbs) was exiting the building throwing up, I told our guys, we have six and for Liam (Nelligan) to be ready and let’s make it a great story. I’m proud of our group. A lot of different guys stepped forward and made plays to get out of here with a win.
“I feel great for Prentiss (Hubb) and John (Mooney) continues to be a flat out man. He put on a show. All six of them are happy about their playing time today.”
On TJ Gibbs not playing:
“We had a shoot around at 8:30 am like we normally do for Noon games. He was fine. I knew he was out there about 25 minutes before the game then he kind of had migraine symptoms with headaches behind the eye and was nauseous.
“He was in the hotel. We sent him back to the Morris Inn and that’s 20 minutes before. We’ll have him back on Tuesday.”
On Juwan Durham’s injury:
“He had a bad fall against Virginia Tech and tweaked it against Syracuse. It didn’t respond very well this week. My feeling is let’s see if we can get it healthy before we start playing him again. WE’ll re-evaluate it on Monday.
“He tried to practice, but it was really tender. He just couldn’t lift. If he can’t be who he is flying around and blocking shots, we can’t play him. I want to get him healthy. If that means he has to rest even longer than a couple games - to rest him to get him ready for February, then that’s how we have to do it.”
On Chris Doherty’s redshirt:
“There’s always a consideration. He’s dressed. I went into the game thinking let’s really do it with six. Liam, I told to be ready.
“But it’s a day to day evaluation given Juwan’s situation.”
On losing leading scorer 20 minutes before the game:
“I was going to bring Prentiss off the bench to try to help him. Then he starts and plays 40 minutes. I told them no one gives us a shot and let’s be a great story. I’m proud of our young guys. I thought the three freshmen really delivered.
“Prentiss needed that. I know they played off him and made him shoot it, but he’s a better shooter than what he’s been the first couple league games. Hopefully, his confidence is up.”
On Hubb’s big game:
“Through 55 practices, he’s shot 38% from the three-point line. Guys who can’t shoot, it will play out over 55 practices. I also know what he did for us here is what he did for us early by scoring in the first half to help us.
“It looked familiar again today. I know they dared him and I love the fact he stepped up and took it. We need him scoring for us.”
On Nik Djogo:
“Big minutes. We’re going to have to continue to rely on him, especially rebounding the ball and his size on the court. He got deflections. Nik gave us great minutes. He’s had a great attitude. He wasn’t part of the rotation early and he is now. He deserves to have a good year because he’s such a great kid.”
On win being a stepping stone:
“It’s huge. For the young guys to play those minutes and be part it, all three of those freshmen are feeling really good about having a big part in a league win. I’ll take those looks (Nate) Laszewski in Chapel Hill because he’ll make a bunch of those.”
On the mood in the locker room:
“They were great and celebrating as they should. We’ve had a lot of good wins here and I know it’s not a ranked team, but I’m really proud of our group as we’re trying to figure this thing out.”
On if he’s ever had a six-man rotation:
“I’ve never had six guys. We’re going to get to at least seven by tomorrow night.”
On zone defense:
“We played zone pretty much the whole game. It’s going to be a big part moving forward. One of the things we did was add a little 1-3-1 entry to our 2-3. We used that in the second half and it helped us.
“We’re going to have to play a lot of zone to keep guys on the floor and from not getting overly fatigued chasing ball screens.”
On Rex Pflueger’s surgery:
“Everything went great on Friday. No surprise. Very straight forward ACL tear. He’ll start his rehab.
“He got in the locker room. I didn’t know if he was going to stay for the whole game because he’s sore, but he was in there. He’s been great. He was even behind the bench. Before I got into timeouts, he was grabbing different guys. He’s fabulous.”