Mike Brey Notebook | Wake Forest Loss
Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey spoke following the disappointing 75-68 loss to Wake Forest on Tuesday evening.
On the loss:
“Give Wake Forest credit. They made some really key buckets and athletic plays around the basket – second shot stuff. You figure you’re going to score tonight the way the game started, but we kind of hit the wall a little bit. We had some great looks at key times we couldn’t make. You get what you deserve.”
On not being able to close:
“Sometimes you get it to one possession and in the vibe we’re in – it might as well be 12 points. The last possession is hard to get over. It’s close, but it’s not as close as one possession psychologically for us. That’s where we aren’t as confidence because we haven’t had success.”
On not being able to get over the hump:
“We’re going to keep trying. The reality is we are kind of who we are right now. I thought Prentiss (Hubb) really battled and our other young guys struggled. Wake Forest has some athletic ability and some individuals.
“Finishing it and getting over the hump is a big hurdle for any group that’s developing. We’ve really not shown any signs to be able to do it.”
On the potential to build off Saturday’s game at Virginia:
“I told our guys I was hoping for three steps forward. I thought last week we had two steps forward. We beat Georgia Tech and I thought what we did Saturday was really good for our group. We battled and had a chance.
“This group has never really been able to do that this year. It is what it is. We have a heck of a thing coming at us this weekend.”
On concern not getting over the hump is the personality of the team:
“I think it will grow. We’re going to try and see if we can grow it this season. We still have some opportunities, but I do think it will grow. We have high character guys. We just need some more guys jumping in there.”
On what a successful stretch run would be:
“I don’t know. I’ll let you know on Thursday. For us, we’ve lived day-to-day with this team. Here’s what we are going to work on today and try today. We’ll do some of that tomorrow. The one thing – we haven’t beaten anyone in the upper division. We have a couple of them coming. It’d be neat to see if this team can get one of those.”
On Nik Djogo and Juwan Durham:
“I told him the other day in practice that he had 21 at Boston College. If he has an open look, he can shoot it. I thought he overpassed a little bit today. In the midst of a tough night, I thought Juwan Durham gave us some stuff we remember before he got hurt. We’ve missed that. I thought the last couple days of practice, he’s moved and bounced around like before the injury. He had bad luck reaching in at the end of the half.”
On young not being young 26 games into the season:
“There’s no question. I think we’ve given them a lot of opportunity and minutes. We want them to be more effective and efficient. They are hard on themselves. I thought Dane (Goodwin) and Nate (Laszewski) were tied up in knots because they missed a shot or made a mistake. They are still going to get minutes.
“For us to have success, they have to play like they’ve gotten a lot of experience. We’ve really invested a lot of minutes in those guys.”