University of Connecticut Athletics
Connecticut 80, Notre Dame 72
1/2/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 2, 2010
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HARTFORD, Conn. - Connecticut Head Coach Jim Calhoun
On Luke Harangody "The thing that seems to get Notre Dame going the most is him, but him on the outside a little more, him not getting our guys in foul trouble - when he takes two foul shots against us, I consider that a victory. Now, the points are very difficult to swallow, but I was really afraid that they would come in here and make 12, 13, 14 threes, light them up. Then now we have to go way outside and can't give any help when it really counts...He's a terrific player and he's a scoring machine. I can't say we did a great job on him, but I don't think anybody can allow him to be as isolated as we did. We did a good job in spots on him, but he's a terrific scorer."
"I thought we needed something to happen good for us. In this league, if you don't get too low, which I don't think we did after Cincinnati. We didn't play particularly well against Cincinnati, but we came back with a chance to win the game."
"I really thought we took away their shooters, overall...That was the game plan."
On Stanley Robinson "Stanley had a magnificent performance...If he plays against a 6-7 guy, he is going to mismatch you...He's just an incredible athlete...He's a pretty special basketball player. And that's the thing that has changed. He's been a special athlete. He's starting to become a special basketball player."
On Charles Okwandu & Ater Majok "We got our spark from Charles. Charles came in, turned, when he got a rebound, put it back up and in. Made us more physical, which we weren't against Cincinnati as much...It bodes well for the future, obviously.The positive is it gives us another big guy, but it also gives Ater [Majok] something now, except worrying what he has to do to help this team win, he has to work harder to get playing time over Charles. And that will be good for Ater."
"We were able to play really good defense down the stretch."
"I thought we moved the ball well once we slowed them down." "Bottom line, it was a really good win for us, because I think Notre Dame is going to win a lot of games."
Stanley Robinson "I was just being active. I was grabbing rebounds whenever I could. Offense just came to me. I just let it develop on the court."
"I've just been working hard, working on my jump-shot over the summer."
"I'm starting to step-up my game, starting to make shots. Just being a leader."
On Charles Okwandu's performance "He did a great job. He helped us out a lot. Plus he came off the bench so it was a great spark for us."
Jerome Dyson "We definitely needed this one. We definitely wanted to protect the home court. We made this a team game today. It really wasn't one person here and there. It felt like everybody stepped up and played their role."
On having two players with 10 assists today "If we rebound the ball and get the ball out, it makes everything a lot easier for us because we're so hard to play in the fast court game."
What was the difference tonight? "We got a little bit out of everybody. Everybody who played we got a little bit out of and that always helps. Like Charles [Okwandu], he got three offensive rebounds right away which we were struggling with in past games...He gave us energy. He's been waiting for a long time to get into the game and show he can play. I know he made Coach happy and he made all of us happy."
Charles Okwandu Were you pleased with the way thing went today? "I'm just happy to contribute to the team. That's what I've been waiting for all these years and I was able to contribute more today."
"The coaches keep telling me to work hard and I did. They say when you work hard it pays later. And it paid today."
Notre Game Coach Mike Brey
"I think we played pretty well for about 30-minutes and that's going to be not quite enough against them."
"I feel good about my group first time on the road. We came back. We answered some big punches from a good team."
"They beat us off the dribble a little in the second half. I thought we did a good job of that in the first half, transition defense and limiting penetration. In the second half we really couldn't get their momentum slowed down."
"I don't think we did a good with the zone, matching up on the baseline. They've got such long, bouncy guys on the baseline. You can still be in position and they jump over you. Stanley Robinson makes tough shots."
