Mike Brey credits fans in Michigan State win
Purcell Pavilion was rocking this week as Notre Dame knocked off Michigan State for its sixth win of the season. Mike Brey certainly took notice and thanked the crowd after the game.
More than 7,800 fans were on hand to watch the Fighting Irish defeat the Spartans 70-52 on Wednesday. It was quite a turnout considering the 9:15 p.m. ET tip-off, and Brey especially thanked the fans for coming out for such a late game.
He also talked about what went through his mind during the game, which Notre Dame led by as many as 23 points.
“When you have a great crowd and everybody comes and our students, especially, you want to deliver for them,” Brey said. “And we did. Hopefully, that keeps them coming back, certainly starting on Saturday at noon. But our students are great. I know that’s late for the South Bend crowd, but they must have got naps today. They must have got some naps today. They’re going to be late for work tomorrow, I bet.
“It was just an awesome atmosphere and because the game was in control, I was able to look around and go, ‘Alright, this is really cool.’ It comes across great on national TV for our program. Parker Fredrichsen and Markus Burton were in the stands. Good stuff. We’ll flush it by 9 a.m. and be ready to work against the zone.”
Mike Brey says Cormac Ryan ‘sets the tone’ for Notre Dame
Notre Dame and head coach Mike Brey were able to pull off an upset over Michigan State in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge. This was largely because of the play of Cormac Ryan, who led the way in scoring with 23 points.
After the game, Brey praised Ryan for being the player who the Irish look to set the tone on both offense and defense.
“You know, I’ve got the utmost respect for this guy,” Brey said. “Like, he’s the voice. He sets the tone. He knows this is the one to get us going, especially after Long Island and escaping, and not only does he guard their most potent guy for 40 minutes, he does that but then in the second half he didn’t really have stuff, so he just guarded.”