Notre Dame Coach Mike Brey Impressed With Hoosiers, Trayce Jackson-Davis

It's always great to get an outsider's perspective on Indiana, and Notre Dame coach Mike Brey walked away impressed with the Hoosiers after Saturday's game. He really likes the improvements in Trayce Jackson-Davis' game, on both sides of the floor.

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Notre Dame has played five straight games against Power Five teams in December, the latest being the 64-56 loss to Indiana on Saturday in the final game of the Crossroads Classic. 

Mike Brey, who's been coaching the Fighting Irish for 22 years now, came away impressed with the Hoosiers, especially preseason All-American forward Trayce Jackson-Davis. He scored 17 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and had two blocked shots in leading Indiana to its fifth-straight win in the event, which is ending after 11 years.

"He is really gifted,'' Brey said of the 6-foot-9 junior from Greenwood, Ind. "He had his numbers. We were afraid of coming down there and really all-out doubling against him, because if they make too many threes, they're too far away from you.  Overall, I thought we did a pretty good job, Paul (Atkinson) and Nate (Laszewski), wrestling him, with a little help.

"But he's a physical specimen, and he really plays with a nice demeanor. He has a great demeanor, and he has that defensive presence as far as blocking shots. He's a great talent. I remember him as a young player here in the state, and to see who he has become is impressive. I love his demeanor. He just kind of plays, and he gets banged on a lot. And, you know, we had the hard foul incident, and him and Cormac Ryan are like, 'I know what it is.' He has a great frame of mind.''

Jackson-Davis is averaging 19.1 points and 8.7 rebounds this season. He also has 36 blocked shots in 11 games — good for 11th in the country — and is a big reason why Indiana is No. 2 in the nation in field goal percentage defense (34.9 percent), second only to LSU (33.4).

He completely impacts the game on both ends of the floor, and Brey could see that. 

"Well, he is just so good,'' Brey said. "I mean, I think we had two possessions where we got it to Atkinson — (a 6-foot-9 Yale transfer who was once the Ivy League Player of the Year) — with a chance to maybe take the lead, and it was one-on-one in the post. I think Paul is still in a little bit of an adjustment period coming from the Ivy League playing against the Trayce Jackson-Davis kind of bodies that keep coming at him.

"And I thought (Jackson-Davis) made an unbelievable play on the reverse layup to block it. It's just a big-time NBA prospect kind of defensive play. Atkinson looked around like, 'where did he come from?' Again, he has a such a good demeanor. He has a great tempo, he is long and he is up above the rim. When you have a guy that can take away some stuff at the rim defensively, it does help your defense. It really makes your other guys confident, too, that they have that with him back there.''

Race Thompson, Jackson-Davis' running mate on the blocks for Indiana, sees it every day, too. For as much of an offensive threat that Jackson-Davis is, it's his growth as a defensive player that stands out so far this season. That's what makes the All-American talk so real.

"He definitely changes people's shots,'' Thompson said. "You go up for a layup, and if he's coming over, you've got to adjust because he is going to block it if you don't. He does it in practice, he does it in the games. If I get beat, I'm like, Trayce is going to block it anyway, so I'm not too worried about it. He is definitely a rim protector.''

Notre Dame made a nice second-half comeback, erasing a 10-point deficit to tie the game at 46-46 with 8:11 to go. They didn't make a basket for 5-plus minutes though after that, and Indiana pulled away. They missed five straight shots, had one blocked and turned it over twice.

At crunch time, Indiana's defense was overwhelming.

"I don't know, what did we have, three possessions with a chance to take the lead, at a key time, and couldn't do it,'' Brey said. "There's nothing like taking the lead, just the psychology of taking the lead in a game like this, and we really never could.

"I love the fact that we put ourselves in position after taking a big punch the first 10 minutes of the second half. But they really defended us. I mean, they're athletic, and they turned us over, but, yet, we had our chances in a road atmosphere here early in the season, and, you know, there's some things we can build off of, and there's some things we need to do better. But they are very good, no question about that.''

Brey said he struggled with how much to double team Jackson-Davis, because Indiana is so much better this season at shooting three-pointers. Indiana was 8-for-20 from three on the day, but Parker Stewart was 3-for-4 from deep and Rob Phinisee was 2-for-3, with a huge made shot during Indiana's last push to close the game out,

"That was the dilemma, really, the whole night,'' Brey said. "(Jackson-Davis) is getting some layups and some twos. The other night against Kentucky — a 66-62 win over the No. 10-ranked Wildcats — they couldn't make any of them, and we started to help more.

"I just felt like they were all better shooters tonight no matter what their numbers say because the atmosphere sometimes make you feel like you're a better shooter than your percentages. So I'm thinking, if too many of them go in, we would have been down 15 or 17. We were down 10, and we had it within striking distance, and so that's a dilemma for us. How do we help our big guys in the post, and how do you not give up so many threes?''

Indiana is shooting 37.3 percent from three this season, up from 32.3 percent a year ago. But what is far more important is that their three transfers — Parker Stewart (27-for-55, at 49.1 percent), Miller Kopp (14-or-34, at 41.2 percent) and Xavier Johnson (8-for-22 at 36.4 percent) — have made them much more dangerous, especially when defenders opt to double-team Jackson-Davis inside.

Those three are a combined 49-for-111, good for 44.1 percent. That's dangerous. And a very good sign going forward for Indiana. Defenses are going to have to pick their poison, and that's not going to be an easy choice.

Related stories on Indiana basketball

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• TOM BREW COLUMN: Indiana guards Xavier Johnson and Rob Phinisee were having poor shooting days, right up until they both made huge shots down the stretch to clinch a win over Notre Dame. And Parker Stewart just keeps on making threes, making the Hoosiers' offense so much better. CLICK HERE
• MIKE WOODSON POSTGAME INTERVIEW: Indiana defeated Notre Dame in the final Crossroads Classic at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Here's what Coach Mike Woodson had to say following the 64-56 victory. Read the full transcript, or watch the whole presser in the attached video. CLICK HERE.
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• 1,000-POINT SCORERS: In mid-November, Indiana junior forward Trayce Jackson-Davis became the 54th Hoosier to join the 1,000-point club. He continues to rise up the list, and he just passed Cody Zeller for No. 40 on the list. Here's the updated list of all 54 Indiana stars. CLICK HERE