What Notre Dame Coach Mike Brey Said After Loss to Indiana

Notre Dame erased a 17-point lead in the second half, but still came up short against Indiana, losing 62-60.

INDIANAPOLIS — It took a while for Notre Dame to get going on Saturday, but once it finally did, the Fighting Irish put a big scare into Indiana. 

Notre Dame erased a 17-point lead in the second half, but then couldn't hold on to a five-point lead in the final three minutes, losing to Indiana 62-60 in the first game of the Crossroads Classic at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. 

Indiana is now 11-1 on the season and Notre Dame fell to 8-4.

Here's what Notre Dame coach Mike Brey had to say after the game:

NOTRE DAME COACH MIKE BREY: It's hard to beat good teams, even when you get up five with three minutes (to go).

QUESTION. Why is it so hard?

BREY: I have no idea. Probably their defense.

QUESTION: What did you guys change in terms of the way you played them defensively after you were down 17 points? 

BREY: We were playing a little faster. We were getting down the floor and we got some stuff — we actually got stops. We had nine out of 10 stops, and so we didn't have to take the ball out of bounds and play against the set defense, and we got some early offense. But you know, when their defense was set with their athletic ability, which took its toll on us over 40 minutes, they've got great bodies. It was hard to get anything good. And again, I love how we gave ourselves a shot. But you know, got to see if we can finish better.

QUESTION: When you were down 17, what did you say in the huddle? 

BREY: You know, those guys — I think it was more our old guys talking — you know, their leadership is good. It's a long game, you know. There was a lot of time left when you were down 17. There were going to be a lot of possessions. I wish we could have dug in defensively in man-to-man better to start the game. I don't think we did that at all in the first half. And so now you're digging out of a hole. Sometimes you almost don't deserve to win it when you've played defense for 15 minutes instead of 32. 

QUESTION: (Indiana freshman Armaan) Franklin only made four three-pointers all year ... 

BREY: Yeah, we felt that we had to give looks from outside because they're so potent inside. They're so hard — we were helping in the post, and we're going to have to live with some of that stuff. And to his credit, he stepped up and made some big ones. But you know, they are so physical down there that you have to go in and help, and jamming it up and helping helped us in that nine-of-10-stop stretch that got us back into it, but the big possession when they swung it around to him, I almost felt like we maybe violated the basketball gods a little too much and not guarded the arc, and he rose up — he's the one who hit it in the corner, right? He rose up and made a big one. It's a big-time play.