Crean's PreGame Words...Prove to be Prophetic

[77ncaachamps]

From Rosiak's blog:

MU coach Tom Crean, following practice at the Al McGuire Center on Thursday afternoon:

How can you slow down Notre Dame? We don't want to go there and trade baskets. That's not going to win a game for us. We've got to come down and learn from when we've been successful on the road we've had a mind set that's a certain way, and when we haven't been successful on the road I think we've had a different mind set. That mind set borders on how we come out and guard. If we do not come out with a great defensive mentality and a mentality where it's going to physical and we have to be aggressive on the boards...then we have to work the offense a little bit. We can't come down and have a lot of turnovers. We can't be overzealous with three-point shots. Those are the keys to beating a team like that. If we come down and get into a run-and-shoot match with them we're going to have a tough time because they're at home, they'll have a crowd behind them and they're very, very comfortable playing that way. We're not going to try to win the game 48 to 46 either, but we have to set a tempo that works for us.


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After losing the lead late first/early second, never got closer than 7 points to ND.
Didn't have defensive mentality that was physical and aggressive. ND had that.
Shot 25 3 pters, made 7...28%
Didn't set tempo.