Gillispie: Notre Dame a big challenge for UK

UK released a few quotations from Coach Billy Gillispie about Notre Dame. The Cats play at Notre Dame on Wednesday night in the quarter-finals of the NIT.

Here are the quotes:

On Notre Dame…
“They’re an outstanding team. I think somebody said they’ve played all four number one seeds in the NCAA Tournament, six games against the number one seeds. You look at their record and say, ‘Wow, they’ve lost 14 games.’ Then you start looking at the teams they’ve lost to and they’re all great teams. They’re a fantastic team, a very well coached team with one of the very best players in college basketball. They do a good job of surrounding (Luke) Harangody. They’re a sound defensive team and they’ve got home-court advantage.”

On Luke Harangody …
“He’s as good of a low post player as we’ve seen all year and as good of a low post player as I’ve seen in a long time. They surround him with four guys that can really shoot the basketball, so it makes it hard to help on him.”

On the quick turnaround between games …
“We’re looking forward to playing another game. We had a great win against Creighton on the road. It was a hard fought victory. It is a short turnaround, but our guys will be ready to play, it should be a lot of fun. When you talk about Notre Dame, whether you talk about football, basketball, baseball, tennis, golf, whatever, it’s one of the most traditionally renowned schools. It’s a school with a tremendous tradition and a great deal of exposure. They have a great basketball program and we look forward to coming in and playing them.”