What Virginia Tech coach Kenny Brooks said after losing to Notre Dame

Virginia Tech lost the battle but won the war at Notre Dame on Thursday. The Fighting Irish beat the Hokies 71-58, but a Syracuse loss to North Carolina State elsewhere in the ACC gave No. 5 Virginia Tech (23-5, 14-3 ACC) an outright conference title. Hokies head coach Kenny Brooks was alerted of that in his postgame press conference.

He said he could smile on the way home after all.

“On a night where you lose a basketball game but gain a championship, it’s huge,” Brooks said. “Where we started with this program, to be able to compete — it’s kind of ironic. I wish we would have won the basketball game, but to be told we won the outright regular-season championship at Notre Dame, when I got here, Notre Dame was the staple.

“Coach [Muffet] McGraw and what they were doing, you were in awe of their teams and what they were able to do winning national championships. You say five, six, seven years later, we’re the regular season champion. Virginia Tech. That says a lot. We’ll take that. We’ll be proud of it.”

Here’s what else Brooks said in his postgame press conference at Purcell Pavilion.

Opening statement

“Tonight wasn’t our night. Give credit to Notre Dame. They played a really good game. Had a good game plan. They were extremely physical with us, and we didn’t answer the bell. I thought we were playing on our heels for most of the night. They sped us up to where we really couldn’t get where we wanted to get to. Then we had to play from behind for majority of the night.

“The thing about this league, there is so much parity in this league. Anyone, in my opinion, you can go one through 10, one through 12, on any given night anyone can get anyone. So we have to learn from our mistakes. Learn from everything that we did wrong tonight. Then we got a quick turnaround and a very important game on Sunday. Try to get some momentum back going into the tournament.

“But it was a hard-fought game. Good atmosphere. But they really took us out of a lot of the things we wanted to do.”

On why Notre Dame limited Elizabeth Kitley to 12 points on 4-of-11 shooting

“They were extremely physical. A lot of times it depends on who’s calling the game. They really pushed her out a lot. A lot the physicality was a little more than what we’ve seen lately. You give them credit. They just played to the way the game was being called. We didn’t adjust very well. I wanted her to open up a little bit. She had a couple opportunities. She missed a couple layups. But I give credit to their physicality.

“It’s difficult the way our league is set up. We played Duke five times since we played Notre Dame last. Everyone is different. Everyone is different. So this is really good that we were able to see Notre Dame late. I don’t know what the pairings will be, but if we see them again now we see the speed. [Hannah] Hidalgo, we had never seen Hidalgo before. Speed, physicality. Our kids are really good at adjusting and making adjustments when we see someone a second time.”

On Notre Dame freshman point guard Hannah Hidalgo

“How many McDonald’s All-Americans are on that team? Let me ask you this question; how many are not McDonald’s All-Americans on that team? They’re all good. Obviously, watching Hidalgo on the circuit, she’s really good. She plays extremely hard. She’s fast. She’s strong. She plays without risk. She’ll go after a ball and if you don’t make her pay for it, then she’s successful. She’s obviously done that.

“She’s disruptive. She makes things different than what they’ve been in the past. It’s good for us to see it now. She’s a terrific player. Gets downhill. We fouled her 11 times — ’11 times.’ But she causes that, and she’s really good. So she was a really big impact on the game tonight.”

On cutting Notre Dame’s lead to four late in the third quarter

“We spread them out. We spread them out and minimized the game a little bit. They were successful in our pick and roll, turning us over and causing havoc. We spread them out and put another shooter on the floor. They weren’t able to rotate as much.

“I thought we missed some opportunities. Something we need to talk about, and we’ll watch. We missed some opportunities. I think we even had a chance to cut it to two at one time in the third quarter. So there’s something that was successful for us. That lineup was working for us to give [Kitley] and Georgia [Amoore] some space where they couldn’t really crowd it as much.”

On how good Notre Dame is when Hidalgo, Maddy Westbeld and Sonia Citron are all scoring

“They’re very good. Citron is one of my favorite players in the league. Has been for a very long time. I don’t think she ever gets rattled. She always plays at even keel. She played very well tonight. Westbeld. Westbeld had some back-breaking shots. I think we had cut it down to five or so and she hits a big three. Puts them back up eight.

“We didn’t dare them to shoot, but we wanted to put them in certain positions to step up and it seemed like Westbeld and Citron were making those shots all night. Every time we would get within striking distance they would hit a big shot that would put us back out of reach. It was deflating. But they’re great players. They’re really great players. We got great players. They’ve got great players. It was their night. Great atmosphere.”

On Notre Dame’s tempo

“I thought we lost them a couple times in transition. We know they’re a great transition team. They feed off of their defense. Getting steals, getting out, getting opportunities. They’re good passers. They had a couple plays where I don’t even know if the Lakers were getting back on defense or if they could have stopped them. They were great plays. So that’s what’s going to happen in this game.

“But I don’t think they got out to the point where it was so detrimental. It hurt us. It did. They had a couple opportunities. I think Citron hit a three in transition. I think I called a timeout after that. It was early in the second half. We really needed to get off to a good start. We cut it to six, we caught momentum, and they hit a basket right at the end. Then they came out in the third quarter and got a couple quick ones and pushed it back up to 12, 14.

“Their transition is very dangerous. We know that. We could have done a better job of getting back and getting ready to guard.”