Here are notes, quotes and video from John Beilein’s press conference after Michigan’s 47-39 exhibition win over Wayne State.
Notes and quotes after the jump. Full post game thoughts in the morning.
- Looked a little rusty with the new arena, crowd and all of that .
- Wayne State had a very talented defensive team, they’re very quick. They struggled to score, which was good defense by us, but we didn’t get many easy looks.
- “14 turnovers and go 4 for 12 from the foul line, that’s probably the only game all year we’ll win with those two stats”
- Have to get better with our post defense.
- Came out too excited to make simple plays – and hit “base hits” – maybe got frustrated a little bit and didn’t play the way we’d like to play, the way we have been playing in practice. Have to be able to play against that quickness.
- On Burke: “I could see by the flow of the game that it was going to be a quickness issue”, wanted to get his heart rate up and feel what it’s like to play that many minutes. Trying to get him as much time as we can. He’s very fast but had a couple charges at the end of the break – makes good decisions just has to stop his body. He needs to be a ball player, has the green light for alley oops, extra passes and making plays.
- Thought it was important still to win the game so we didn’t get to go to the bench as much as we’d hope to today.
- Stu and Evan just had a tough day not making shots, they’re better than that.
- Big men get spun around inside, that’s one of the issues that we’re working on very hard. That’s not the first time that’s happened this year
- On Horford staying in the starting line up: “Yeah, he’s really played well up to this point and he just played really well. His rebounding has been really good and Jordan and Jon can both play better than they played today”
- We just need to find the best five players out there.
- On Hardaway stepping up: “We needed him to do that. We tried to go to him a lot down the stretch. He and Zack really had a rhythm going and we needed confidence”
- Horford was 0-for-5 on free throws but nearly 70 of 80 while shooting free throws with Beilein earlier today.
- Defense was the biggest plus. Stopped them often and players realized the mistakes when they happened.
- Burke is like a quarterback in football, he’s got a lot of reads and a lot of things on his mind when he turns the corner – he’s getting there.
- On keeping the same starting line up: “Yeah, I probably would.”
- Tim was active on the glass but they want him to do more. When Evan shoots, Tim is his partner and needs to go in there and get it.
- Even though Stu didn’t score he did a great job of just running the team. Three assists and no turnovers, was very steady.
