Michigan cruised to an easy win over Towson, 64-47, on Monday night but John Beilein didn’t seem very pleased afterward. Beilein was frustrated by Towson outscoring the Wolverines 31-27 in the second half although he was pleased with Trey Burke’s break-out performance. Watch John Beilein’s press conference in the embedded media player below or read the notes and quotes after the jump.
- That was the best start Michigan has had so far this year; tough to keep it up throughout the whole game.
- Saw a “very steady and more controlling guard” in Trey Burke.
- Novak and Smotrycz are “showing a great deal of toughness on the court.”
- Have to improve in some areas – “a lot of areas that I’m not going to tell our next opponent about.”
- On starting Morgan over Horford: “Jordan had an exceptional week in practice,” but the permanent rotation won’t be decided for a while. Looking for consistency.
- Free throw shooting is a concern (shooting under 50 % so far this season). Just something you have got to keep working on. Need to get to the line more – shooting too many threes.
- On Burke: “That was exceptional for him to hit three threes…he’s learning every day, and the beauty is he can knock down the deep one. I thought he played with his feet on the floor very well today.”
- Burke gives the team a different dynamic…”It’s a different scheme we have to run. They may not go underneath his ball screens or play off him like they did Darius, but then as he goes to the rim, now there’s a different length in there.”
- Still looking for a playmaker when the offense is stagnant.
- It’s “so good” what you’re seeing from Smotrycz so far. But have to find another consistent scorer and defender.
- Liked what he saw in the 1-3-1 at the end of the game. Not sure if they’ll play any 1-3-1 on Thursday.
- OK with the rebounding, but have to find ways for Horford and Morgan to score inside.
- Not sure if Morgan will start Thursday. “I was not happy with anybody’s defense in the second half, that’s for sure. Number 25 was lighting us up and we sat there and watched it.”
- Western Illinois will be a better challenge on Thursday. In these 3 early games, “we’re getting people’s feet wet. Gotta get their lungs going, and at the same time gotta get our bench some valuable play.”
- Left Burke in for a while because “I just wanted to see what he’d do without a rest. I thought he did pretty well with it.”
- Sai Tummala didn’t dress today because he’s shown some “mild concussion symptoms” lately.
- Burke is “the only true point guard that we have, and really is one of the better ones we have at getting into the lane. We felt that was important against these guys.” Would like him to get his body in shape since he will most likely be counted on to play major minutes.
- Beilein is doing everything he can to get his team ready for Maui. “We’re using every minute, every day is urgent if you’re gonna try to go where we’d like to go.”
- Burke is “pretty good” watching film and applying it in games – “He’s really shown a high aptitude to learn, and there’s a lot coming at him. I would compare it to a quarterback in football.” He’ll have to continue to get better at it as the competition gets better.