John Beilein disappointed with the loss at Indiana but fairly upbeat. We don’t have video but here is the audio with the traditional transcript, notes and quotes after the jump.
Transcript after the jump.
- A lot of Big Ten games seem to end like this one did tonight.
- On Christian Watford, who had 25 points and 7 rebounds: “Watford was a tough matchup for us. He shot over us, he shot around us. They do some great things to isolate you. And in their isolations they really took advantage of his ability to score over you.”
- Proud of the team – just needed a couple more possessions, or have a few possessions back.
- On Trey Burke: “I thought he did fine. He didn’t look like a freshman to me. The ball didn’t go in for him sometimes, but he had some pull up shots that hit the back of the rim. They were right on center. Taking the ball to the hoop against a strong chest, tough to score there. Lot of junior and seniors. I thought he played very well but the ball just didn’t go in.”
- Forcing turnovers played a big role in the comeback, something Michigan has failed to do in other games. “I thought our defense has improved a lot. We played really smart basketball when the lead got in front of us. We really came back and played really good fundamental basketball both offensively and defensively.”
- Mentally, after Michigan was down, “they responded well.”
- On Hardaway Jr.: “He’s continuing to learn what his right shot selection is while he’s struggling from three. He did some other things to get us on the board… What I liked today was I thought his defense continues to grow every game.”
- On the last two minutes of the game, when Michigan missed late chances down two: “We’re looking to get a basket at that point. When we had the ball down two when I called the timeout, we were looking for a basket, whether it was a two or three. We weren’t trying to dial anything up to win the game.” Indiana was taking away the basket which led to the three-pointers.
- On coming back from being down by double digits two separate times: “I thought we really hung in there. This place gets rockin’ and rolling just like a lot of other places in this league. I thought we handled that. It came with our defense. We didn’t allow them a lot of second opportunities.” Also we didn’t have a lot of turnovers.
- Watford had a series of baskets that “you can’t stop. We put little guys on them, we put big guys on him…he’s a really talented player.”
- On quick turnaround with a matchup with Wisconsin on Sunday: “We gotta make it help and we gotta just say, okay, we get to play again.” The team will get a little rest Friday and then prepare for Wisconsin.
- On what you take out of this game: “We’re not going to win them all. I like our team and I like coaching our team, but I would never believe that we would go 18-0 in the Big Ten. Nobody’s gonna go 18-0 in the Big Ten. So as a result, it’s really important that we just continue to try to get better from it and take this loss and say, okay, we’ll learn more from this loss than we would if maybe his half court shot goes in. Not a whole lot more. It’s disappointing, but also it’s part of life right now in this league.”
- On Stu Douglass: “He saw a couple corrections on film with his shot, leaning back. He’s coming to the gym and always makes 25 or 50 threes after practice. I really like his rythym right now and I like his leadership. He’s talking to Trey the entire game, and he’s really done a good job with it. That’s why he’s out there.”
- On Jordan Morgan: “Defensively, that’s the best I’ve seen him play. He was physical without fouling, and that was really big for us. He made a major step tonight just in being on the road, handling adversity and just scoring off drop-offs. He didn’t miss a layup… he just played really good basketball.”
