We don’t have video from John Beilein’s press conference after Michigan’s 15-point loss at Ohio State but here’s audio of Beilein, followed by our traditional notes and quotes.
- Opening statement on Ohio State: “The defense was really suffocating at times. They did a great job in help and recover, and then it’s just difficult to score. I think that’s proven by everybody they’ve played.”
- Ohio State had 14 offensive rebounds, eight of which came from Lenzelle Smith. That was a big factor in the game. “Things we could control a little bit, standing in there and taking a charge instead of backing away and hitting somebody legally in a box out, could have made a big difference in this game. The good news is we can control those things in the future, hopefully.”
- On how Ohio State is better defensively this year compared to last year: “I didn’t say that. I just, it appears to me, this is in one blink…it just seems right now, just looking at their stats, and their length I think is pretty good. And Sullinger is a year older, Craft is a year older, they do a very good job…everybody’s just got a little more experience. But their length is really important. They’re as long as anybody.”
- When asked about free throws (Michigan had just four total all game, all of which came in the closing minutes), Beilein sounded a little agitated: “Is that right [that we didn’t shoot a lot of free throws]? (Until) like two minutes? Yeah, okay. I think a lot of theirs came off their offensive rebounds. We got ten offensive rebounds, but we didn’t get to the line. So they got fouled better than we did. I’ll have to watch the film. They just got fouled more than we did.”
- On foul trouble: “We had a lot of guys [in foul trouble]. But actually, we had a great span there with Colton (Christian) and Matt Vogrich really boxing guys out really well. We held our own there…but it just takes some of our flow offensively away. Defense actually was pretty good during that span, but it was our offense that hurt during that span when we had to go to the bench.”
- On Trey Burke returning home: “I thought he did a really good job. For a 19-year old kid in this situation, he did a really good job. I’m sure he’s going to look at the video and I’ll look at the video, and we’ll say, alright, let’s learn from this thing because I know there’s not too many times that he’ll have the turnovers that he had today.”
- On using the 2-3 zone defense: “We were a little bit in foul trouble. Just trying to change the pace… Sometimes it does allow some offensive rebounds, however. But we always try to have a few things just to change up so they never get comfortable. You let this team get comfortable, they got too many bullets in that gun.”
- On guarding Jared Sullinger: “There’s all kinds of ways that you can double in the post. We do a couple of them. You’re trying to not put him in one-on-one situations at times. Sometimes you leave him alone. But we’d have to sit with a board and I’d show you all the different things. I can’t explain it, nor would I want to explain it publicly because it’s part of our strategy.”
- On the opportunity to play Ohio State at home this year: “It goes both ways, but we’ll be looking forward to that. We circle every date on the calendar. We’re trying to get better every practice, every study hall, every game.”
- Jon Horford made the trip with the team, but didn’t dress due to his foot injury. In a physical game like this, Michigan could have used him. “He would have got us some rebounds, but…it’s sort of a moot point, because he can’t run and jump the way we want him to right now.
- More on rebounding: “They have tremendous long guys, and what might work as a box out for another team, does not work with them…they’re rebounding eight more than their opponents. There’s a couple that we could have controlled that really would have been important in this game.”
