John Beilein spoke with the media after Michigan’s most dominant conference road win since 1964 (H/T: Nick Baumgardner). The Wolverines defeated Northwestern 94-66 in a game that was never in doubt after the first five minutes. You can watch the full press conference using the embedded media player below or read selected notes and quotes after the jump.
Opening statement: “I was really proud of the way our team played this game, prepared for this game. I really feel bad that Northwestern has been hit with so many injuries. Certainly, while they have good young talent, between Hearn, Crawford, those are huge losses. If we lost people like that, we would have the same issues they have. Just inexperience playing in the Big Ten. We certainly hope Hearn gets healthy soon, because he’s a heck of a player. But we had everything going. Everybody played well. That’s what happens. When you play well, everything was going our way.”
- When asked if he could ever just sit back and watch his team dominate, Beilein said that isn’t really possible for him. “I wish I could do that better.” Referenced a time when Michigan was up 17 on Northwestern at home and within four minutes it was a 6-point game.
- On Tim Hardaway Jr.: “He looked fine. We really held him back. Yesterday he went half-court only.” Said it was a gutsy performance. “This is a young man who, if you tell him to make 100 shots, he makes 200 shots. If you tell him he needs to be in rehab for an hour, he’ll be in there for 2 hours. That’s why he’s going to be successful in anything he does.”
- On Trey Burke: “There are some times when I just sit back and watch the growth of this young man in so many ways. … He’s got a great presence out there. He’s got a great ability to know when he can score and when he can find other people. His assist-to-turnover ratio tells it all.”
- On seeing Michigan as an underdog: “(The coaches) are always working that way, like we’re hunting all the time. We don’t want to ever lose that. It’s not a negative to always be working. We have all these assistants, all this staff, and I’m probably working longer hours than I ever have in my life, and I’ve always been a grinder.”
- On Jordan Morgan: “Bacari (Alexander) has done a terrific job with him on his positioning when rebounding. With their youth, … it’s important that he gets in there and establishes position.”
- On Morgan’s outlet passing: “We do a lot of balance and footwork with all our big guys. Bacari does a wonderful job with it. Outletting the ball was not a strength early in his career, but he’s doing a wonderful job outletting to Trey Burke or whoever we get the ball to.”
- On the Michigan fans at Northwestern: “We find it in a lot of places. … We’re an incredible, global University. We have alums everywhere, they show up everywhere and we’re so proud to represent them and we hope we’re doing a good job of it.”
