John Beilein spoke to the media during a post-game press conference following his team’s 68-53 victory at home against Purdue. You can watch the full interview using the embedded media player below and check out selected notes and quotes after the jump.
Opening Statement: “I really feel good about getting that particular win. I really admire Matt Painter and what he’s done at Purdue, how hard his teams play. We tried to prepare our team for that, and I thought they responded really well. I wasn’t crazy about some of our poise in the first half; we tried to hit some home runs instead of singles. And in the second half, we really played smart both on offense and defense. I’m just really happy, because you can see that’s Big Ten basketball at a very high level. … That is intense basketball with an awful lot of speed and strength combined at the same time.”
- On mental toughness: “As we play against better and better teams, which you’re going to see in the Big Ten, you’ve got to be poised to make better and better decisions. … That’s how we score points.”
- On the change in defensive intensity in the 2nd half: Beilein said the biggest issue was communication — they practice with the music all the time, even when prepping for a home game. “Now, mostly young guys, have to make split-second decisions. We haven’t been good at that, we tried to do a few things to change that.”
- On Trey Burke’s defense in the 2nd half: “Between him and Glenn Robinson, they have an ability to feel the game and get steals, so we’re encouraging that. We’re a very low steal team. It’s not a strength, but we’re trying to, at different times, pick our spots.”
- On playing better defense in conference play: “One thing they’re learning is it’s really fun to play defense when you’re rebounding, because then that puts us in transition. I even think in the second half, we pulled it back maybe. … I think that’s what they’re all understanding, especially the freshmen.”
- On Glenn Robinson III’s focus: Beilein emphasized that Robinson is always very focused, but sometimes it’s hard to tell.”He’s not a high-emotion guy. It’s tough to read him. He’d probably be great at playing poker. You just don’t know what he’s thinking.”
- On Glenn Robinson III’s efficiency: “Any freshman who plays with this efficiency, its not the normal expectation.”
- On the defensive strategy against DJ Byrd: “Nik (Stauskas, who was originally guarding Byrd) is improving like crazy with his defense. … We’re not going to say he can’t guard him. Tim has really become good at not only guarding a particular person, but getting Nik and everybody else and Glenn where they should be.”
- On the crowd feeding off Mitch McGary: “I love emotion, but you also can’t let it tire you out, as well. I love what he’s bringing to the team, whether it’s diving on the floor, going after something, or talking to the crowd, enhancing the crowd spirit. He’s really good at all of them.”
- On shoring up the rebounding in the 2nd half: “Three of those opportunities (for offensive rebounds Purdue had in the first half) they hit 3’s off of all of them, were like those long scramble rebounds where inside position probably wasn’t the best position.”
- On the play of Trey Burke: “If you look at his assist-to-turnover number, it was 8 to 1. He just was a little short on his jumpshot. … I thought they guarded him well, but I don’t think they took him away from what we wanted him to do.”
- Does he ever think about starting McGary over Jordan Morgan? “No. He’d have to really play well. Jordan gives us so many things. I love having that bench rotation I have right now.”
- On Jon Horford coming back from his injury: “It’s been really difficult for him. … He can drill like crazy. But when you’re going full-court and you’ve got to make quick decisions and you’re playing at a level like we are, you have to be very careful that, number one, he doesn’t lose confidence, and number two, that the team prospers when he’s in there. We were very good when he was in there today.”
- Was this game personal for Glenn Robinson? “I don’t know, you’d have to ask him. What I’ve found is that young men from Indiana, they have a lot of pride when they play someone like Purdue or Indiana. … I think that’s typical.”
- On beating Matt Painter: “When he took over that program, they were down. The first year with him was really a tough year. He did a really good job of recruiting and they’ve always been one step ahead of us. Now, hopefully we’re going to have some great battles. But I just think he’s a heck of a coach and he’s done a great job.”
