John Beilein met with the media following Michigan’s 81-73 loss to Indiana at Assembly Hall. You can watch the entire post-game press conference below using the embedded media player or read selected notes and quotes after the jump.
Opening statement: “Their runs in the game were really big. They have a large amount of experience, very talented. I’ve seen a lot of players, I don’t know if I’ve seen one quicker or faster, more athletic than Oladipo. It’s tough to stay in front of him. Several times when we were making those runs, he would get to the basket — he may miss, but that’s where (Cody) Zeller cleans up because Mitch (McGary) was trying to give help. Very few people can stay in front of that. So the difference was, they got to the foul line because they’re fast, they’re experienced and they’re talented. That was a big difference in the game if you look not at the officiating but at the fact that they got to the foul line, because that’s what they do.”
- On adjusting after the early run: “I think our offense was better. I think part of their offense early was our offense. … They gave us a couple of looks that we have to adjust to and we did not show great discipline a few times, and all the sudden you get buried. There were some deja-vu moments from the Ohio game.”
- On Indiana’s 25 free throws: “I won’t look at the film for a while, but that’s a pretty good crew.”
- On encouragement he takes from a game like this: “That’s a pretty good team that we just played, and we have to play better. We have to shoot the ball better. We did get some pretty good looks, and the ball didn’t go down. We shot it great in the last minute, but we had some really good looks from the outside and the ball didn’t go down, and that could have been a big difference in the game, as well.”
- On Glenn Robinson III’s struggles: “They were locking the rails on him and Nik (Stauskas) and not giving him the ball, and then putting good pressure on us. They have a good defensive team, but they have a couple guys who really, in one-on-one match-ups are exceptional.”
- On Glenn Robinson III possibly being more aggressive: “Well, we’ve got to get him the ball first to get him more aggressive, and that’s a work in progress … in getting him in opportunities where he can be successful.”
- On Tim Hardaway Jr.’s third foul: “Obviously, we want Tim on the floor, and I thought he played a really good game today. He did some really good things. There were a couple of things right there where I would like to have a couple possessions back, either with a play call or with a decision by one of our players that I thought was pivotal. … You just cannot have shot turnovers against them. …They’re just too good a rebounding team and they get up the floor so fast.”
- On Mitch McGary: “He was certainly making some big inputs in there. He has to continue to learn how to use his body at the right angles to guard in the post, but he’s got a real good sense for stealing the ball. I don’t know how many he had, but he got his hands on some things.”
- On how little Jordan Morgan played: “I watched him in there, and I just liked the way Mitch was playing in there. I liked the energy he was giving us. And now I’m thinking, ‘Ok, is Jordan going to give us more than that, with a game on Tuesday?’ … I was surprised when I saw Jon only played 10 minutes as well. I thought we split it up, but we played Mitch more.”
- On Jordan Morgan’s and the team’s health: “He didn’t practice yesterday. He just jogged around and did some layups. Nik had the flu yesterday, and he didn’t practice, so we were glad Nik could play. So, we didn’t go into this with this fine-toothed thing yesterday, but I really think we fared as well as we could.”
- On Jon Horford: “He’s really made some strides. I’m excited about working with him. We’re all excited about working with him. We got some options there that we have to continue to explore. He got some 50-50 balls today, did some really good things.”
- On what he tells the team after a loss like this: “Teams are going to lose games, and you’ve got to learn from it. … we’ve got to make better decisions, and you’ve still got to knock down open shots, which doesn’t always happen.”
- On what they’ll hear from the coaches tomorrow: “They’re going to see yes faces from the coaches tomorrow in the locker room. We’re going to go through this film … We can’t be patting each other on the back, and moral victories and things like that, no, we’re very disappointed, but we can’t dwell on it. We can’t let them beat us twice.”
