John Beilein joined the media for a post-game press conference following his team’s lopsided 117-44 exhibition victory over Concordia. You can watch the full press confernce using the embedded media player below and read notes and quotes from the interview after the jump.
Opening statement: “I appreciate all your interest in this game. We can’t forget it’s an exhibition game. We’re pleased we could bring the school right around the corner and have them come in and be exposed to this environment. It’s a special thing. Like most teams, we’re going to feed off really good defense — there were moments there where we played pretty good defense. And then we can get out in transition.”
- On Glenn Robinson III’s offense: “We’re trying to put him in so many situations, just playing ball but making the court real big for him so he can use that athleticism. He really is comfortable. You’ll see him on both sides of the floor. You’ll see him in the middle, you’ll see him all over the place. We all have known he can shoot it. I’ve told you guys before: there’s about 25 shots that Tim (Hardaway Jr.) and Trey (Burke) were taking that are out there for other people right now. He did a great job last year of realizing that those guys were players. Now, there are going to be many opportunities for him like that.”
- On what he liked the most about his team’s performance: “The two things I saw was the quickness on defense that we have. … that was the big thing. I liked watching our defense. Our gaps and all those things were very good. Then the sharing of the ball. Our core value is unity. We talk about that. To have those 26 assists, that’s incredible.”
- On what Michigan is doing well: “We mentioned two things yesterday in practice that we have to keep doing: we have really passed the ball well, one through five; and we’re cutting harder than any team at this point in the year that I’ve coached. That just opens the floor up, when guys are cutting hard. That’s not easy to do. Sometimes you’re playing so many minutes that it’s hard to cut like that. But we had some really good action today that can get you in space. And I think we might run the floor as well or better than teams of the past.”
- On Mark Donnal redshirting: “The one thing we’re trying to replace is Tim and Trey. And then you look at Derrick and Zak and there it is. But there’s a lot of bigs right now, bigs with options. Mark, we’re just going to teach him the game right now, watch him wait in the wings. We’ve got one more game we can play him in without burning a redshirt, and we’ll consider what we can do.”
- On Derrick Walton: “He didn’t hit his first shot — it was actually one of the few bad shots we took at the beginning — but he hit his next shot and then he hit his next one. It’s usually a good sign when guys come off the bench and start shooting it right away. He was good. But also, he can be a great defender, very quick. He had a couple of bad close-outs. He’s learning. For him and Zak, that game was a blur. … Their heads were spinning, and I liked the way they reacted.”
- On Caris LeVert: “As you can see, he’s got a gear that some people don’t have. We want him to, as much as he can, push the ball up the court when he gets a rebound. I like that he’s getting a little bulked up — he doesn’t look like he’s bulked up, but for him he has put on weight. He’ll crash, and as an off guard just take the ball up the floor. That really helps us.”