Michigan coach John Beilein was on hand to speak with the media following his team’s 84-53 annihilation of Illinois on Tuesday night in Champaign. The victory gave Michigan its first outright Big Ten regular-season title since 1986. You can watch the press conference using the embedded media player below and read notes and quotes after the jump.
Additional video and quotes after the jump.
Video from Brendan Quinn:
Opening statement: “They were really good today. We’ve had some really good games this year, but none like that. We shot so well, we defended well, we played together, took care of the ball. I’m really pleased with our effort under these circumstances. Illinois the last few games has been really, really good. So for us to be able to score the ball the way we did and then defend in the second half, that was key. Just getting away enough so that the game was never in doubt in the second half.”
- On recruiting Caris LeVert after he had signed with Illinois coach John Groce: “He played for the All-Ohio Red AAU team and of course that’s where Trey Burke came from. When we found out he was available, Jimmy Christian was good enough — he had been released from Ohio U, and we recruited him. Even though we won the Big Ten championship that year, we had some attrition — three guys transferred out. That gave us scholarships, so we offered and he accepted it. But he had a relationship with the Burke family just playing for that AAU team. An of course Trey Burke couldn’t have been hotter at that time in terms of what a young man from Columbus was bringing to Ann Arbor.
- On Michigan’s offensive explosion: “I haven’t seen that in practice, even. We were really good today, and Nik (Stauskas) started us off, but Glenn Robinson (III) has been so focused as of late, really focusing on what it takes to lead this team. He’s been really good. Caris got in foul trouble, but when Zak Irvin has come off the bench — this isn’t his first time. He made five of these up in Minnesota in a two or three point win. When we’re shooting the ball like that, we get to stretch some people and then get going to the rim. Jon Horford’s performance, I can’t say enough about what he did today. He got a little bit sick during the year, and I don’t think he had played as well as he had earlier in the year, and now that was a great performance. He played really big today. And I mean that physically. Really big.”