ROSEMONT, Ill. – John Beilein addressed the media again on Thursday afternoon during the roundtable session of Big Ten Media Day 2015.
Beilein assessed Michigan’s big men in Ricky Doyle, Mark Donnal, DJ Wilson and Moritz Wagner and also discussed his thinking style and his tendency to prepare for things that could go wrong leading into games.
Watch Beilein’s interview in the embedded media player above or read assorted quotes below.
On Ricky Doyle: “I love that Ricky Doyle is a workout … He just loves to work out. He is in the gym and in the gym and in the gym. He was a young 18 year old freshman, now he’s a 19 year old sophomore. He has made great strides. Can shoot jump shots, he’s not a three-point guy but he’s comfortable with that. Comfortable with keeping his game simple in the post. I love the progress that he’s making.”
On the big man rotation: “It’s very undetermined right now. Everybody’s making great progress. Mark Donnal has really done well. He’s understanding that he has to play really hard every minute. That he has to be a Tyler Hansbrough type of mindset when he plays. He’s not as gifted athletically as some others as far as jumping, he can run, he can be a very good passer, but if you never get the ball because you’re not getting rebounds …”
On DJ Wilson: “DJ Wilson is a full 6-foot-10 right now. He can play a couple of positions and right now its great play, my bad, great play, my bad. So we have to continue to work with him to understand that less is more and these great plays will come.”
On Moritz Wagner: “Moritz is a guy that you’re just going to watch over time. I don’t know where he’ll play, all I know is I’m watching his talent develop and he’s as quick of a learner as we’ve ever had. He’s in a Zack Novak type of area where his application of terms, even though he doesn’t understand them all the time, is immediate. I don’t know when he’ll play. He might play a lot, might not play at all, we’ll see.”
On feeling like he’s not doing enough: “I’ve talked with people in leadership positions, or advising leadership, that some great leaders they’re always trying to plug the holes before they decide what they’re going to do. They’re always worrying what the enemy is doing so that they can go that. I may be one of those guys that thinks about all of the things that could go wrong before you decide what to do.
“Because you’re less likely to make a mistake even though you are not out there being brash and we’re going to find a way. Yeah we’re going to do it, but we’re going to be educated to find a way. I try to educate teams and myself on how we’re going to win.”
“I don’t think I overthink, I think I over-inspect maybe but I don’t overthink. I think it’s necessary for me to feel good going into a game I want to know every possible way what we have to do to win the game. Which means ‘how do we stop the enemy?’”
On preventing injuries: “No not really, the injuries that we have had. Spike Albrecht’s injury is basically based on DNA that he’s inherited through his family. Caris’ injury is probably overuse in the summer time leading into the year, Zak’s was a summertime injury. Derrick has never been injured and that was one that the injury led to another injury. I don’t think there’s big changes there. I think of all the injuries that we’ve been able to prevent and knock on wood we haven’t had anything in the knee area – tendinitis and maybe that’s it.”
