Michigan coach John Beilein addressed the media after Friday’s exhibition game against Armstrong State. He was pleased with the Wolverine effort overall, but ceded that there’s still clean up to be done on the glass and in the turnover department.
Beilein on sophomore forward Moritz Wagner:
“You see the way he runs the floor. You saw his skill level a couple of times, too. His development is huge. As you all know, when you have players, they’re all going to develop. It’s at which rate they develop at that determines how good they’re going to be, because you run out of time. I saw some good things. Timing on rebounding — he reminded me of DJ (Wilson) his first two years. He (Wilson) was always around rebounds, just never came up with it. And you see the change in DJ as we continually work on that every day. That’s the hole right now. There’s so many good things with Mo, though, that we’ve just got to keep playing around it.”
“He’s going to have to get out there — his defense is much better, and he stayed out of foul trouble. The big thing is we think he can take a lot of guys his size off the bounce….that kick to the corner, we didn’t get it, and that was what he’s been working on. He can play through it. You can throw him the ball in the mid-area of the post, too, off a ball screen. They went under every ball screen today and that bothered us a little bit, but we’ve got to find a way to get him early in the ball screens instead of late.”
Beilein on redshirt sophomore forward DJ Wilson:
“He just has never played minutes like that. Usually he would get in there for four to five minutes, make a good play and have some things that he needs more development in. So today it was just, ‘Go out there.’ And maybe Duncan’s foul trouble was exactly what he (Wilson) needed in this game. He’s got a long ways to go, but I just love how he’s working.”
Beilein on fouls:
“One of the points of emphasis this year is on the physical block-outs. What they mean is it’s not about hitting them with your hip and your butt and your upper arm, it’s about touching them with your hands. We got a couple of those calls, and we’ve just got to be better at that. But I thought we did stay out of foul trouble and still got some steals, and we were much more aggressive. If you look at some film of us playing last year at this time, it was very passive, it was stay between your man and the basket, let them have whatever they want but just contest the shot. And I think we’re just much more active right now. They’re very comfortable with it.”
Beilein on freshman wing Ibi Watson’s potential role:
“I think a lot of the Tim Hardaway… just become a really good 2 or 3 player. It is slowing down for him, but it’s been really sped up for him and (Xavier Simpson) going forward because we’re throwing them in there. We’re throwing them in there in practice and it’s whizzing by them right now. (Watson’s) has done a great job at applying some of the things. But if you saw what I saw tonight, he’s got a long way to go, too. But he’s got a great attitude, and that’s all we can ask of him.”
Beilein on freshman guard Xavier Simpson:
“It’s all coming at you at one time. It just takes a minute. I don’t think it’s jitters as much as you’re thinking too much and can’t move. Over time, we’ve just got to keep working with him to get ready. Just like when a guy goes to the NBA, there’s a lot of work that you’ve got to do. There’s a lot of language changing, a lot of different angles changing. Same thing when you go from high school to this level. There’s a lot of stuff, especially if you’re a point guard.”
Beilein on senior wing Duncan Robinson:
“Right now, he’s not shooting with confidence. Beyond tonight. He’s just got to go and shoot it. He’s just got to get through this little thing because it’s happened a couple times in the last week. When guys come out of the summer, and I saw this with Patrick all the time, when guys practice like Duncan practices, which is excessively long, you can build bad habits. Too big of a knee bend. Too slow of a release. Bad arch. And then to break that habit is harder than you can imagine. So he’s got to shoot game shots, and we’ve been trying to do it. It’s almost better (if) he didn’t practice in the summer sometimes because you build bad habits in the summer. He’ll shoot it out. He’ll be fine. But he can’t beat himself up because he missed a shot.”
Beilein on freshman forward Jon Teske:
“I loved it when he just knocked that in. Beautiful rotation. He’s a big boy now, and he’s really had a couple good weeks of practice. He’s going to be trying to work like crazy to get one of those spots in the rotation. What you saw from Austin Davis in just the two or three minutes — I’m trying to get Mo minutes, I’m trying to get Mark minutes and it’s really hard to do that. But Austin, he catches everything. As you know, that’s important for a big man. But Jon, the game is not too sped up for him. He’s really coachable as well.”
