Team 101

Video & Quotes: John Beilein recaps win over Furman

Michigan head coach John Beilein was pleased with his team’s performance in a 6 point win over Furman on Thursday night. Here’s what the Wolverine head coach had to say.

Michigan head coach John Beilein was pleased with his team’s performance in a 6 point win over Furman on Thursday night. Here’s what the Wolverine head coach had to say.

Opening statement:

“…One of games we played in first round of NCAA Tournament [three years ago] was Wofford. We were up 7 or 8 at half. Couldn’t get away from them until the very end. Very similar type of team. This team is picked third in that league. That was a great challenge for us to play a smart team, they play great transition defense, they milked the clock a little bit and then attacked us beautifully. I loved our approach to it and frankly we needed something like that…We haven’t had that, other than the Texas game—we’ve either been so far ahead or behind in two of the losses, that we didn’t have to do that. We didn’t have to learn from the adversity. That team will get us a lot of RPI points I think because I think they’ll win a lot of games in their league. They were really well coached.”

On Zak and Derrick getting job done down stretch:

“We went with Zak mostly during that time. It didn’t seem like Derrick was on his ‘A’ game. I just encouraged him to be positive and shoot when he was open. We were playing through Zak at that point. They switched screens, they hedged screens—he saw a lot of it. Tomorrow we’ll work at that.”

On defensive stops at end:

“They did something where they’d just brush screen and drive it downhill on us and that’s a concern. I hope we do this to other teams—when you have four shooters out there, it’s really hard to give any help and stay in front of your guy when he’s that quick. We had to do that at the end. I’m really grateful Derrick hit that three. I would not want to guard them up three late.”

On Moritz Wagner:

“Every day is a new day, in some respects, for us. He’s doing something that’s new. Other days, like today, where he couldn’t make a shot from three but we could get him open a lot. He’s playing harder, he’s learning to play defense, he’s so far above where he was last year. There are still gaps, but the kid’s fun to coach because he lets things roll right off his back and he’s ready to go the next day.”

Biggest takeaways from non-conference:

“We have to have a mindset that when things aren’t going well, we still have to be confident. We have to play with faith in our ability and not fear…There are sometimes I’ve got to put my arm around people and tell them how good they are. We have to really grow in that area. It’s history. ‘Next play, next play.’ I think we’ve got a group of guys who have no agendas except to win. Nobody you could say, ‘He’s in an NBA tryout every day’ or is a malcontent because he’s not getting enough shots. We have a connected, connected team of good kids that just need a little bit more grit. Hopefully we got some of that today.”

Does anyone have unwavering confidence?

“I think Zak is probably the closest to it. He’s grown a lot in that area. In his sophomore year he would go up and down a little bit. I think Moe is on that cusp as well. And that’s a good thing.”

On DJ’s second half:

“His rebound was big…and finishing the foul shot. When do you see us go 4 for 20 from three and win? Doesn’t happen very often. We went 16/16 from the foul line. If you saw DJ last year—we do all these pressure foul shooting drills in practice and DJ was not good at that. Now for him to go down and knock it down. Moe had not been shooting as well from the foul line, he made them all today.”

On Furman countering Wagner in second half:

“One time we isolated him in the middle, he needed to go behind his back or spin dribble to the other side, he kept forcing it to the side. There are these times that he’s going to make a play look so easy. And [other times] he’ll make a play look so hard. He just has to read it. There is this process he’s going through. Just imagine four years with this. He brings a great attitude every day. Has a chance to be a really good Michigan player.”

On 750th win:

“The last win is the best win ever. With holidays coming up and family all being home, it made Christmas much better for the Beileins.”

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