John Beilein, Moritz Wagner, Jon Teske and Duncan Robinson were on the podium on Wednesday afternoon to recap Michigan’s win over VCU.
Q. Moritz, if you could talk about that last stretch where you made the three-point play, and you come back with backing out for that three-pointer, that gets yourself from going to a tie to a three-point lead. That had to feel pretty good?
MORITZ WAGNER: Yeah, obviously, winning the game was pretty good, especially coming out like that at halftime. We were able to finish two plays and yeah, now we won.
Q. For all you guys, how important was it to go home from here 2-1, especially after the opening-day loss, and today’s game you’re either 1-2 or 2-1? How important was that mindset today?
DUNCAN ROBINSON: After that first one on Monday night, we were very disappointed, but we kind of huddled together and agreed to head back on the plane 2-1 would be a big accomplishment. So that was kind of our focus after Monday night’s result. We just kind of tried to band together and hopefully that could set the tone for us to move forward.
JON TESKE: We just want to take it one game at a time. The loss against LSU, we knew we had to bounce back and just battle back and go 2-1 on this trip. That’s good for us, and we know what we can take away.
Q. Duncan, the back-to-back takes that you had, obviously one was in transition, but the other one, I think was in the half court, how much of that was you wanting to do that because the shots weren’t falling versus what the defense was giving you?
DUNCAN ROBINSON: A little bit of both. The one in transition, I was able to get out and make a good pass. Then the other one, just trying to continue to be aggressive without shooting from the outside. So I was able to get shots that could get to the rim. So just doing whatever it takes to make something happen late in the game.
Q. In that ten-minute stretch where it didn’t seem like anything was going right, what was happening on the sidelines amongst yourselves? In terms of trying to figure out something?
MORITZ WAGNER: I think we’re a very young team, and that shouldn’t be an excuse, but I think we have a long way to go in terms of how to play to win and in a mature way. I’m very happy that we could win this because now we can enjoy and watch some film, and there’s a lot of opportunity to get better. Yeah, very grateful to be in that position.
Q. Now that the basketball portion is done and you can reflect on your time in Hawaii, outside of this gym, what has been something that’s been memorable for you being here on the sidelines?
JON TESKE: It’s just been a great trip overall, just bonding with the guys off the court. Hawaii’s a great place to be. Just taking a dip in the pool or the ocean, and really just bonding with the guys and getting to know the guys better off the court.
THE MODERATOR: Coach, an opening statement on this morning’s game?
JOHN BEILEIN: We’re thrilled to get 2-1 out of this tournament. Somebody’s going to go home 0-3, and somebody’s going to go out of here 3-0. And it’s just those two. It could be on the other side of a 2-1 or 1-2 is really big. VCU played so hard, and they’ve got a lot of talent and a great coach. So I really feel blessed. I think they’ll have a really good year. This win will be a good one for us going forward.
Q. Coach, how much did this team show you and maybe show itself after the disappointing opening loss?
JOHN BEILEIN: Yeah, I think when you see the score today, the Chaminade-Cal score, you see things like that. That Chaminade game was a tough game for us. We were up in the LSU game pretty good, and just things didn’t bounce our way. We didn’t make them bounce our way. We had a really tough loss. So bounced back, and then today have another lead, lose it, and then come back. Just huge for us to just understand what winning basketball looks like. Because there was a five-minute span in the second half where we did the opposite. We showed what losing basketball looked like. Missing foul shots. We made one turnover in the first half, then nine in the second half was a killer.
Q. What was kind of the key for you guys to regroup after that stretch you had, that 11-0 run to put yourself in position to take the lead late?
JOHN BEILEIN: We just needed to take one shot. They just needed to run what we were trying to run, right? When people are playing you like that, they’re trying to speed you up and get you out of your comfort area. We just bought right into it. All of a sudden, we got uncomfortable, and we’re just like playing so careless for a little bit. Thank goodness we ended up just short of getting ourselves set and doing some of the action that they know they can do really well, and it paid off.
Q. Today (indiscernible) Zavier in the second half? A team with three teams in three different situations with the point guard. Where’s that stand?
JOHN BEILEIN: First of all, it has a lot to do with Williams, No. 10. Eli, we like what he can possibly bring for us in the future. But there’s one guy, if I want one guy to guard Williams at the end, it was going to be Zavier. So he did a great job. I thought we were in real trouble. When they were in the double-bonus late, and they were going to drive it, and drive it. And as you know, Zavier’s been a guy that guards really hard and fouls a lot. He didn’t foul, and alas did a great job on No. 10, I think that was a big difference in the game.
Q. That one moment with three minutes left in the game. Eli, I couldn’t tell if he missed the switch or didn’t know where his man was. I think when they made the three with three minutes to go.
JOHN BEILEIN: Yep. My bad. I tried to switch them to get him back on the guard and get Duncan over on the shooter. He saw what to do, but Duncan didn’t see it. So it was my bad. I shouldn’t have done it, because it was too far to go and they left the shooter open. So I really felt bad after that one. But I thought we could do it quick enough, and we didn’t.
Q. From that moment, it seemed like that could have been a moment for a younger team that changed the day, changed the game. What did they show you in that response those last two minutes?
JOHN BEILEIN: They really executed down the stretch. Just Muhammad’s three is huge. Well, you guys have watched him evolve as a player, and look, he hit four or five assists again. So he’s like 23 assists and one turnover. That’s as many assists as he might have his whole freshman year. You could check that, probably. So just watching different guys understand their roles.
Charles, four from the foul line, hurt. Muhammad steps up. And they called the one driving play for Muhammad, or for Mo, they called it. I didn’t call it. We had practiced it in practice, and they said let’s run that, boom. Three-point play. Then Mo just finally getting an open look and putting it in. Big plays we get those nine points like that.
Q. VCU only turned you over one time in the first half. What were some of the different looks you were seeing in the second?
JOHN BEILEIN: Yeah, they went to a zone diamond and one trap. That was a little bit of it. We didn’t turn it over there. We turned it over, they sped us up. Then in the half court we got Mo posted up with a little guy at him. We throw a bounce pass to him, right? Got stolen. We threw the ball ahead some time, threw it over somebody’s head when they weren’t looking. Just like careless turnovers. That with the foul shooting, that’s not winning basketball. You cannot do that. I don’t mind a turnover. They trap you and they deflect. That’s a different deal. When you’re just giving them the ball, that’s not good.