Kelvin SampsonAfter the gameHouston 83, Michigan 66ExhibitionGame page →
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Transcript
Q1 Thoughts on Michigan and the trip
What did you make of Michigan, and why did you want to come all this way for an exhibition game?
Um, when Dusty, uh, called me, I think the game was initially— he had talked about being in Ann Arbor. I mean, we're going to play somebody good. Um, it didn't matter to me whether it was Michigan or Michigan State or Gonzaga. Whoever, you know, Dusty asked first.
If somebody else had asked first, we would have played them. So Michigan, a lot like us, you know, we, uh, we lost 4 starters. We're starting over, a brand new, um— Reed was at Kent State last year, he's at LSU. Uh, Braden was at Lamar.
Who else? Arafan was in high school. He's only 18 years old. I mean, we're— we got a brand new team.
Everybody's in completely different roles. The guy that's been our best player, I don't even remember him today. JoJo. You know, he's played on a Final Four team, 2 Big 12 championship teams, 3 Big Sweet 16 teams, and he was a no-show tonight.
He's been our best player. So, you know, both teams, the thing you take out of this is just go back and watch film. Don't overreact one way or the other. The fact that we won, you know, I don't see anybody celebrating.
That's an exhibition game. We scrimmaged Ole Miss. Oh, that one. We won that one.
I don't remember the score. Tonight, we won this one. A month from now, nobody's going to remember this game. So, but it gives us some film to watch, correct.
We made a boatload of mistakes tonight. Did a lot of good stuff, especially when you got guys playing their first ever game like this. Ole Miss was not a game, it was more of a scrimmage. Yeah. So both teams will get better as we go.
Q2 Preparing for the ranked-opponent atmosphere
Talk about coming to an atmosphere like this with everything going on, 2 ranked opponents. Talk about just getting your guys prepared for a game where it isn't the usual college basketball game.
Yeah, I think last year we played Mississippi State. Similar environment, but that one was— I don't know, where was that? It was in Houston. I don't remember where it was.
I couldn't tell you how to get there. But, you know, our guys knew who Cadeau was, obviously, and the 2 wings that played prominent roles last year, Gale and Trey McKenney. Now, we played Chom a lot. We played him when he was at UCF, we played him when he was at Cincinnati, and now we play him at Michigan.
So we've seen a lot of him play Estrella. He was at Tennessee, we played them twice. So we had seen Estrella, we've seen Chom, we just haven't seen the other guards. But, um, you know, DJ's, um, you know, he's— he was the point guard we wanted out of the portal.
He was the guy we wanted. And, um, very poised, can score. Um, did you make a 3 tonight? How many turnovers you have?
Just a little. Yeah, I think last year we led the nation in fewest turnovers committed in the Big— out of the Big 12. We only averaged 8 turnovers a game. We had 8 tonight.
Um, we're big on winning possession battles. I think we had 64 shots, Michigan had 50. That's 14 more shot attempts. That favors the teams that— basketball, simple game. You get more shots than them, you got a better chance to win.
Q3 We'll go to the back left. Question for Coach. Looks like your, uh, ball screen defense was really productive. Was that a point of emphasis to try to frustrate that pick and roll between, uh, Big Alvin and Chalmers?
Yeah, not necessarily for who we played, just who we are. No, we didn't draw up a game plan for Michigan. Um, that we prepared more for us, um, because we've seen Chom so much. We knew what to expect from him, kind of knew what he was going to try to do in bulk screen coverage.
Um, same thing, we've seen Estrella, um, enough. And actually, we played against, um, or seen Reed when he was at LSU. Did you play with him? Bless you.
Yeah, so, um, but these are brand new guys. We got so many— we got a brand new team. We're new, you know, with the 8th pick in the draft, 27th pick in the draft, and the 45th pick in the draft with 3 NBA guys. Just like Michigan had 3 NBA guys, uh, last year.
So we're both starting over, um, but proud of our guys' effort tonight. Uh, times we didn't play very smart. Um, pick and roll coverage, you know, there's, there's a certain way you have to defend under 3 on the clock to close teams out defensively. It was good to see us screw that up a little bit tonight because that'll be a point of emphasis.
It's all about mistakes right now. We've made a ton of mistakes. Um, our best player, I don't even remember JoJo tonight. He had 5 fouls.
He had 5 fouls. The 18-year-old freshman had 5 fouls. So, and they were fouls. Those were good calls.
I told our kids that don't, don't point your finger at anybody on that. Own it. The only way you're going to get better is accept it, watch film, and try to get better. That's the way it is.
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