In a very nice gesture, Tom Wywrot, Michigan basketball’s sports information director, and John Beilein had a bunch of Michigan media over to Weidenbach Hall for lunch and to talk to coach Beilein about the Europe trip. Beilein touched on a variety of subjects, including when the team will start working out, the kinds of rotations he figured out in Europe, individual player performances, scheduling and how expansion will affect basketball.
The rules governing the limits on offseason, in-school workouts say the team can work out four at a time until September 15 for two hours a week, then after the 15th all the players can work out buts still for only two hours per week. Also, the first day teams can work out is the first day of classes, which comes late for Michigan. Those extra 20 or so practices Michigan just had are looking more and more valuable.
Beilein said he was able to get a feel for some possible lineups in Europe but didn’t say what they were.
It did give us a better Idea of what we have.
Beilein singled out Matt Vogrich as one of the guys who played really well during the trip, focusing on his rebounding. Tim Hardaway Jr. and Evan Smotrycz seemed very “at ease” during the games.
I liked the swagger of both Tim and Evan immediately. You’d rather have a guy with swagger who you’ve got to tone down a bit than a guy who you have to give permission to go dunk on somebody.
Another interesting tidbit about Tim Hardaway Jr. in Europe. Asked if Tim backed up his standout practice performances in the games, Beilein said this:
Yeah, we did a lot of the things we did with Manny, with him. A lot of similar action. He handled it very well. What was really good was his rebounding in the last game … He weighs 190 right now. I think Manny’s highest weight was 188.
- Colton Christian didn’t play because of the hamstring.
- While Darius didn’t shoot well in Europe, Beilein was happy about the way he took care of the ball against almost constant man-to-man pressure and a 25-second shot clock.
- Regarding Big Ten expansion, Beilein said there haven’t been talks about how it affects the basketball season.
