2011-2012 Season

Transcript: John Beilein, Tim Hardaway Jr., Zack Novak and Trey Burke on Duke Loss

Ae5wEs4CMAAXacb[1]
Photo: Maui Invitational

John Beilein, Tim Hardaway Jr., Trey Burke and Zack Novak met with the media after Michigan’s 82-75 loss to Duke in the Maui Invitational semifinals. Find the full transcript of their press conference here and after the jump.

COACH BEILEIN:   It mirrored a little bit of our game last year in the NCAA Tournament where they got off to a quick start with us.  We only had nine turnovers in the game, and one was in the last second.  We had eight turnovers, but we had‑‑ I think I counted the first four times down the floor we had a turnover.

Let them get out to it.  We were chasing them the whole time.  They’re not a great team to chase.  They really know how to control the ball, limit their turnovers, and they have a‑‑ their perimeter played very well. I’ll have to watch film again to see how much of that was us and how much of that was Duke.  But I assume an awful lot of it was Duke.

Q.  Trey, can you talk about what was so difficult about defending Curry and Rivers for Duke for 40 points?
TREY BURKE:  Just staying on my feet. They’re real good players, good shooters. So Coach talked about me staying on my feet. That’s really about it.

Q.  John, could you talk about the 3‑pointers from the second half.  Every time you made a run seemed like they came‑‑
COACH BEILEIN:   They answered, didn’t they?  We did not have a good first half.  You could see by the number of points we scored.  And they answered continually.  And they do have a great‑‑ all three of those guys are 40percent shooters coming in.
But what happens is Rivers was so good with the ball, just creating good drawing to and finding people, good patience.  They made some tough shots, and then they created opportunities for walk‑in 3s, which were a killer.

Q.  Coach, Mike said they did some things that surprised you to start off with the 9‑0 run.
COACH BEILEIN:   They completely shut down Tim.  They wouldn’t let him get the ball.  They played four on four on one side.  And we tried to draw things up in the huddle.  Until we got to halftime we couldn’t make an adjustment on that the way we wanted to.
So they did a great job, and that’s what happens during the season.  We had people play different ways.  You can’t practice through everything, but I think the way our kids adjusted in the second half, offense wasn’t the problem.
But Duke came out with a great plan and that’s a little bit why he’s got 900‑some wins.

Q.  John, you talk about this being an assessment tool to kind of see where you guys were.  After the first two games, are you able to make any kind of concrete assessments of where you are with those two games?
COACH BEILEIN:   I really like the way we’re competing.  And seeing‑‑ you watch your own team.  You don’t know what the other people have out there.  And I do like the way we’re competing.  I do think that we have to really be a very efficient team to beat teams that both have the size and the perimeter that this team has.  Because just to put back there and an alley‑oop dunk here and there, we don’t necessarily get as many of those as some others.
So I do‑‑ I like the progress.  But obviously there’s not a kid here that didn’t want to win‑‑ didn’t think we could have won that game if we played a little better.

Q.  Can you talk about the frustration of being taken away like that in the first half?  Obviously you’ve had a number of games where you’ve been able to get the ball and create.
TIM HARDAWAY:  I don’t think it was frustration.  They were just doing a good job of locking us down and coming out with a great game plan.
We came out at halftime and just capitalized on it.  And it really helped us out throughout the whole entire game.

Q.  Tim, what did you do differently to get yourself open in the second half?
TIM HARDAWAY:  Coach drew up some things on the board, and we went out and executed what he wanted us to do, and it freed me up and it freed a lot of other guys on our team up. And it helped us score the ball.

Q.  You guys obviously‑‑ Zack, you have another game coming up tomorrow. How do you move on from such a disappointing loss and be ready for one tomorrow?
ZACK NOVAK:  We’ll go back and watch the film quickly to learn things to make Michigan basketball better.  And it’s a quick turnaround.  There’s a reason everyone’s saying this is one of the best fields that’s ever been in this tournament.  Right now focus‑‑ we’ve got a chance to get third here.  And that’s really all we can focus on.

Q.John, talk about the way that Trey stepped up in that first half and took on that scoring load and hit a couple of big shots in the second half, as much as Tim played well in the second half, and then Zack with some scoring that you needed, it was Trey with those eight assists and also the scoring that really kept your guys in the game, too?
COACH BEILEIN:   It’s great to have him where he’s starting to read screens better.  The ball screen.  And they played different ways off our five‑man and that’s something that he still has to adjust to.
But he was able to get‑‑ I don’t know what he had at half.  But they were what we call locking the rails on us, saying you’re going to play a two on two game.  And Evan getting in foul trouble really hurt us from spacing.
So they played a certain way where Jordan was going to be his ball screen.  He had to make things happen.  And he’s learning every day on it.  And he’s a tough kid.  He’s mentally tough.

Q.  Is there some encouragement the fact that you scored 50 points in the second half.  You haven’t had a half all season and you struggled offensively?
COACH BEILEIN:  We scored 40 something against Wayne State in the whole game.  It takes time for everybody especially when you have a brand new quarterback it takes time to get things going and understanding how these things work in a game and we’re throwing a lot at this young man furthest to my left and gradually he’s absorbing as much as he can but it takes time.  So it’s encouraging we’re getting closer.  And hopefully all year we’ll just make these little mini steps in everyone’s understanding of how to score points and how to defend.

Q.  Trey, in backpack days you’ve gone against some of the best point guards in the country.  How does this prepare you for Big Ten season?
TREY BURKE:  It’s kind of hard to answer that question.  But both Joe Jackson and Seth Curry were really good players.  I go out and do everything I need to do to get my team the W.  Them are two top point guards in the country.  So I’m sure it prepared me for people like Jordan Taylor and Aaron Craft and people like that.  I just go out and try to get my team a win.

Q.  Tim or Zack, could you talk about the motivation to win this game given it was Duke and what happened in the NCAA Tournament and maybe the disappointment you feel coming up short again?
ZACK NOVAK:  That obviously hurts from last year.  But this is a new team.  I would be lying if I said we weren’t thinking about it a little bit.  But seems like that game was a couple months ago, not eight months.  So we really‑‑ we had a little bit of extra motivation.  But like I said, this is the Maui Classic.  We were going to come play no matter who we were playing.

Comments
To Top