John Beilein was made available to talk with the media on Monday. The coach spoke about his team’s recent trip to New York City and winning the NIT Tip-Off, as well as what his team will face against NC State. Beilein also reports that Tim Hardaway Jr. is 100% and is good to go for Tuesday. You can watch in the embedded media player below or read the notes and quotes after the jump.
- Said Michigan has been watching film of NC State since its final game of the tournament on Friday. “They’ve got some great players … They have so much talent. I think it’ll be an exciting atmosphere here.”
- Tim Hardaway Jr. is “fine.” He participated fully in practice and is 100 percent going forward.
- On raising the Big Ten banner: “When you look at how long it took us to raise a banner, it’s a good feeling.” On if he’ll allow himself to enjoy it as it goes up: “(laughs) Probably not.”
- “I think when you’re all done coaching and you look back at all your teams, I think you’ll look back at your ‘intangibles’ teams a little differently.” Said last year’s team was a “special group.”
- On what he liked about what he saw from his team in the NIT: “We proved we could rebound with two rebounding teams. … When you out-rebound Pitt, when you out-rebound Kansas State, that shows you that with effort, we can continue to do that.”
- On the progress of his team so far: “Our offensive efficiency percentage, it’s probably a little inflated, but I think it has to do with our defense. Glenn Robinson III has done a great job doing what Novak used to do defensively, being so solid, either on the ball or off the ball.”
- On Nik Stauskas: “We want to play through him more and more as the season progresses. You eat the elephant one bite at a time in terms of getting him ready for all the things in college, what he has to be able to do both offensively and defensively.”
- On Stauskas’s place in the rotation: “We haven’t gotten off to any bad starts, we’ve been starting the games pretty well. (Who’s starting) has never been that important to me as much as the minutes people are out and as long as we have enough guys who can score on the floor at one time.”
- On Caris Levert’s progression: “He’s really playing well. He makes a big difference on our scout team, on defense in particular, and on offense he gets to where he wants to be.” On the redshirt situation, Beilein said he’s been really good in practice and “there’s no reason to make a decision yet.”
- On Jon Horford: “We were concerned we hadn’t given Jon Horford — he hadn’t played enough in those first couple games, and then he’s out there because we’re in foul trouble.”
- Said Mitch McGary has been getting a lot of individual work from coaches. The focus has been teaching him how to “play big.” There was a play where he got an offensive rebound and he kept his elbows high and put it in. We worked so hard on that and the whole video room cheered when it happened.”
