John Beilein met with the media during the post-game press conference to speak about his team’s 76-74 overtime victory over Ohio State. Beilein took us through Tim Hardaway Jr.’s hot shooting, Mitch McGary’s stellar first half, Trey Burke’s final defensive plays and more. You can watch using the embedded media player below or read selected notes and quotes after the jump.
Opening statement: “It was a great basketball game. I can’t tell you how much I respect how well Ohio plays defense. They just really guard you. (Aaron) Craft is like none other I’ve ever seen. They also have shot-blockers in there, as well. I thought we had to earn every basket today. Unfortunately, our defense was not as good throughout most of the game — we gave them easy baskets. When you’re giving up that, that usually doesn’t bode well. Somehow, we gutted it out and got the ‘W’ thanks to a lot of really tough-minded young men. Tim Hardaway’s run really got us back. I think it was eight at one time, we were down seven or eight. Really pleased. Our kids have worked so hard, they deserved this win. We didn’t do everything right, but they really deserved it.”
- On the defensive battle between Trey Burke and Aaron Craft: “It’s incredible. Those two point guards are very, very good. They give it all every time. To play 42 minutes like that? We were trying to get Trey to back off a little bit, just to rest a little bit, and also, Craft can get in the lane, as he did several time. That was a great battle.”
- On Tim Hardaway Jr.: “We’ve been seeing this evolve, really, since the summertime. He’s done a lot of work on his own, and work with different members of our staff to know he could lead us both in his actions and how he presents himself to his teammates. We didn’t have many answers at that time, and those five (3-pointers) in a row, I don’t recall that happening too many times. It certainly happened tonight, and he was terrific at it. We couldn’t dial up plays fast enough.”
- On Michigan’s defensive lapses: “Their quickness is really good. … LaQuinton Ross came in and gave them a big lift. And then we just mixed up some coverages. We were trying to go out and double and hedge hard on Craft so he couldn’t get to where he wanted, but we missed several coverages. It seemed when we got an offensive rebound, they blocked it — when they got an offensive rebound, they were laying it right back in.”
- On his birthday: “It’s usually in a stressful situation that I’m having my birthday. It’s great to do that. I’m not a big birthday guy, but this was a good present.”
- On Trey Burke: “Obviously, every game means a lot to him. He’s a warrior. He goes after it. I think some of the times he lets the game come to him, as well, and we try to go other ways offensively to make sure he did not have the ball the whole time. Sometimes you want to just get Craft the heck out of there and let somebody else do things, and Timmy and Nik (Stauskas) had good runs there. I love coaching him because he’s so tough, mentally.”
- More on Trey Burke’s leadership: “These freshmen are really looking at them (Tim Hardaway Jr. and Trey Burke) every minute. One of our core values being Unity, we saw that all game tonight. There were some times when we could have quit. … We didn’t have that at all today. But it’s because of guys like that, … we practice like that every day.”
- On Burke’s 3-pointer at the end of regulation: “We were in the bonus and we wanted to get the ball in the lane. I wanted Glenn (Robinson III) to have a sprint screen on him, and … we wanted to see if we could get a mismatch and re-screen, but we settled there a little bit. If it goes in, it looks great, but I wanted him to go in there and get fouled.”
- On Burke’s defense at the end of the game: “Those two, you’re watching two of the finest point guards in America play against each other. Don’t anybody sleep on Craft’s offensive skills, as well. I’m sure that Trey will remember the block more than any great plays that Craft made.”
- On lack of transition game: “In overtime we kind of pulled it back. We hit a 3 and got a couple stops, I really wanted us to keep running, because it was the only way we were going to get easy baskets against that crew. I think the fatigue set in between the compressed schedule we’ve been in, I think we were a little tired.”
- On missing Jordan Morgan: “I think he would have helped us a little bit because the angles which Jon (Horford) and Mitch (McGary) are playing now are much like the angles Jordan used to play way back when. But, yeah, we need him back. He practiced a little bit yesterday, but nothing live, nothing full court. I wanted to just get him in there. But after the game against Indiana, he got sore after that and … hopefully he’ll be ready by the middle of this week because we’re going to need him.”
- On Mitch McGary: “In the second half he started with a brilliant pass. He’s one of the big men right now that is really evolving his game to be able to see the floor, rebound and catch and finish and play big. It’s been a project with Bacari (Alexander) and myself from day one. If you watch his footwork right now, it’s a long way from where it was in December. That’s really allowing him to use that size.”
- On not letting one loss become two losses: “I think it has a lot to do with the type of character we have on the team. They don’t like losing. They’re a lot like the coaching staff. We do not like to lose. We take it hard. While we tried to move forward after that Indiana game, they didn’t like anything about that game. I know coming out, and with that crowd right now, it was going to be tough to beat us even if we didn’t lay our best. With that crowd and that atmosphere, it was exciting to be a coach today.”
- On McGary leading the bigs in minutes: “He’s playing really well. … there’s a reason why he played 29 minutes.”
