John Beilein talked with the media about Michigan’s 65-62 overtime loss to Wisconsin in Madison. You can watch the full post-game press conference below or read selected notes and quotes after the jump.
- On not fouling during the last play of regulation: “We were trying to foul. That was the instruction coming out. We had two fouls to give. He turned the corner on Caris (LeVert) and he couldn’t get it done in time.”
- On the overtime 3-pointer by Brust: “The scouting report on him is, make him drive to the basket. We have some guys in these situations for the first time. We put Caris in there for defense and he’s a very good defender but he just happens to make a little bit of a mistake. … he is not a guy you want to give that kind of room to.”
- Reiterated that on that last play, they definitely wanted to foul and keep everyone in front of them. “He turned the corner on (LeVert) just enough so he couldn’t foul him. … with Caris’s quickness, we thought he could get there, but he didn’t.”
- On having Mitch McGary downcourt rather than on the inbounder: “Mitch is in the back in case they go over the top, give you one more guy to make sure you can’t get a three. In retrospect, maybe it was a direct pass, having Mitch on the ball but that could put another guy in a 1-on-1 jump ball. They got some long dudes at the other end. … they could run a tip play, catch it, they can win a lot of those jump balls at the other end so we wanted to make sure we had an extra guy back.”
- On getting good shots in overtime: “I thought we were getting good shots. Several times, the ball just didn’t go in.”
- On regrouping after a game like this: “You don’t even look at it as a loss. You really don’t.” Talked about how it wasn’t only one possession. “We talk about all the possessions in the game that really had a bearing on the outcome of the game — not the half-court shot. There are all these possessions that we maybe wasted. … I think we missed 14 points in layups. 14 points in layups.” Not contested layups, either.
- On if missing those layups has something to do with the venue: “It has nothing to do with being here. Sometimes you just miss layups. They’re not going, ‘oh, it’s the Kohl Center so I can’t make layups.’ There’s not a science to this, sometimes they just miss them.”
- On playing Max Bielfeldt more than usual: Said that Bielfeldt was impressing in practice consistently and and thought they would give him a shot. “Everybody can’t be on the scout team, and he’s very good. I really love what Max did today.”
- On Jordan Morgan: “I just think it was a severe ankle sprain. It’s getting better. He’d like to think it’s better. … He’s not pushing and jumping and running, which may be distracting him.”
Video by Dustin Johnston, quotes from Joe Stapleton.
