Postgame Quotes: #24 Michigan 92, Hillsdale College 68
11/15/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 15, 2014
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Michigan Head Coach John Beilein
Opening statement ... "Somehow there was never a feeling that that wasn't a close 24-point win. There is a method to why we did that, but when you watch, Hillsdale doesn't have a team. Hillsdale has a program. It's what we try to do as well. You try to get the right kids, they play a great system, they're there for quite a bit of time and they just get better and better. Watching Kyle Cooper over four years, he has become a really good player who could play at a lot of division one places. Being a coach of LeMoyne for nine years, I hope that people would say that we ran a program like Hillsdale has done. It was great for our guys to have to guard really smart players that could all shoot, have a system and learn from it. We'll take it, but like I said that felt like a very close 24-point win."
On the defensive performance of the team ... "This is what we have to do. We have to learn. We're still trying to find out who we are defensively, what are our patterns of switching, and they exposed that a lot today. Our scout team practiced Hillsdale for 20 minutes; some of those guys have been practicing for four years. It's going to expose things that they see and then they can get better at it. Frankly, there are some things you can't stop. You have to hope they miss because the action is so good."
On the motivation offered from the banner raising ceremony ... "I mentioned that to all of the guys that I gave the rings to. The ones who are currently on the team, I told them 'Let's do this again'. We have this vision that we're going to compete for championships. At the same time, I told the other guys to sit back and look at what just happened and know that this is what we're trying to do every day at the University of Michigan. I counted 18 banners and there are guys in that group that have had a place in three of them. That's really important, that we understand that if you stay together, what we do does work."
On naming Caris and Spike team captains ... "We make a big deal of that in our locker room, but we don't make a big deal outside the locker room. They will be captains all year long. We had a team vote that was practically unanimous and it was unanimous with the coaching staff too. We're really excited about those two guys leading us into the future."
On the Maize Rage helping unveil the Big Ten banner ... "Our staff got together and thought that these kids have waited out in the cold, they're at every game, and today they're in the upper bleachers for a division two Saturday afternoon game in football season. We value our relationship with them so much and we wanted to make sure that they knew they were a part of this."
U-M Junior Guard Caris LeVert
On the freshmen playing their first college game ... "With Kam (Chatman) and Mark (Donnal) in the starting lineup, not having played a game yet, I think getting their feet wet was definitely good. It was good to get a win tonight."
On the balance between being the primary scorer and giving the freshman their chance ... "It's just a feel. We're just going out there looking at all our reads and running our offense and with our offense everyone gets touches and everyone gets shots and those shots will come."
On concern with the being down early ... "We knew coming into the game they (Hillsdale) were a great shooting team and a great cutting team and they really ran their offense efficiently. We had to lock in to get some stops."
U-M Sophomore Guard Derrick Walton Jr.
On when Spike and he run the point together ... "I try to be a lot more aggressive when he's on the floor. When he's out it's the same mindset. Once Spike gets in the game, it's incentive for me to be more aggressive and score a little more."
On the 92-point opener ... "We started to pick it up. Defense was great for us. We had a lot of easy baskets. Just because of playing great defense and we shot the ball really well, 92 was a great number for us."
On the explosiveness after the shaky start ... "I think, as a first game, the young guys and myself just didn't want to come out too excited and make careless mistakes. I think we sat back and they kind of hit us in the mouth. After the first TV time-out we got to our normal game. We know pressure and that started generating easy points for us."
U-M Sophomore Guard Zak Irvin
On how comfortable is he in a starting role ... "I've definitely been ready for this since last year ended. I've been working hard for it and I'm just glad my hard work seems to be paying off."
On the early minute disadvantage ... "We had a slow start and they definitely came out ready to play. We had to make some adjustments defensively and offensively as well. It was nice to see us make those adjustments and get back on our run as well."
