TheWolverine.com - Beilein proud, not satisfied after loss to Sooners

March 21, 2009

Chris Balas
TheWolverine.com Senior Editor

They could have folded when Manny Harris picked up his second foul five minutes into the game, sidelining him for the rest of the first half. Or when Oklahoma started the second half with a 10-2 run, expanding a tenuous one-point lead. But Michigan had come to fight and did, battling before falling 73-63.

They traded blows with a team that came to throw 'em, in a game in which the officials let (some of) 'em play. Anthony Wright countered Sooners big man Blake Griffin's inside dominance with outside precision, making three of four triples in a 12-point first half to keep the Wolverines close.

When Oklahoma continued to go to Griffin in second, riding the big man to an eventual 13-point lead, senior C.J. Lee shot U-M back in it with a pair of triples, the second cutting it to 58-53 at 6:53.

They weren't happy to be there, they'd said before the game, and they backed it up.

But the second half drought proved too much to overcome. The Wolverines got great looks inside and out but too many misses, too much Griffin sent them home just shy of the Sweet 16.

Griffin scored 33 to lead the Sooners, unstoppable on the block and a virtual one-man show. He bullied his way through double teams and got calls the stars get on top of it, at one point even drawing a technical foul on Michigan head coach John Beilein when he went though freshman Zack Novak like Earl Campbell through a cornerback.

"What are we supposed to do?" Beilein screamed at the official in getting the two-free throw reprimand.

He didn't get the answer he was seeking.

"We were trying to double team then and just coming and being straight [up]," Beilein noted in the postgame. "We really train our kids not to reach in, just come in and make sure that he initiates any contact.

"So that's what I was referring to. I don't know how you guard it if you have two guys on him and you're standing up. It's a ref's call, and there are a lot of those 50-50 calls that go into a season."

And still they didn't quit. They lost the battle of the boards 35-34 to a team bigger at every position, indicative of the desire. They responded with their improbable run after a Griffin dunk in transition that capped Oklahoma's big run of its own in the second half, igniting the partisan Sooners crowd, one that would have spelled the end for many teams.

They spent the first half playing toe to toe with a No. 2 seed, doing it with four players who wouldn't have been ? well, weren't ? ever recruited by the Sooners and looked as though they belonged at every position but one ? and the one was manned by a future NBA lottery pick.

"It was our 'maize' team with one addition, and it does do well in practice every day," said Beilein. "Anthony is a former starter. Jevohn [Shepherd] is a former starter. They've been in that situation before, but I really liked the way they played, especially Anthony, obviously."

Neither, though, had played significant minutes down the stretch in Big Ten play, making Wright's minutes all the more impressive.

Against any other big man in the country, it might have been enough. But even with their second team on the floor for much of the first half, the Wolverines had opportunities to enter halftime with a lead. Usually reliable freshman Stu Douglass was 0-for-3 from long range despite getting some good looks, and he missed the front end of a one-and-one. They also botched a couple of transition opportunities with numbers that should have led to lay-ups.

It was enough to make Beilein think "what if" for a moment.

"They played as hard and as well as they could tonight," he said, and I think we're a better team than we played tonight, but it just didn't work that way.

"I want today's feeling to linger a bit. I want them to know that, first of all, they were a few breaks and a few shots away from going to the Sweet 16 ? I want them to feel that a little bit because we need to continue to grow here, and their hunger is very good at this time. It's nice to feel you accomplished something, but we want to continue the hunger for us to get Michigan past this stage."

While he wouldn't concede that the group that exceeded just about everyone else's expectations didn't exceed his, the pride was evident.

"I did say it would be a rollercoaster, and I think we've had some great highlights," he said. "We certainly have also had some very low moments. But you're really proud of a team that I don't think everybody would argue they finished strong.

"Two teams will end with a win, the NCAA and the NIT [champion]. You're going to end with a loss. But if you feel your team battled strong, then they met your expectations."

About that, Beilein had no doubt.

Notes

? Sims' focus turned to next year after he experienced his first taste of the postseason.

"We set expectations and talked about the NCAA every day, knowing that if you say something enough it can happen," he said. "It was almost a dream because the expectations were so high, but we weren't sure if we could go. I'm not sure if other people thought that we could be in this position, but we felt in our minds that we worked hard, and something had to pay off.

"This season we were a win away from the Sweet 16. It doesn't get sweeter than that for a team that finished 10-22 last year, and it's a lot to build on ? and it's a long ways away from next season."

? Harris thought he had established a box out on Griffin on his second foul, which came during a rebound attempt in which Griffin fell over his back. The call sent Harris to the bench for the last 15 minutes of the half.

"I told him, 'be ready ? I might throw you in for a couple minutes," said Beilein. "We had the lead for most of the half at that point. My biggest concern was getting him warmed up at halftime after sitting there with a 20-minute halftime."

It turned out to be just the start of the foul trouble for the Wolverines, who were whistled for 23 fouls. The Sooners went to the line 27 times.

"[Zack] Novak went down and C.J. went down and DeShawn went down [with foul trouble]. You've seen our team. We may lead the country in not fouling people," said Beilein. "That was really some adversity that I thought we handled well, but after all that, we really didn't come out of the box real good in the second half."

? Oklahoma head coach Jeff Capel went to his bench for all of one minute in the second half, relying on his starters to carry the load.

"I wanted to win," he said. "They were playing well. Coach has the right to sub, and if I don't want to sub, I'm not going to sub.

"Those guys played well, and the media timeouts are a little bit longer. I felt a good rhythm, we had timeouts ? I didn't want to mess it up."

? The Sooners credited Michigan for their desire, evident from start to finish.

"It was tough," guard Austin Johnson said. "Their offense is a little different than most teams. They're always moving, changing up their cuts. They run their offensive well and their coach is a great coach.

"It was tough having to deal with their offense and then coming down and dealing with their defense."

? Michigan fell to 7-2 when putting four players in double figures. Lee joined his teammates with a career high 11 points.

? Beilein is now 7-5 in NCAA Tournament play, having made five appearances.

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