Opening State

Gratitude and appreciation to all military personnel and those that serve. What a great cause to start the season for our program. Overall, very pleased with the team effort. I thought we had great competitive spirit. Our fans were great. Overall, just a good, solid performance starting the year.

On the defensive intensity

Yeah, Cleveland State is different from the other two teams we played. They have downhill-driving athletes. And the first couple minutes of the game, they got into the paint. They made a couple tough shots. They baked it at an 18-foot or whatnot. I thought our guys then adjusted and kept their bodies in front of the basketball They supported each other in the gaps. We were much more active off the ball than we had been up to this point. And sometimes you just need game reps to improve on weaknesses. So if you're very intentional and you have an intelligent group, which we do, we should be able to improve every single game even when we're not playing well offensively or the other team has a good shooting performance or whatever. You're trying to build to have the best habits by January, February, and March when it really matters.

On how the team shared the ball on offense

I would think absolutely. As far as our unselfishness in sharing the ball, I would grade us at an A-. We have guys that enjoy passing the ball. They've always taken pride in playing the game the right way, and that's not always easy to do when you build a lead and you get a lot of attention for the numbers. For our team, I don't think anyone was hunting numbers. They were simply trying to take what the game gave them, and that's a good sign as long as we don't change. We should be able to score on most nights.

On Michigan's high shooting percentage

I thought our guys made a big-time adjustment since Toledo as far as finishing around the rim, having more power, more exposure, more determination. We've worked on some things technique-wise, but more than anything else, I think our guys were just determined to get the ball in the hole. Cleveland State's physical. They're athletic. So that's a nice, pleasant surprise that our guys were able to correct that from one game to the next. Sometimes the ball just doesn't go in. It squirts out or whatever the case. So each night we have to take what the game gives us. Tonight they were staying at home on our shooters, and we were able to convert around the rim. I thought we drove the ball well, too. We drove through contact. We finished strong. We're going to need to do that on certain nights that the teams don't collapse on penetration.

On Danny Wolf

He's still getting comfortable in the new system, new environment. A lot of our guys are, and he's just scratching the surface. He can shoot to three. He handles it like a guard. He passes it better than most guards. And defensively, he's made a real intentional effort to sit down and guard the basketball with determination. And then seeing him on the offensive glass, he had four of them tonight. Wow. Four offensive rebounds, nine defensive rebounds. That's something that going forward we're going to need.

On giving up offensive rebounds but being able to get out and run offensively

100%. Early in the first half, that was the message to the team when the first couple timeouts. They're crashing, their guards are pressing, and their bigs are going to the glass like crazy. I mean, they were physical. And we said if we can secure it, we're out. But if we can't and they do score, even on second one, if we just get it out quick, we're going to have an open three or get it up the floor quick. It's a give-and-take. Everything we do in this game is a give-and-take. But when we looked at the offensive rebounds at halftime, we weren't disappointed. There were a couple times we had good late emergency switches. Our guards got into the legs of the big, and he just happened to have a size advantage. I do think our guys adjusted later in the first half, and the basketballs that were going to Cleveland State, we came in and just got a fingertip on them. And usually it's five on two or five on three anyway. So I do think our guys are learning some of the nuances of how we play on the fly.

On Vlad Goldin's first basket being late in the game

Yeah, I would be shocked if he told me Vlad's first basket would put us up 44. I just told Brian that I think Vlad was probably the invisible player of the game. Those threes we got late were because of his pressure he put on the rim. I thought defensively his rim protection was huge for us. He blocked several, he changed several. And that's something that he hasn't consistently done over his career. And going forward, if he can protect the rim like he did tonight and be that type of presence, the scoring's going to come, the efficiency he plays with. I do think there were a couple times when the ball found him, and he was really excited. So after tonight, I think he'll be more, I guess, acclimated to all this. But he's so unselfish. He's such a great teammate, and he was happier for his teammates than anything tonight.

On the importance of establishing depth

Once again, every possession, every game, every four-minute we call mini-games, there's so many learning lessons. And the thing that we've stressed with Will in practice is he's such a physical presence. He's got to eliminate the fouls that are based on frustration. Maybe he crashed and didn't get the ball, and he horse-collared the guy, because he loves contact, and he plays with reckless abandon. But our message to him is we need him to be able to play with aggression without having to worry about foul trouble. And we intentionally put him back in early in the first half to see if he could make that adjustment to play really intelligent basketball. Two fouls, and he did. Everything he's doing now is a shock to no one in our program. He does this every day in practice. When you look at his stats over the summer and the fall, he shoots with efficiency. He's the same guy every single day. And it's nice to see him rewarded in the games. He's going to have some big, big moments for him this year because he puts in the work, and he's a good basketball player. Andrew?

On Rubin Jones' status

Day by day. He's feeling better each day. Reuben's been bit with some random injury bug type of issues. And our response to all this is always good. This is good for us because this will keep him fresher longer. This will allow us to get fat, fat more minutes when maybe Reuben would have had those minutes. So him being out, he'll be back soon. Him being out is probably really a real positive thing for those young guys, though, to get these significant rotation minutes, not minutes late in the game. But, yeah, he's close. We've had a lot of just, I think, just kind of random injuries and illness, and none of them are long-term, thankfully. But, yeah, he'll be back soon.

On whether the performance tonight is the optimal offense he's looking for

Yeah, we'd like to do this every night. I don't think we're going to, but, yeah, this would be ideal. We'd like to get the highest. I think this is the second-highest field goal percentage in the history of the program. We'd like to get the highest, but we're not going to be able to count on that. We have to be able to find different ways to win each night when the ball's not going in. That was the message before the game. We'd shot it pretty well in our exhibitions, and we're not always going to be able to count on that. So we're going to be gritty enough to find the second shots, to dominate the shots each night where we get more and more possessions. We've got to do a better job of taking care of the basketball, but we are a little bit loose right now. Some of it's learning to play with each other. Some of it is some carelessness. So that's probably the one thing we have to clean up quickly. It's the schedule gets extremely difficult with Forrest on this weekend. Far left with Steve.

On whether he could hear and feel the appreciation from the crowd

Yes. Usually I don't hear anything. Sometimes if it's deafening, your ears start buzzing, and your head starts buzzing because it's so loud. I do think that our fans appreciated the way our guys played the game tonight, and that's something that we talk about even late in the game, that unselfishness and spirit and passion that you play with, you don't ever turn that off. And that's why we told them before the game today, this place probably will be half full tonight. And by the next month, because of the way we play and the way we interact with each other and the way we represent Michigan, we want it to be full. We'll give them a month.

On what it says about the team not having Jones and Goldin not adding to the stat sheet

It's what we thought. I don't want to say parody because we have so many good players that have done it before and proven that our young guys are probably ahead of schedule with certain parts of their game. It just says that every night we can have a different guy step up and be our best player. But, yeah, we have a long way to go, though, a long way to go.

On the importance of engaging with past players

This is their program, all former players. It's not my program. I'm ecstatic to be a small, small piece of it. Our players, they want to make the guys that wore the jersey before them proud. That's part of being connected to something great, and we all know the University of Michigan is something great. So, yes, we want to connect with former players. We love having them back. We love hearing their stories. We couldn't believe that that team had such a bond 60 years later. But it was special to see all those guys at practice yesterday sitting together. A lot of them had their wives. They were interacting like they were sitting in the dorms 62, 63 years ago. So, you know, it was great to have them.

On getting acclimated to a new environment

You know, once a game is tipped or even before the game, it's the same. It's routine, focus, trying to run through your mental checklist, trying to be mentally prepared for what's next. So I don't notice a lot. Like I said, late in the game, I heard the fans really erupt a couple times on hustle plays, which is awesome for our fans to be knowledgeable and recognize the right things, the selfishness, the passion, the toughness plays that our guys made. I guess probably the butterflies happen more at 3 or 4 a.m. more than they do on game day for me. So, yeah, I woke up more frequently last night than usual, thinking about the game. So that's probably my way of having butterflies.

On Danny Wolf

Well, he stayed in front of the ball. He was in good position. I thought he communicated his switches and then finishing possessions with defensive rebounds. We're big around the rim. There were a couple times the staff and I were sitting there and we looked on the floor and said, man, we look like a big physical team. And if we can play with great discipline and just positionally sound, then we should be able to protect the paint. And then I do think our shot contests were much better today, tonight than they have been the last couple exhibition games.

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