Opening Statement

Well, we're pleased with our start in Big Ten play. We feel like we're improving week by week. We've seen a lot of different styles of play, defenses, offenses. So a lot to learn, we still have a long way to go. I'm excited to get back on the road and see if we can continue to perform well under adverse conditions. But just excited to be moving in the right direction and being healthy this time of year.

On Danny Wolf's health status

As of now, just day by day. I think he came back in and he squeezed off a three, so he seemed fine a couple minutes later.

On Matt Aldred and the S&C program

Well, we kind of have our own way of evaluating how that's going. I think our guys look fast, they look strong, they look physical. And so that's a compliment to first their work, they're the ones that are putting in the elbow grease. And Matt's put together a great plan that we as a staff trust 100%. And I think our players are bought in as well. As far as the injuries, obviously there's non-contact and contact injuries. And we've mostly avoided any non-contact fluke injuries. And obviously, if you land on a guy's foot or you go up for a dunk and come down and land awkwardly, there's nothing a training staff or strength staff can do about that. So, but without a doubt, we look healthy, we look strong. Our guys have maintained the same power force. We have all the equipment now to measure those things. So we like where we are physically.

On the key to not overlooking an opponent and buying into the outside noise

You know, I've only been a head coach for, I think this is seven years now. So it's not as if that I have the answers, but there's a human nature component to it. And we've stressed maturity and focusing on the way we play the game. And not just looking at the results and expecting to win and whatever the case. So we've gotta really, now that we're gonna be getting more attention and more love, it's good. It's good for the sport, it's good for this university, it's good for our team and then their individual careers and whatnot. But we can't believe the hype, and we've gotta get away from the processing of, okay, we won by this much, then that's good. We took a step back in some areas yesterday. Our defensive intensity wasn't as strong as it was at USC or UCLA in some of the same areas. So we just gotta make sure that we continue to worry about us, focus on us. There's preparation and game planning for the opponents, but our mindset and our ability to focus on getting better and what we need to work on is much more important. If we're getting tired of practicing now in early January, then we're not gonna max out as a group.

On whether the staff discussed winning a Big Ten championship prior to the season

Now, no, absolutely not. It's how do we find a way to play as well as we can one possession at a time against Minnesota. Before the season, we liked our team. And so if we, I'm not someone that just says, I think we can do this if I don't believe it. Now, I do err on the side of really appreciating our players and our staff and believing in them. And so there might be a little bit of, I guess, just bias because they're the guys on your team. But yeah, we felt like we had a group that could compete with anyone in the country. Now, can we beat everyone on any night? We have no idea. We haven't proven that yet. But we did like our pieces. We felt like we were unique. We felt like we could play a different style that teams didn't see every night, which makes it difficult to prepare. As you guys know, once you get into Big Ten season, there's not a lot of preparation you can do. Minnesota plays tonight on the road. I'm assuming they'll be off tomorrow or to be a light practice for them tomorrow. So they have essentially a one-day prep for us, saying we're off today. We'll practice tomorrow. We leave Wednesday evening because of class schedule. So at this time of year, if you play the same or if you play the same as everyone else, it can be a scouting disadvantage. And so with all that wrapped into one, we felt like we had a good basketball team that could compete with anyone. And so yeah, we're just moving forward, trying to get to the next thing. And the Big Ten championship, we're trying to compete for it, but we're not talking about it at all.

On how he feels about being one of the top stories in CBB at this point and whether his players are getting more attention

Not really, no, not really. We went through last year where it seemed like, I think we oversaturated the market with the stuff about our team. And now it seems like we're flying a little bit under the radar, which I love, I think, for whatever reason. I mean, and I'm not one of these guys. We did show our players in a scouting report that 90% of the prognosticators on this TV show picked UCLA or USC, whoever it was. I don't remember now. So we'll use that stuff, but it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. So know that we haven't had any more requests. I like where we are right now, where the computers really, really like us. And the people are still waiting to see more.

On what he liked and disliked about the Washington game

Sometimes, I don't know, at least for me, it's hard to tell in the midst of those kinds of things. Yeah, I liked how we shared the basketball. I liked how we turned down good shots to get some great ones. I liked how we were able to switch defenses and our communication improved in changing defenses. As we all know, this generation doesn't communicate naturally like some did probably before. And so we feel like our guys are taking a step forward with their internal communication on the court, not just assuming anything, but communicating the defenses, communicating where the shooters are, communicating where the passers are, and so we saw as a staff some growth with those intangibles. Like I said in the post-game press conference, I thought our pass fakes, our ball fakes, our finding the right spaces in the zone continues to improve. And so those are the things that give us hope going forward, that we are figuring things out better on the fly.

On whether he is paying attention to what Michigan State is doing

100%, we keep an eye on everyone in the Big Ten. Obviously, we bump into them in recruiting, we hear about them a lot, and they're obviously playing at a high, high level right now, so we're gonna hear about them more. We think it's better for college basketball when we're both sitting at the top of the standings. And as long as we're up there, we don't really care where the Spartans are, but I think it adds more interest to the game, it adds more, it's good for the state of basketball in Michigan, it's good for the young players to come to games where there's such an environment. So all those things are healthy, but we're not, me personally, I think if we're thinking about Michigan State right now, we have so many games that we have to focus on Minnesota, and then turn the page to Northwestern, and then turn the page to, I think it's Purdue after that, but all focus is on Minnesota right now.

On when his players knowing when to cut or not in his system

Yeah, we don't have a lot of, I wouldn't say rules per se, more of a shared vision and value system that sometimes I have to cut to give you space, but yeah, our offensive philosophy, it's what I learned from Coach Knight, your defender makes the decision for you. We're playing our defenders on offense, and we're playing the ball on defense. And so, that's not something that is that common, I think, now where if a player turns his head, it's automatic, you cut, and then you might finish your cut, or you might re-space, depending on what the defense tells you to do. So I think more than anything else, we're slowing down with the ball in our hands. And that's given us time to find the cutters, to ball fake the cutters being open, and things like that. So that's probably the biggest thing of just not over-penetrating and slowing down when the ball is in our hands. Cuz the other guys, they should be moving quickly with urgency. Even in transition, we want four guys running as fast as they can, and we want the guy with the ball going at more of a 60 to 70 to 80% clip, just so we're more conscious of not getting sped up and turning the ball over. Played a UCLA action game, it's a great opportunity to use the Coach Wooden quotes, being quick and not hurry. And so, our guys have repeated that a few times, so I thought that was cool.

On scouting Minnesota on a short turnaround

I mean, are there individual people in your staff that just do offense or just- Yeah, every game, there'll be an assistant coach that's working on how we score against Minnesota, and then there's another coach and staff that's working on how do we stop Minnesota. And so, they've watched probably five to ten games. They'll send me the video edits, the paper edits, and then I'll read that, and we'll talk about it as a staff. And then we'll also, we'll say, Washington did this against us pretty well, and UCLA did this, we're gonna see this again, we have to get this fixed. Let's anticipate that Minnesota has the personnel to do that, they're gonna try it. Or this is what they're gonna do against a one-four switch, or this is what they're gonna do, whatever the case, against our ball screen coverage. So we're constantly trying to anticipate what they're going to do based on their personnel. Sometimes you're right, sometimes you're wrong. As far as zone, I remember being a young coach, and I think probably all you guys know now, I'm obsessed with learning and getting better. And I remember Coach Beilein, someone asked him, it may have been one of you guys, I don't know how old you guys are, asked him why he wasn't playing the 1-3-1 as much at Michigan as he did West Virginia, do you guys recall this? And I don't remember exactly what he said, but in essence, the passing and skill was so great in the Big Ten, it's difficult to play the 1-3-1 because guys could pass so well. And that really stood out, that against zone defenses, non-man-to-man type of coverages, we have tall guys who could really pass. I think Vlad's an underrated passer that probably doesn't get a lot of attention because of how well Danny passes it. I think Trey Donaldson, you see the passes he's making. Roddy Gale is an underrated passer. Nimari Burnett, now that he's not over-dribbling, has become a really sound decision-maker and good passer. So I think now, we threw in a lot of stuff early to look at it. You guys said yesterday, against Oakland's own, we tried a bunch of sets, we tried some different concepts. And now, it's more of just, this is where we wanna find guys. You get to this spot, you get to this spot, here's two or three ways we can do it. And now you guys figure it out, and they're figuring it out at a high level. It's because of their skill and their intelligence.

On what is Vlad Goldin's best trait he brings to Michigan

His ability to catch and finish is something that I, personally, won't take for granted. Turn on a game, and he catches these tough passes low, high, on the run, on the move. Doesn't have any idea who's behind him, what's behind him. And the way he contorts his body, and moves the ball with either hand, or he sees space, and he just, he rips the rim off. If you look at our two-point, someone texted me the other day and said, why do you guys always have such a high two-point percentage? And I had to think about it for a second. I thought, well, we always have good shooters, and we have Vlad. And so, when you have shooting, you have Vlad, you're probably gonna be a good two-point percentage team. We hope they're keeping a level head, and they're just as excited to play this game as they would be if Minnesota was 6-0. But just turn on a game. I mean, they've had some tough breaks. They've been in a position to win and just didn't make the free throw. They played well enough to win several games, and the margin is small for really all of us. And so, if the scoreboard says 99-98 versus 98-97, you feel completely different about a Potah beating Purdue. I think they were up one half, as a one-point game, one or two-point game at half, Ohio State obviously double overtime. They're in a position to win that, had some fluky stuff happen and not win that. Just like everyone else, they're a good basketball team that just hasn't found ways to win. And if we don't go up there with the mindset that it's going to be 40 minutes of fight and intensity, and us having to play really, really well, then we're gonna walk out of there with a loss.

On whether there are any metrics or marks this team can hit

I've tried to stop talking about it. I slip up about once at practice, the turnovers. I think yesterday we had 11, and I think five of them were completely unnecessary. I think six were plays we can live with. Vlad got called for a carry. I don't think I can get behind this. I don't think it was a carry. I think it was a seven-foot-one guy dribbling the ball that made an in-and-out dribble, and it looked funny. And sometimes it's a tough job for an officiating group. So there were a couple that I didn't think were turnovers. And then there were a couple that were completely unnecessary, that we threw at a guy that wasn't open, instead of just ball faking and pivoting and slowing down. So until we have that, where every single turnover is something that we can clap and say that's a great decision, great read, we just gotta do this a little bit better. And then when we're flying to the offensive glass with reckless abandon, then we're not gonna be as good as we can offensively. Cuz there are gonna be nights when we go two for 16 from three or four for 18. Sometimes the ball just doesn't go in, it's a funny game. So until we're doing those two things, but I get going on them. We're not running the lanes like we need to. We're not running for enough layups in transition. Vlad got one late, I thought that was a separator. And so when we're doing all those things, then we'll have the best offense that we can have. But those are things that we can control and we're not.

On being undefeated on the road in conference play so far

Defending and rebounding, first and foremost. And then making sure we're getting great looks. We've started off, I think the last two road games, shooting the ball well. I think Wisconsin, I can't remember the start of Wisconsin, it seems like a year ago. And then we've shot the ball well from three, and then they've adjusted, and we've been able to take advantage of the rim and the paint. So playing sound basketball. Obviously, we don't have the crowd to energize us at times. But I think maturity of our group is something else that stands out. We have a group that's been pretty steady every single game of playing a certain way.

On evaluating a team that has different leading scorers

It's a testament to the character of our guys. They continue to go to the hot end. They continue to wanna run stuff for each other. They continue to appreciate each other's talents and strengths. And those are the things, cuz once it becomes where they want it for themselves over what's best for the team, then we'll start losing games. But up to this point in early January, they're playing really, really sound, smart basketball. And every night, the ball's gonna find someone different.

*Indaudible question*

You know, that's tough. He became more of a volume guy there. They play low possession, so volume guy there is relative for us. And I think he's gonna make shots. I think the last two games, he's played really, really good basketball. And that's usually a step forward to making shots where I think when you stop thinking about shooting and you stop thinking about making shots and the ball finds you, but you see it all the time. You see a lot of guys who average 25 a game at a lower mid, and they move up, and they don't have the ball in their hands. They don't have the touches. They don't have the stuff ran for them. There's a lot of variables. And so these guys are constantly adjusting. Some really hit. Some of our guys have really hit, and then some of them haven't hit yet. But the thing about Rubin is he impacts the game in other ways. So he impacts winning, and so you continue to play him. I feel like he's close to a breakthrough. He's slowing down. He's making really good decisions. And you look at a lot of our good possessions. It's when he saw the play in advance and made the quick swing or the skip pass or whatever the case. So yeah, his shooting percentages aren't what we would like or what he would like right now. But we're very confident Walter's gonna find his level. He's almost a career 40% three-point shooter. So as long as he takes step in threes, he's gonna shoot a good percentage going forward cuz he's playing good ball.

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