Opening Statement

We're excited to be in position for this to be an extremely big game with Purdue coming in to Chrysler tomorrow. Challenge our fans to bring the energy, enthusiasm, and to create and continue to build on the home court environment that we continue to create. Tony, you want to start us off?

On whether the team leans into the revenge factor for Purdue

We don't use the word revenge, but we have to play much better basketball. We need to make some adjustments schematically, but more importantly our mindset. That was a tough night. They deserved to win how they did and I thought we deserved the result that we got that night. But we're excited to see our growth, our improvement from then until now. It's part of the process. That night a lot didn't go right for us. A lot went wrong. But Purdue caused most of it. So it's going to be a tough game, but we're excited to go out and compete.

On whether he felt that the team learned something from the loss to Purdue

We talk about it. Until you've lived it, until you've experienced it, some things you can talk about it all you want. But four minutes ago, Indiana ties the game. The four-minute media timeout is three and some change. And we come out of the timeout and go on a 4-0 run. In that environment, it was loud as it was. I'm not sure that without the Purdue experience that we handle it. We were unfazed. So I'm not sure without that experience. Maybe we do, maybe we don't. You never know. But it definitely felt like we were unfazed when the arena lit up.

On trying to give Trey Donaldson time to rest

We're trying to be creative. I think it's apparent how much he means to us. We'll continue to try to find ways to get him some breathers when he's off the ball. I'm sorry, moving him off the ball where he doesn't have to bring it up and initiate offense. Maybe he can get it back in his hands after everyone's involved and he hasn't had to do much up to that point. Continue to use the media timeouts for his breaks. I think each game's a little bit different. He played an incredible first half of basketball. I'm sure fatigue caused a little bit of a second-half performance to not be quite as great. I think it's getting incrementally better each night. He performs well a little bit for a longer duration than he did the game before.

On whether he can use a timeout for rest or saving them

That's just my opinion. I don't think it's as much physical fatigue as mental fatigue. I think just playing 40 minutes or 37 minutes with extreme focus and concentration is more difficult than him running the floor and being in a stance and cutting for 37 minutes or whatever the case.

On why a team that loses big on a road sometimes wins at home against the same team

There's a lot of factors. Sometimes it's just that night. I learned this from Henry Bibby, who I worked for at USC. We had shooters who would come off the bench and some nights they came in and the same shot, they banged in four in a row and the next two games they went 0 for 8. He talked about how even in baseball, and I played baseball as a young kid, some days your breaking ball is just not breaking. Some days your fastball just doesn't have the gas that it had the game before. I don't know why we think basketball players are any different. It might be injuries, it might be foul trouble, it might be that a group just really found a rhythm that game. A lot of it is based on making shots and missing shots. There are a lot of games where you watch the same game and if those shots go in, the game looks a lot different than if those shots are missed and then they turn them into transition baskets. A lot goes into it. In the NBA, the saying is it's a make-or-miss game. I don't think that's a fallacy. When you make shots, you set your defense, you feel good about yourself, you have positive emotions. When you're missing shots, you're probably worried about what you did wrong and this and that. I think it's human nature and that's what we're competing against every day. It's the human side of it.

On handling Purdue's pressure and stopping the run

Stopping the runs, obviously the turnovers take care of a lot of those runs. They definitely won't happen as quick. I don't want to really give up any of the schematic adjustments that we're going to make against Purdue, but without a doubt, we have to cut better, we have to screen better, we have to play with more physicality, we can't get knocked off of our spots. We've got to meet our passes better, we've got to put more on our passes. There's just a lot of fundamentals, but we need to do that going forward against anyone.

On what he liked about the lineup changes he made

I thought Rubin Jones made a lot of really nice, complimentary plays. I thought when you look at our baskets and when you go back and just isolate our good possessions, I thought he had a real role, a real key role in all of them, whether it was screening, a quick swing, whatever the case, he seemed to just function well, especially the first few minutes of the game. And then Roddy, I still think Roddy's going to have a breakthrough. He's going to have a breakthrough. He got four or five feet around the rim and it didn't drop. He continues to make big free throws down the stretch. Continuity is important. When you look around the NBA and college basketball, there's a lot of players switching teams and very few times is seamless. Obviously, Vlad had an advantage and Danny and Trey, it's been relatively seamless. How many new guys did we bring in? Eleven. Eleven new guys, and so you have two that it's been seamless for, three that's been relatively, even Vlad had some groin pains early in the year, so it's just not as easy as you're going and you're used to playing with these guys and this style and this system and this language and this everything, and so sometimes it just takes longer. It's not us. It's every team that's, you know, you look at the portal. The Indiana team has a couple guys that were all-league players, were freshman of the year, and they haven't found their consistent flow and rhythm, and a lot of it's just because it's the same thing in the NBA. These teams are making trades and it's a different lineup every night. They usually don't find their flow. There's a real synergy that comes with playing with each other and being comfortable with their teammates.

On whether there's a common thread about not staying sharp with double-digit leads

I mean, I think if you just eliminate the two or three unforced errors, the game looks a lot different, and then I thought we'd miss some great looks against their zone. Obviously, if those shots go in, it looks different. I thought Mbaka got going and made some extremely difficult shots. I thought we let Malik Renault get to his left hand a few times. That contributed to it, but I think UConn was up 26 to 10 or 12 on St. John's, and St. John's won. I mean, there's a lot of possessions. I mean, I just told Brian I'm so grateful that we're at the point where we're disappointed in margin of victory on the road at Big Ten Arenas. That's a heck of a tribute to our guys, our conversations all summer, all fall, last spring, to get to this point where you beat these teams. I mean, we've had a heck of a... Our guys, if you look at what they've been able to do on the road at Wisconsin, at both L.A.s, show me another team that goes out and wins two in L.A. against those two programs and coaches, and then find a way to win at Indiana, find a way to win at Rutgers against a team that... Obviously, we caught a little bit of a break there with Harbaugh being out. So, yeah, obviously, we would like to double our lead and triple our lead and quadruple our lead, but, I mean, we're playing against a team on the other side that they also are trying to win and come back and play well. So, we'll continue to try to be better every single possession.

On how Justin Pippen and LJ Cason deal with inconsistent minutes

Head down, work, come to practice every single day, get in the gym extra, get extra film, take care of your body. It's the characters, ultimately, what allows guys to bust through. L.J. Cason, I'm so proud of his breakthrough in the last week or two of practice because when those guys are practicing well and they have good spirit and energy about them and they continue to grow and improve, then you'll want to get them into the game. But there's 40 minutes. It's just like, I'm sure, across campus, I'm sure Coach Moore's got guys that are pretty good backup cornerbacks that are good enough to play, but there happens to be an All-American quarterback in front of them. I'm sure that our baseman, Coach Smith, has a couple good short stops and only one can play. I'm just fortunate we're on a good team, very grateful we're on a good team, and how they stay with it is you put your head down and work. There's no other choice if you want to be prepared and ready for when your number's called. It's a team sport. Those guys are young, and they contributed to us winning a big, big road game. But I'm more proud of their daily approach. It's tough. Our season's long, and when it's not happening the way you envisioned it, it's easy to lay down, but that's part of the life lessons that these guys are learning that you don't even realize it's in motion.

On balancing this season and building a program for next year and how Kyle Church fits into that equation

Well, Kyle is doing a great job of splitting his roles, of being on that side of it while also being a heck of a basketball coach and a very, very knowledgeable scout coach, very competent recruiter, and a great sounding board for me. We've been together so long that I can bounce some ideas off of him. It's not like it used to be. We're recruiting every day, but recruiting is different now. It's keeping a pulse on what's going on in college basketball. It's keeping a pulse for what's going on in junior college basketball, Division II, because there's going to be this moment, and at that moment everything's going to either hold together or guys are going to go in the other direction for a number of reasons, and you have to be prepared financially. You have to be prepared with decisive decisions. So now almost all of our focus is on our season, and to be honest the more successful we are and the better our current players play, the easier it's going to be for us to recruit. So that's why we've really invested and continue to invest the time in the gym with our guys. I'm sure if you walked in there right now, there's probably a player or two with an assistant coach getting extra work in developing their game and staying ready.

On the next stretch of games

Exciting. I mean, it's going to be fun. I mean, when you look at our schedule, and how many games do we have left, Tom? We have eight. Eight, and I think we have three on the road, five at home. Yes. And so we put ourselves in a great position. That's where you want to be in February, playing meaningful games. It should be fun. You know, obviously it's daunting when you look up and it's Purdue then at Ohio State, and then back home against Michigan State. Is that correct? Yeah, if you want to run a night's sleep, think about that before bed. But once again, I mean, it's part of the challenge. When you're in the Big Ten, you're in the SEC, you're in one of these leagues, it's not changing. I mean, you turn the page from one game to the next, and you've got a tough opponent waiting on you every single week. But yeah, these mean a little bit more because of the rivalry. So we're excited.

On the magnitude of the Purdue game on Big Ten standings

I mean, this is a very big game on a lot of fronts. Number one, to show that we can compete with one of the best teams in the country. And yes, we won a championship. We can't win the championship tomorrow. We've got to continue to improve, continue to stay the course. And I think Coach Bielan actually gave me a quote a while back about dreaming big but focusing small. I think that's well said. We're dreaming big. We want to be battling these teams at this time of year. And even Ohio State's playing great basketball. I've watched them. They're like us. They're in every single game until the end. They've won some. They've lost some. They've had some good fortune. They've had some bad fortune. But, yeah, we're certainly focusing on tweaks and nuances, how we can improve, how to stay fresh, how to stay healthy this time of year. But we're definitely dreaming big as well.

---

Discuss this article with our community on our premium message boards

Not a subscriber to Maize & Blue Review? Sign up today to gain access to all the latest Michigan intel M&BR has to offer

Follow our staff on Twitter: @JoshHenschke, @Berry_Seth14, @TrevorMcCue, @DennisFithian, @BrockHeilig, @JimScarcelli, @Jerry_Diorio

Subscribe to our podcasts: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Spotify

Check out Maize & Blue Review's video content on YouTube

Follow Maize & Blue Review on social media: Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram and BlueSky