Michigan Basketball: Beilein Is Wary Of Texas A&M’s Length, Zone Defense
LOS ANGELES, CA — Michigan State found out how difficult a good, long zone defense could be in losing to Syracuse in the round of 32. Michigan will also now face a team in Texas A&M that can mix up its defenses and provide some challenges with its own zone.
Junior center Tyler Davis stands 6-10, 264 pounds and sophomore Robert Williams is the same height, only 240.
There’s length at every position, and it makes it tough score, as North Carolina found out in an 86-65 drubbing in round of 32 play.
“Exact same thing as Syracuse … it's big,” Michigan head coach John Beilein said Wednesday. “It's really big. You think, okay, I've been open all year here, but all of a sudden you've got a guy like D.J. [Hogg] coming out on you and he's 6-9 on a wing. They've got the other wing is going to be 6-10 or 6-11, and that can present problems for teams, just shooting over that length. “That's what Syracuse is. Syracuse has a great package in their zone. I remember when I was at West Virginia we were playing and we had these really good looks to get open the zone. We got a guy wide open, and Hakim Warrick blocked that shot into the 10th row, and that was the end of our night. Our kids lost all confidence because of that length, and Texas A&M can do the exact same thing.”
This Michigan team, though, seems mature enough to handle such humiliation. Beilein told them before a road game at Michigan State that the Spartans would probably win the highlight reel … he implored his team to just to keep playing after a rim rocking alley-oop or blocked shot.
It worked. MSU did get its highlight reel plays, but U-M won going away, 82-72 by sticking to the game plan.
“We try to be real with them what's happening,” Beilein said. “Somebody gets dunked on it’s, ‘oh, my God, it's like the end of the world.’ No … it's two points. Go down and hit a three and we're ahead by one, right? They block the shot … hey, it's our ball. What's the big deal?
“Life today for these kids is so much about highlights and not about substance. We're just -what is really happening here? We have the ball back. So what if he blocked it? So what if he's talking smack? Just do the next right thing and don't worry about your feelings being hurt or your ego changing a little bit. Just play through it.”
He’s got a lot of faith in his group to do that. The Wolverines are 30-7 for a reason, even though he warned the fan base early in the year it would take some time for this team to jell.
With a good basketball team there is growth every day, he said, and it started in November.
“If anybody would have told me in September, October you're going to win 30 games, I would have said you obviously haven't seen us practice yet,” he said. “We're a long way from winning any games. “We really have some good, young talent on this team, developing talent. They just really want to get better, and that's a key. We've had a lot of breaks this year now. UCLA, we've got a freshman at the line. If he makes both foul shots, we go into overtime. If he misses, it's a loss to UCLA at home. That wouldn't have been good. We had a game with Maryland where we had to go to the foul line with one second left, and we won that game.
“You saw the game the other day. We've had a lot of good breaks this year, and that's what I know about this team. I've been with teams that were really good teams that had a lot of bad breaks.”
This game presents one of the biggest challenges of the year, however. A&M has 12 losses but is playing some of its best ball at the right time … and it’s playing hard and smart.
“They're very talented, and they're skilled,” Beilein said. “They pass the ball well. They're obviously a tremendous offensive rebounding team. The 12 offensive rebounds they're getting is as high a number as we've seen this year.
“The rebounding game, I don't know if I'm different on it, but we were really consumed with how many offensive rebounds we can keep a team from getting. The rebounds don't win the game. Offensive rebounds win games, so that concerns us a great deal.
“They have really good guard play and change defenses. A lot of teams have been playing a hundred percent man. They play a really good zone defense as well. They have a lot of talent, and they have a terrific coach [in Billy Kennedy].”
Which should make for a truly sweet matchup Thursday night at Staples Center.
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