DES MOINES, IOWA — Michigan melted down Sunday in losing a game to MSU it probably should have won, and as expected, they took it hard.
Head coach John Beilein admitted they still hadn’t gotten over it several hours later, even after his team was announced as a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
“I did sense they were sorry for themselves,” Beilein said Wednesday. “I said, ‘alright — we’ve got 24 hours to feel sorry for ourselves, and then we’ve got to move on. We’re one of the top eight teams in the country because we’re a two seed. We weren’t even picked in the top 25.
“’We’ve got a chance to have a great season. Don’t let that loss beat us twice.’”
They’ve only got one more opportunity now after missing two opportunities to hang a banner, and it’s the big one. The regular season and Big Ten Tournament titles are outstanding, but the Final Four is now the ultimate goal every year.
Michigan junior point guard Zavier Simpson made sure his teammates knew it, ramping up the rhetoric and the work ethic in practice. Some only talk it but Simpson lives it, one of the reasons he’s so well respected in the locker room.
“’X’ did a great job in practice. He wanted to speak to the team, but his actions showed on the court,” assistant DeAndre Haynes said. “Everything we did he’d say, 'this is not going to happen again.’ If somebody messed up something, he’s the first one in his face telling him, ‘hey, that can’t happen. Do this; do that. Sprint the floor.’
“He was getting on Jordan Poole, Charles Matthews, holding everybody accountable. It started with our young point guard, and he’s done a great job all year.”
It’s a new season essentially, he noted, and this is a team that won 28 games against some of the top teams in the country. Twenty-four of the wins were by double digits, so it’s a team that has a great shot to make the Final Four. Many are picking them to do just that.
“We’ve got a great coaching staff, a great group of players who won’t allow us to keep that suitcase. We don't keep old baggage with us,” Haynes said. “We move on to next best thing, and that’s what we do here. That’s what 'X' is doing a great job of, holding guys accountable, telling them to move on …
“He wants to win the championship. The Michigan State game hurt him really badly to lose that game. Now we’ve got bigger goals. We’ve swept that under the rug, and he’s putting the team on his back again.”
NOTES
• Freshman Ignas Brazdeikis was probably the biggest hit for the fans during Wednesday’s open practice. He took the time to sign some autographs for kids and soaked up the attention.
“I’m so excited. It’s kind of weird knowing this is going to come around tomorrow,” he said. “I’ve been thinking about this day so long, being in the tournament. I remember talking about the National Championship the first huddle we had this year when Charles said “National Champs on three” as our thing, and I couldn't wait for the tournament to start. Now that it’s tomorrow, I can’t wait.”
Brazdeikis loves the big stage, and he’s never denied it. He’s already gotten a taste of the postseason in the Big Ten Tournament, and it met his expectations.
"I always have high expectations about everything. It’s definitely exactly everything I wanted it to be,” he said. “All the lights, the attention and everything … the games. The intensity, everything is amazing. The postseason, we are having a lot of fun. Again, it would have been really nice if we’d won that [MSU] game, but we’ve got another opportunity on on one of the biggest stages in the world to show what we can do.”
First and foremost, he wants to lead Michigan to a title.
“I just want to win. I don’t care about anything else,” he said. “This is the biggest stage in the world I feel like. I just want to win and put that second [National Championship] banner in the gym.”
• Beilein said Matthews was still working himself back into shape, but that was only one reason he wasn’t on the floor late against MSU.
“I think he was so gassed in a couple of games, but Isaiah Livers is playing so well right now,” Beilein said of his sophomore. “We’ve got to continue to get this thing together so we can get the five best players on the floor at one time.”
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