Michigan head coach John Beilein is asking for patience from his team once again … and he’s earned it.
U-M has won the last two Big Ten Championship games, been to two NCAA Title games in six years and continues to reload with young talent. This year’s team will be young, but Beilein likes what he’s seen through 17 practices.
“We have 11 more to go, plus an exhibition game and a scrimmage,” he said. “We've made great progress from what anybody saw this summer, if anybody saw us even practicing earlier this year. There are still some days where we really look like we're really missing Muhammad-Ali [Abdur-Rahkman], Duncan [Robinson], Jaaron [Simmons] and Moe [Wagner], and then there are other days where I say, ok we could be all right.
“That’s about as positive as I’ll get this time of year. But if you look at our scores from last year … you’re going to see some junk early in the season. We’re trying to get our guys ready for everything we can get ready for. We’ve had a couple slight injuries, but everybody’s back to health right now.”
Redshirt junior Charles Matthews and sophomore Isaiah Livers have had slight sprains, but they were back to practice Monday. Others have been able to show what they could do in their absence, and Beilein has been pleased.
“It sort of has led to where we’re going to play some people,” he said. “You’ll see some of that today, but it could change like that with an injury, or just if somebody starts really playing well.”
He loves the kids he’s got, he added.
"They're a great group to coach. Every day it's like no agendas, just let's go play basketball and let's improve as a team,” he said. “I know I say this every year and somehow it continues to grow, but it's probably the most difficult schedule that we've had, and when you add in that the guarantee games don't look like guaranteed wins, they look like teams with everybody back, where anyone could sneak up and get us. So we have some real challenges and we're going try to be up for them."
Some of the best of what we picked up at Media Day:
• Sophomore point guard Eli Brooks has been one of the most pleasant surprises in the early going. He’s shooting as well as anyone not named Jordan Poole, and the offensive flows when he’s on the floor.
“He handled it last year really well … it was hard for him to go back on scout team when he didn’t get reps, but he’s been one of our best players this fall,” Beilein said. “Really good. I don’t know if he’ll be the backup at point or more at the two, but he’s going to be on the court.
“He’s shot the ball as good as anybody on the team. He talks on defense. One of the reasons he played was he understood flow, and then defensively he talked the other freshmen into where they should be. He just sees the game slower than others … he’s really having a good fall.”
• Livers has been good defensively since he arrived, but Poole has been the pleasant surprise in that area this year.
“Isaiah is shooting the ball better, and defensively he’s a very bright young man He’s very bright in school, thinks the same way defensively,” Beilein said. “He sees things around him and educates the other guys. That’s the biggest thing.
“He probably has more of a sense of a veteran than a lot of sophomores would have. Jordan Poole is doing the exact same thing. They’re talking to their teammates like veterans.”
Poole has also elevated his game on offense. He hasn’t failed one shooting test yet, Beilein noted — and there have been 30 or 40 — and he’s playing with much better pace.
"I think you guys will really like his pace. I don’t now what you'd call it last year. He was full go making a play, like a grenade was going to blow up in his hand. He really has a patience about his game, and what I really like is what he's done on defense so far. He’s buying in. If you are going to play on this team, Charles and Zavier are not going to let you not play defense. Jordan and Isaiah have been the same way, and Jon Teske has been the same way. That group right there has a chance to start, and that is a good group of defensive players."
• Three freshmen are going to have the chance to play immediately. Ignas Brazdeikis will be hard to keep off the floor, while forward Brandon Johns and point guard David DeJulius are also in line to play.
"Iggy's been such a pleasure to coach. The kid wants to be such a good player, and for a player that's so highly rated, a player that is so college-ready to play, he's a sponge,” Beilein said. “You just say, okay, this is a guy, you know -- the Hardaways, the LeVerts, the Stauskas' -- the guys that just came in and were sponges. That's really good for all of us to coach. It's 'yes, sir' and 'no, sir', and I just really love coaching him.
“He's got a chance to play right away … could be in the starting lineup even. We'll wait and see what happens, but he's doing a really good job."
Johns and DeJulius are pretty much in the same boat in that they’re still learning.
“Every day … there's something new to consider, there's a new way people play us, there's a new way we have to guard, and that just takes some time,” Beilein said. “They're very much like Isaiah and Jordan last year at this time, but they're working hard. They both have to learn what winning basketball really looks like at this level. They know what it's supposed to look like at the high school level; now they've got to learn what's at this level.
"David is a bowling ball, can get into the lane, wards off people with his body, is doing a great job shooting the ball. He's tape delayed by everything that comes at you defensively and offensively we can see during the year.
"Brandon has got to use the body. He's doing it a little bit more right now. Isaiah went in and dunked it on somebody the other day, Brandon chose to do a runner and missed it. It's very simple. You've got to go in and use that God given talent. And he will. He’s a great kid"
Freshman center Colin Castleton and frosh wing Adrien Nunez have been one step forward, one step back.
“It’s like a Moe Wagner thing. One minute it’s what was I thinking [recruiting him], that they really have a long way to go,” Beilein said. “The next thing just like Moe it’s, oh, that’s why he’s here.
“Both are making great strides. Steps back and but forward, but this freshman group I really like.”
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