What Opposing Coaches Said About Michigan Basketball Last Season
We rounded up significant quotes from several opposing coaches following games against Michigan basketball from last season. Many had positive things to say about Juwan Howard and the Wolverines' players, and gave insight on the challenges that their teams faced when playing against U-M.
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• Northwestern's Chris Collins: “[Junior guard Eli Brooks is] a very good player, very good player. We got it to 13, and he hit a long three. He’s just very solid. He makes shots, he handles the ball well. He’s the perfect complement to [senior point guard] Zavier [Simpson]. They’re a perfect backcourt. He’s a poised guy. He plays like a veteran guy, and he’s a really good player.
"Those guys have won a lot, a lot of games. They’ve played in big games. They’ve played in high pressure situations. So, for our young kids to kind of see their poise, to see their composure, to kind of see their toughness, to see their shotmaking and playmaking, those are great experiences for our guys as we try to strive to get back to where we want to be as a program."
• Penn State's Pat Chambers: "Simpson is one of my favorite players of all time. Not just in the last four years in the Big Ten, of all time. He's a maestro with the ball. We were just trying to do the best we could against him and get to their shooters, and we did that. He's so good at what he does and getting everybody involved and making everybody around him better.”
• Gonzaga’s Mark Few: "Every time we made a mental breakdown, they scored. They literally made us pay on every one of our assignments that we screwed up — a switch, or we screwed up a coverage, and they made us pay. So, they deserve a lot of credit for that.”
• Ohio State's Chris Holtmann: "Their length and size is really difficult to deal with. They’ve got great length, with their young guys and then you have [senior center Jon] Teske in there. I think they’ve got the best one-five combination of defenders that we’ve seen, between Simpson and Teske. They’re just fantastic."
“We’ve got a lot of respect for this Michigan team. They compete, they play hard, they’re gifted, they’re talented, I think they’re really well-coached with Juwan.
• Michigan State's Tom Izzo: "Michigan played good. Some guys hit some shots that weren’t supposed to, and I think we missed some layups that we were supposed to make."
• Iowa's Fran McCaffery: "I thought they were really good defensively. They got up into our space and really challenged us to either shoot contested shots or put it on the deck and get on the side of us, make us shoot tough twos.
"Everybody keeps asking that [the difference between Michigan under John Beilein and Howard], but I don’t know that there’s a huge difference in the sense of how they play. They move the ball, they share the ball, they defend. If you do those things, you’re typically going to be successful. Juwan’s a smart guy. He’s going to come in and insist that those guys do those same things. And, they’ve already been instilled by Coach Beilein, so give him credit for that."
• Creighton’s Greg McDermott: “As the game went on, our physicality really wore into us.
“We didn’t have an answer for Zavier Simpson, and Teske around the basket in that second half. Obviously, [junior forward Isaiah] Livers made some big shots, as well. … Tonight they were the better team.
"Simpson’s hard to control. He is who he is for a reason. I think he makes great decisions with the ball, and got us stretched out some.
"If he gets into the paint, he’s got room to make decisions, he’s going to pick your defense apart and that’s what he did."
• Purdue's Matt Painter: "[Zavier Simpson] is just a good leader, tough, a guy that embraces the moment. A guy that’s been in a lot of games, a lot of tough games, a lot of tight games. He made some huge plays for them.
"I went and watched Zavier Simpson as a recruit in high school. He’s just a winner. He won in high school, he won here. Guys that are winners, if they scored 4 or 6 points, it’s no big deal. If they have to score 24, then it’s no big deal. That’s what winning’s about. He can score, he can pass, he can will his team to victory.
"[Howard] is a good basketball guy. He’s been around basketball his whole life, obviously coming from Chicago and then playing here and playing in the NBA for 19 years. The people he’s been around with the Miami Heat … They’ve got one of the best organizations in the NBA. Being around Pat Riley and Erik Spoelstra. So, he’s worked hard. Good for him.
"Michigan’s a great school. It’s a great academic school, and he understands that and I think he’ll do great."
• Indiana's Archie Miller: "They’re tough. Their spread looks and what they do shooting, spaced out on the ball screen looks. We weren't able to get what we wanted to get done by impacting the ball. Our ability to guard the ball, especially in the second half, was non-existent.
"At the end of the day, they could set a ball screen at pretty much any point in the second half and get downhill, get a shot and do what they wanted."
• Rutgers' Steve Pikiell: “I’ve got to give Michigan credit. I know how good they are. They’ve been playing great basketball … they were ranked as high as three or four in the country. They’ve got great size and an elite point guard.
“[Sophomore forward Colin Castleton] came in and gave them great minutes. They’ve got a terrific bench. All of those guys are capable of playing a lot of minutes at a lot of places. He came in and he’s got tremendous length, gave them some good minutes. [Sophomore forward] Brandon Johns, the last time, he killed us in Madison Square Garden … he came off the bench but doesn’t play a lot. Austin Davis, the big kid, is shooting 85.7 percent from the floor … phew. That’s a huge percentage.”
• Illinois' Brad Underwood: "We had anticipated them having Isaiah, and I think the one thing that he proved early was that he is probably one of the top pro prospects in our league. That size, that versatility. He was shooting at a very high level. I thought Juwan had done an incredible job of kind of piecemealing it together without him and playing together, playing big with Davis stepping into some situations. But, they lose a very, very talented player; obviously, one of the most talented guys in the league.
• North Carolina’s Roy Williams: “Michigan … give them credit. Juwan has done a really nice job with that team. The most impressive thing to me is he’s taken some of the guys that played for John Beilein that were important to John and they guarded like crazy, they shared the ball, they shot three-point shots, and Juwan has embraced that and hasn’t shied away from trying to be the man that, ‘I can make every decision.’
"John Beilein’s a really good coach, and I just commend Juwan for doing that and putting his own little part into it with more screens on the ball than they’ve ever set in the past, the toughness defensively. Last year, they were one of the best defensive teams in the country and they’ve continued to do it with Jon Teske and those guys bothering every shot around the rim. The guards get after you and make it difficult for you to go where you want to go.”
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