Penn State Men's Basketball
Michigan Head Coach John Beilein Postgame Press Conference
vs. Michigan – February 12, 2019
Opening Statement:
This is great for Penn State and Pat Chambers, he's a good friend of mine. They've led in the second half of their last six games against really good teams, and they weren't able to win. To get a win for them just shows who they are, they're a top-100 team. All of you will make a whole lot about their Big Ten record, but just look at their scores. They're a basket or two away from being a team in the middle of our league with all those games they played. You lose to a top-100 team on the road, it's not the end of the world. At the same time, they really did a great job with preparation. Their press load was down, their switching of every ball screen was something they have not done in a long, long time. They did have three days to get ready for us, and we had a day and a half, I don't know if that made a difference. Give them credit, they were absolutely terrific today. Offense rebounds, they had seven in the first half, I think there was ten points. It's great for Penn State, it's great for our league to have a team that's in the bottom of the league beat a team that's going for a championship, that means there's great parity.
Q: Coach would you like to address the ejection?
A: I haven't been thrown out of a game since I think '78 or '79. That's about 20 years before most of you were born. You know me, I very rarely ever get a technical so I will deal with the league office going forward and see what I could do differently.
Q: Can you elaborate what the topic of discussion was with the officials at the end of the half?
A: I'll elaborate with the league office.
Q: What did you do during the second half?
A: I watched the game from the locker room, so that was painful. I did like the way we came back and fought. I kept thinking about those three points that the double technical cost us. Besides, he (Saddi Washington) did a great job.
Q: What was the halftime like in the locker room?
A: I did the halftime. I just tried to address the switching of the ball screens, the tempo they were making us play at, we had to be more aggressive, get downhill a little bit more. You think you're ready for every game plan. When you have a guy like [Lamar] Stevens, the offense we did score some points. Stopping Stevens one-on-one is really hard for us. I thought when they went small that was a really big difference for us. We had foul trouble for Iggy [Ignas Brazdeikis], he needs to avoid that better, but they were just a better team.
Q: Just to be clear, is there no comment on what led to you getting mad at the refs?
A: I'm not going to comment on that, that would not be good. There will be some pretty interesting discussions with the Big Ten office. You guys know, I do not get upset with officials.
Q: You guys seemed out of sync on both sides of the floor early…
A: Credit to Penn State, they got us out of sync on both ends. They've gone to more of a downhill attack, they're more of an isolation team. They just isolate, isolate, isolate. At the other end, their press can turn you over, and the switching of every ball screen was brilliant. In that first half we were trying to tell them what to do, and they took us out of sync at both ends. That's about Penn State. That's not about Michigan coming out here and laying an end. They were good.
Q: You guys haven't played from behind a lot this year. How do you feel you responded to being down double digits in the second half?
A: The second half was pretty darn good. After the technical, to start the second half what were we down, 16? Then all the sudden it was four. I'm really pleased with that. I wish we could have made a couple more plays, I thought we left some on the table. I certainly wish the double technical had never happened because that's three points right there.
Q: From your perspective how did Saddi [Washington] handle the second-half?
A: Great. I loved his demeanor on the bench. We came out of timeouts and ran good action. The press at the end was very, very good.
Q: Did you find yourself yelling at the TV?
A: Yeah, oh yeah. I was yelling at a lot of things.
Q: You mentioned the offensive rebounding, do you feel that was an effort issue?
A: No, I think a couple of balls didn't bounce our way a couple of times. A couple of air balls that they came in and crashed. I don't think it was effort. The ball goes up and we were waiting for them to come, they crashed their guards sometimes, which is very rare to crash your guards because you should get a fast break if you can get the ball, but they ended up getting the rebounds.
Q: With Saddi [Washington] was there a final crash course here?
A: No, we did the same meeting we always do. We met for four or five minutes. I talk with the team with five minutes to go. I said to Saddi [Washington] the coach: go get them, you can do this, and go out and get them, and I apologized to them because I was surprised.
Q: What did you see of Charles [Matthews] tonight?
A: It was good. He wants to win. There's a sense of urgency with Charles [Matthews]. He wants to have a great year this year, and he's working like crazy. I love the way he's trending right now.
Q: You went to a two-three zone there…
A: Yeah, one time and they got the offensive rebound. Good observation. We had Iggy [Ignas Brazdeikis] in foul trouble, he was taking advantage of [Jon] Teske, we thought we could try it. You may see it again.
Q: In terms of the Big Ten race, you guys had a chance to add some separation, and you know how hard the schedule gets from here on out. Do you feel like this was a wasted opportunity?
A: No, because they're good. Just look at the scores. It's two points here, four points here, two points here, they're good. They just haven't won games. It's not like they're getting blown out, and all of the sudden they come in and they're a bottom-200 team and they end up coming in and beating us. At this time of the year, teams are going to lose. You need to learn from it. If there's things that happen in this game that help us beat Maryland on Saturday, I'm all in. That's the way you need to look at it.
Q: Despite Penn State being close with other teams, they still had just one conference win, and the arena wasn't exactly packed, did you sense any difference…
A: We haven't played in front of them, but I don't think it's anything like that. They were really, really good. Don't forget they beat a really good Virginia Tech team here with the same guys, they're good. They just have been very unlucky in several games this year. They could have got Purdue easily last week. They could have gotten that game. They got Michigan.
Q: Did you expect Penn State to go to that smaller lineup in the first half, and in the second half too? What did you think of Lamar Stevens' effort on the defensive end too? He had two big blocks there.
A: He was terrific. He was terrific. They've done that, but you add their minutes up between [John] Harrar and [Mike] Watkins, they've only been playing small five minutes a game, and they went to about ten minutes. I don't know what it was in the second half, in the first half it seemed like he was in there forever. It's a bad matchup the way they were playing, and he's so talented. He's not a great three-point shooter, but he's got a tremendous mid-range game. That's something Jon Teske never has to guard. He needs to run a guy off the line. He was good. We could have gone with Iggy [Ignas Brazdeikis], but he had tough ones that happened, and another one he needs to avoid with his hand and that hurt us.
Q: You have four days before you play Maryland. Is something like this festering, can that be a good thing for this team?
A: Well it's three days. We'll have a day off and a two-day prep which is pretty normal. I just think we need rest, just watching the TV. We had an emotional win Wednesday, and now we have a game and we're traveling. A two-day prep is hard for everybody, only because of a rest factor. You don't need to rep it twice, because you're afraid if you rep it on Sunday and then you rep it on Monday, you're going to win the practice then you're not going to win the game. We're looking forward to having a day off, then having two days to look at the film, grow from it, and then get ready for Maryland.
Q: What's your advice to Jordan [Poole] right now in terms of three-point shooting?
A: I have to look at the way he shot the ball and what type of shots that he took. He's really a good three-point shooter, you just have to keep working on taking the right shots. Every guy is going to go through these times where you have one of those one-for-something games. Zavier's [Simpson] first two threes went halfway down the basket then came out. That's a big difference. They're switching, staying off Zavier, have to make those. He didn't but he came out and made two in the second half, so that's good.
Q: Do you see it as a shot selection thing, or they just aren't going down?
A: Sometimes with everybody it's a shot selection, usually if you're not knocking it down, but I trust that he's learning from that.
