Radio Replay - Inside Michigan Basketball (Mar. 2)

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On Friday at Illinois and the women setting themselves up for a chance to do what the men

did last year from the same spot and the same arena from a three-seed after one of the

best seasons in the Big Ten in program history to maybe a Big Ten tournament championship.

We've got the national champ, Terry Mills here.

Let's start with that men's victory at Illinois, Michigan becoming the first team since

the 2014 Wolverines to win at Brezlin, at Mackie, and then at State Farm Center in Champaign.

Not just to do it, but to do them all by double digits and shoot the Illinois one might

have been the most comprehensive of the three.

Yeah, well, I tell you what, leading into that game, there was a lot of naysayers basically

saying in so many words that Michigan can afford to lose this game and didn't worry about

trying to win one of those other games.

That's how much confidence they gave Illinois that win in that ball game.

But me as a player, I'm saying, hey, you be greedy and you get it over with right now.

You don't let that hang in the balance.

So good to see the Wolverines going there and winning that hostile environment.

Let's face it, there is something to be said for what Michigan has a chance to do this

week.

No question.

The Sunday game against Michigan State.

That always has some extra added juice to it.

But if Michigan takes care of business and wins both and Nebraska loses either at UCLA

on Tuesday night or home against Iowa on Sunday, Michigan will win the Big Ten by four

games.

And then we'll be back to the end of back to when there were around 10 teams in this

league.

Now 18 with a West coast trip in there as well.

That is an opportunity worth playing that that Thursday game, it's meaningful, even if

it doesn't change where Michigan will finish.

Yeah, because you're setting yourself up for a place in history right now.

I mean, that's what you have to be have a stake.

This is not a game where you just want to take off and say, we're going to experiment.

We're going to do this and that.

I think these players are hungry.

You want to be playing your best basketball and right now Michigan is playing some of their

best basketball, getting ready to go into the term.

Both programs are the women able to bounce back from probably their worst showing, at least

in Big Ten play on the road in Iowa last weekend to win a thriller in Columbus, over Ohio

state and then knock off Maryland at home in such a special day.

Caitlin Flaredy's Jersey lifted to the rafters a whole lot of pomp and circumstance scene

your day as well.

Yeah, Michigan, what they were able to do on the women's side, tremendous.

Yeah, I think going into Iowa, hostile environment, I think they really got shook there.

And when you get shook in those type of games, there's almost a chance for you to push the

reset button and get a dose of reality that, hey, this could happen and we need to be

on top of our game.

And to see them bounce back with two ranked opponents, the way that they did shows that they're

playing their best basketball at the right time of the year.

And it will be the women as the three seed in Indianapolis.

They'll face either Maryland or the winner of Purdue, Oregon.

Those two teams play late Wednesday.

The Terps get the winner of that one on Thursday.

So it could be a rematch for the Wolverines against the Terps and then maybe just maybe if

seeds hold Michigan and Iowa would square off in the second semi final, you'd have to imagine

that Kim Barnes, Rico and company would love a second chance at the Hawkeyes on a neutral

floor with a chance to go to a Big Ten fight.

You can't get ahead of yourself, but I'm quite sure that there's a lot of fans, even

myself who are kind of looking for that match up to happen once again for Michigan to go

out and redeem themselves, but you got to take care of business first.

And obviously you see on the other side of the bracket undefeated in Big Ten play just

one loss overall.

So the Bruins will be quite the challenge.

We are here on inside Michigan basketball.

We've got both head coaches for you to break down for the men.

This final week of the regular season upcoming and for the women that opportunity in Indian

apolis, three games in three days, potentially for coach, Rico and the Wolverines will come

back.

Dusty May standing by here on inside Michigan basketball from Learfield.

Let's talk to Michigan men's basketball after clinching the Big Ten title on Friday

at Illinois.

And obviously dealing with some adversity that we learned on Saturday, coach May is with

us.

And with that adversity.

And most importantly, as these last couple of days have gone, the news has come out about

LJ and his torn ACL.

How is LJ doing mentally, emotionally and what's probably been a whirlwind last 72 hours

for that young man?

Yeah.

He's handling it as well as you possibly can for the time timing and the situation.

But we just got to look at it as something positive that this allows him to learn a game

at a higher level to dive into the film piece, to work on his body, to work on his mental.

Because I mean, does anyone who's played professional basketball knows that the mental compared

to physical is there's a drastic difference in how successful you are to your mental aptitude

and capacity.

So we refuse to look at it as, you know, it stinks, but we got to move forward and he's been

great.

He knows he's got a tough road, but he's got a lot of people that are supporting him.

He does feel the love from the Michigan fans and people that have a lot of respect for

him.

So I think the national media, the local media, everyone and obviously the fans have made

him feel really, really good about what he's done up to this point.

Well, there's no doubt he has an excellent support staff around him and that's going to help

him going forward.

Do you have a timetable on, I know he wants to be around the team on when that surgery

is supposed to take place and will he be able to go, because I know right now I've dealt

with new injuries and they're worried about getting a swelling down before, you know,

they worry about surgeries and things like that.

Yeah, we've floated out a couple of different scenarios, but nothing's been decided yet.

We want him to be with, with this guy as much as possible.

So we're trying to schedule everything around where he could still experience all of this

and especially factoring that he, it was such a big part of us getting for us being

in the position that we're in.

And you mentioned how this can in the long term help him.

How in the short term can LJ still impact winning be a positive influence around the team

as they get ready for this last week of the regular season in the postseason play?

Well, I think from a big picture, it keeps guys from taking this for granted that it

could all be taken away today at the drop of a hat.

And, you know, just make sure that you're enjoying what you're doing every day and you're

bringing your best attitude and there's a level of gratitude that comes with this.

And so I think there's a lot of lessons that can be learned and we're going to rally

around him and lean on him and probably put him to work doing some scouts even.

Yeah, not that this team needed to be motivated, but as you just said, you're trying to find

positive zenith and I think that this would definitely motivate the team.

I don't know what the rally cry is, but if it's win one for LJ, let's win it for LJ if

that's the rally cry.

I don't know.

I know this is a player lead team and they've got off the mat and they've done a lot of positive

things when it was, hey, let's go out and win this for my rest.

Let's go out and win this one for Rada, you know, so I'm looking for good things to happen.

No question.

So they'll rally around LJ, they really respect him and are going to miss him, but this will

be certainly something that we can, like you said, rally around and find some positive

in it.

Feels like this team, this roster, this staff is uniquely qualified to handle something

like this and injuries are a part of basketball, but how have the frequency and the fluidity

that you've adjusted lineups played with different groups had a lot of balance to your

lineups helped when, you know, likely you're going to have to really push other guys a little

bit more.

Now, a nine man rotation might be down to eight.

How does the past experiences help get this team ready now for a rest of a season without

LJ being able to play?

I think certain systems styles of play wouldn't be able to handle this, but because we're

much more free-flowing, we do play a positionless game.

We don't stop to get organized and get five guys in their spots.

It's more of concepts and actions.

And so the guys don't have to change the roles that much.

Now, the point guard is, you know, and obviously, Ellie, it's different because he's a wizard

with the ball.

So we're constantly trying to get him in position to make decisions for our team.

And so it's a little bit different.

But with the rest of the guys, they're all able to play make.

They're all able to create the advantage and read the defense.

But from a point guard standpoint, we need somebody who just gets our calls and gets

us organized on blobs and slabs and our defense.

But for the most part, roles won't change that much simply because of the way we play.

Now, there will be more opportunity for Roddy and Trey and Namari to play through more

mistakes and have a little bit bigger role as far as shot creation and whatnot.

But for the most part, nothing really changes.

You know, just we've had to battle foul trouble.

We've had to battle some of the things we've been very lucky with injuries this year.

But we're equipped to pick up the slack.

Yeah, you talk about positionless basketball.

I think the nail on the head there, what positionless basketball here, people all the time

can plan about what Michigan switches too much.

Michigan does this and that's it.

You wish you had a team that could switch all players, you know, where you got yaks being

able to guard a point guard.

But I mean, that's a luxury, in my opinion.

Yeah, I haven't heard that one from anybody other than dinosaurs.

So if somebody told you that, I'm sorry, I'll take a little shot at them.

I think most of the modern basketball community, that's probably the same group that says we

need to shoot some more of those 35% to share from about 12 to 18 feet that statistically

are the worst shot in the history of the game.

And so we'll just, yeah, we'll chalk that up as just a lack of education.

Well, no one like that listens to this show.

It's inside Michigan basketball, head coach Dustin, we'll come back, talk more about Michigan's

title, clinching win at Illinois and a whole lot more here from Learfield.

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Go blue.

The rest of you may with us, Michigan get ready for the final week of the regular season

at Iowa on Thursday home against Michigan State to wrap things up on Sunday.

As you think back to Friday, had a couple of days to marinade on what was another outstanding

performance from your team on the road, ten and oh now, in true road games, what stood

out, what impressed you most on the film watch of that win against the Alina on Friday

night?

I thought we challenged it from a defense standpoint.

We challenged every catch, we challenged every dribble.

I thought our defense rebounding was very, very sound and when you factor in what we were

able to hold them to the points per possession, the total score and now factor in that they

scored two threes in the last minute when we were up 20 and then they scored five points

on five on four situations when LJ was hurt.

When you take those, when you take that into account, our defense was elite and then offensively,

we generated good shots.

I thought our power around the rim.

I thought our second shots were the ones we were able to get in the second half, especially

where momentum changing plays and I just thought we got great contributions from so many

guys, you know, elite was awesome and die and Marez, you know, those guys, Yaxel's defense.

I thought in the Marri had a real sound game and then we went with a huge lineup and

Tray McKinney hits a couple of big threes and it showed his confidence in himself that

after his first shot in a second half, he came back and didn't hesitate on the next

couple, which also showed a great belief that the teammates have in him and so we just

got, Will Cheddar, I thought played a really good floor game so when you can go down the

list and everyone brought their own stuff to the table, then usually you're going to play

pretty well and I thought our guys did that.

You mentioned the big lineup with Tray, Will and the big three.

Was that circumstantial to Illinois or was that a byproduct of LJ not being able to finish

that game that obviously is uniquely?

We saw you unveil the Will Danny Vlad, not maybe unveil, but go to it for the most you

ever had gone to it in the Wisconsin Big Ten title game last year.

Was that an Illinois specific thing or just kind of flow of the game that you guys decided

to experiment with?

It was a flow of the game.

We definitely didn't go into the game saying we were going to play that lineup, but we

needed shooting.

I thought the size bothered Illinois and made them hard and made it more difficult to

attack our switches and I thought Will Cheddar, his ability to guard the basketball one-on-one

has also been something that a lot of teams go at him assuming that they can beat him

6.8.

He's not the best athlete.

He's a good athlete, but he's not the best athlete, aren't he?

So a lot of teams have went at him and he's really held his own, staying in front of

the ball, enforcing tough shots, but then on offensive side, his floor spacing certainly

helps.

Illinois will put their shot blocking center on someone that they perceive as the least

dangerous guy and let him roam around and try to block shots and protect the rim.

They were doing that at times, so we felt like if we played Will a little bit more, they

wouldn't be able to let a big Z float around and block shots and I think of memory service

correct.

He's fifth or sixth in the country and block shots coming off the bench, so it's obviously

a nice weapon for them.

Yeah, they really couldn't find that matchup to kind of expose.

Coach Underwood's one of those coaches to me of an NBA mindset.

When something's working, we're going to keep running it till they figure it out.

Your team never gave me a chance to find out who's the weak link to go at because they

took those one on one challenge as personal.

Yeah, Terry, you said they do a really nice job of adjusting their offensive attack for

the personnel.

For example, we played them at FAU.

They played the, I call it daddy ball where you just back down, back down, get as close

as you can and try to overpower the defense.

My wife calls it booty ball.

I used it a lot with the kids in the backyard playing when they were growing up, so winning

was always the objective, so when you look at the way Illinois plays now, they constantly

attack a weak matchup, and that's one of the things about our team.

When you look out, we're able to switch, keep bodies on bodies level you off, and we don't

really know who they're going to try to attack because we have so much confidence in each

of our defenders.

And we even go into the game saying, hey guys, we'll know what the other team thinks about

your defense based on how did they attack us because we're not sure because we don't

see a defensive weak defender or a weak link in our group.

They did go in a mario a couple times early and he got a strip, he got a steal, he held

a zone.

And I think when you prove over time, you can get a couple stops in those situations,

then they stop going at it, and I thought that was a big part of our defensive success

was the mario getting those stops early, and that seemed to be a primary point of attack

for them.

Yeah.

When this team is dialed in on that scouting report, I think they're a hard team to be knowing

Illinois is coming in at this game, they beat you to death on the boards.

And one thing about that particular game on the scouting report, you can't say, well,

we need to block that guy out and block that guy out.

No, you better block out everybody because they're sending all five.

It's yeah, the decision parts easy, the execution parts difficult because they are big, they're

physical, and it's part of their DNA.

They do it as well as anyone in the country.

There's a lot of times when they send five, everyone but the shooter is crashing, and

so it allows you to get a few baskets and transition offensively if you can secure

the ball.

But it also just, there's no breaks, five guys have to defend, they might be isolated,

they might be spaced, and then they've got to find a way to get a hit and find the ball.

And I thought our guys overall did a really nice job of playing with great physicality,

but also quickness to the ball.

I thought, you know, when you look at what happened to us versus Duke and Duke had a lot

to do with it, we didn't get to those 50, 50 loose basketballs like we did at Illinois.

And to be honest, it's probably the difference in the game.

If we got them against Duke, we probably win.

If we don't get them against Illinois, we're probably lose.

And so you do all this stuff through scouting and preparation.

And a lot of times when you're going against another highly, a very highly capable team,

it usually comes down to those margins, the loose basketballs and hustle plays.

And I thought our guys made them quick loopback.

Who of the three sons, Jack, Chuck, and Eli beat you first at a youngest age in booty slash

daddy ball?

I would quit as they were on the cuss.

Oh, smart.

I would move on to the next guy.

Okay.

So yeah, my career record against the May boys is usually Eli and I were always, it was

always two on two versus Jack and Charlie.

We have a very high winning percentage and a lot of it was because the two on two back

down is very effective against a nine year older or 12 year older, whatever the case.

Once it got to be a quad to a quad one game, you decided to decide to redo.

Once it became a quad one game, I changed my schedule.

He lost me as smart as smart as why you've climbed so much in basketball.

Speaking of great defense from a veteran against an undersized player, how about Yaxx and his

ability to defend guards really saw it at times.

You mentioned post game that there were times where, where Yaxx went rogue and said,

no, I'm not switching.

I want whether it was Wogler or somebody else.

How have you seen his defensive intensity skill set improve here in recent weeks?

Just his, his, the care factor his want to, I mean, he wants to guard the best and he

wants to lock them up and sometimes it's, it's, I don't say this wrong way, but he

waved off a couple of switches and as teammates didn't know, he was going to wave them off.

So it hurt us in that moment.

And so we simply had to remind him that this is Michigan versus Illinois.

You've shown what you're capable of.

He's done your job.

And now the, the next part of the job is to not allow that pick and pop three or whatever

the case.

So, but it was all from a good place.

And I thought, I thought Wogler felt him for 40 minutes, the, the him playing as close,

him bumping him, you know, not reach you having this one, not try to steal the ball to

simply just have a, a wearing, wearing down effect on him and just the fact that a guy

is heralded as Yaxx wants to play like that is a, is a testament to, to our team wanting

to do whatever takes to win.

Yeah, coach, you usually come out and get your normal little look to kind of find out

what you're going to face and what you're up against.

And it was a crowd.

There was a ruckus.

Uh, they started on Rez early.

Coach Rez performed and his performance done all the talking, but I feel like you are,

you are a buffer for guys when they start to attack them.

Because soon as you come out, they go into immediately.

It's like, wait, the coach get out here.

They're going to start like, hey, Dusty, when they're all over you.

Yeah.

Yeah, Twitter, uh, Twitter has a way of, of, of making, uh, an odd narrative become

reality or social media in general.

And so yeah, I've been able to, uh, I, I guess, uh, take a lot of the shots and, and

I'm welcome to do that.

And none of that bothers me.

Um, I am sometimes a little bit surprised when people are standing five feet from me

and some of the things they say around families and kids and things like that.

But I'll usually just chalk that up to, uh, to, to liquid courage or beer muscles,

especially on a late night game like that.

But it, you know, it's, it's part of what makes college basketball what it is.

Like I, it's, it's never offensive, um, as long as the, the, the, the families around

aren't offended by it.

And I don't care.

But yeah, I'm, I'm welcome to take the shots for our players.

But, you know, they're not, they're unfazed by it too.

So I think it's, uh, our guy said a great example of, of just taking all of that and

not taking a personal because usually when the buzzer sounds, those same people are saying,

hey, great game.

That was fun.

You guys are really good.

So it's never really personal.

They just, they want their team to win and it's part of sports and, uh, you know, it,

it doesn't bother me.

Yeah.

And I mean, how, how could you, uh, uh, Brian and I had a conversation and I was like,

Riz is one of the, one of the best people you could ever be around.

And I said, if they took a poll and ask how many people actually liked him,

it'll be in the high 90s as opposed to how they treated him when we first got there with,

with the bulls.

I mean, he didn't leave on bad terms.

I mean, is this not, I think if you just flip and say how many of you people that are

screaming at him would love to have him playing on your team right now, I think that

would be 100%.

And so it's the same thing across the board.

If they're yelling at you, would, would, if they're yelling at you with that much

vitriol, they probably would rather you be on their team than, than, uh, the opponent.

Not the most scientific approach, but there was a late night show way back, uh, Robinson

Keno signed with the Mariners after being in New York.

So a late night show put a, a, a, like a fat head of Robinson Keno and a Mariners,

Jersey and boot him and Keno was standing behind him.

And once he walked out after they were booing him, all of them wanted to say,

hi, take a picture, all that.

We could do that with Marez with some of those signs from, from Friday.

100% those kids would all, once, once the contest is over, they would for sure.

That reminds me of, uh, the Seinfeld episode.

I haven't watched Seinfeld because it was always on in the afternoon reruns when I was

at practice or whatever the case, but I'm a big curb.

You're enthusiastic as a fan.

So set now sometimes on Reels, there's a Seinfeld clips.

And there's one where Steinbrenner shows up at George Costanza's parents house.

And he's talking about what a hard worker was.

And George's mom's like, are you sure you're talking about George?

And then George's dad goes in on Seinfeld or about a trade the previous year.

Like, why, why would you trade this guy?

He had a hundred RBI's, blah, blah, blah.

So I think it's kind of that we're like a lot of those fans.

Wish Marez was still on their team doing what he does.

Yeah.

Oh, we won the World Series last year.

Yeah.

In six games.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I would say, I would say the one thing, exactly the one thing that I probably regret out

of that whole thing was I wanted, we were working at the time.

I wanted to go purchase those two posters that they had of Marez and actually present

them to his mom and say, Hey, you came to Michigan and this is what we came to do.

Here's these for you.

Off subject was Reza's dad sitting core side.

I think so.

Okay.

Well, that's what Reza said.

He said he came up with a friend of his head, core side seat.

So he was a core side.

And I said, um, that's a relief because if he was in the middle of student sections,

we were worried about big res during the game.

So I think that's the best place for him.

But yeah, I think that's a mutual respect from the fans.

100% one more quick, second with Dusty Maywood.

We come back here on inside Michigan basketball from Learfield.

A little bit less than 10 minutes away.

Kim Barnes, Rico stopped by to talk about the women's big 10 tournament coming up.

Dusty May with us for one more segment.

Now a chance a little bit of a quote break in terms of games played Friday night

again till Thursday.

How have you handled the lead up to this point and getting ready for the trip Wednesday

and then the game Thursday against the Hawkeyes?

Well, we took Saturday and Sunday off as a group of majority of the guys came in

for a lift for shooting for film, whatever the case, whatever they needed on their own.

And now we'll get back after today.

It is spring break.

So there's a little bit more time we can do some team building stuff.

We can have some dinners and meals together.

But you know, it's more of a mental break heading to the home stretch.

And that was one of the pivotal things last year.

This time we were able to kind of get a reset and figure some things out.

And it propelled us into the big 10 tournament championship and the sweet 16 appearance.

So we're optimistic that this is at the right time again.

You know, a few weeks ago, I think about the before the due game, I felt like our guys

were probably going to be a little bit tired because of our travel.

And we cut some some bad breaks on that front.

But now it just seems like this is the right time for us to kind of take a step back,

recharge, focus on us for a day and then dive into IOM work extensively tomorrow

and figure out a way to beat those guys because they're really, really good.

Yeah, they're there.

It's all a basketball team and it starts with vintage skirts.

I mean, they run everything through him.

Probably going to be a much slower tempo type of ball game.

And we go from a high tempo game to a low tempo game to a game like Minnesota, where they're playing zone.

So that's just the adjustments that you have to make and the professionalism you have to have.

Yeah.

And we learn from Minnesota in Illinois, the three consecutive teams that are all extremely slow tempo-wise,

low possession games.

And we've tried to find different ways to not allow them to play that slow against us and not to ball

us down.

And we've gotten better from game one to game two.

And hopefully from game two to game three, we'll be even more creative and better at just

maintaining our tempo and our pace, our least some variation of it versus playing and the slow down

half course segmented game like these these these teams do, but been a start to special.

We've learned a lot from watching him.

He's going to be a tough, tough cover.

And there was a moment.

I think it was the Oregon game when Elliot Cado and the second half found a rhythm and he was,

he was, he was doing, he was dicing up the defense.

And I looked at one of the assistants and said, don't let me call anything other than this or this.

We're going straight been at Sturx and let Elliot go for the rest of this game.

And you know, that's how it is.

He's, he creates a lot of offense for his teammates and for himself.

And he's, he's really, really good coach.

Appreciate the inside as always.

And we'll talk to you Thursday, down in Iowa City.

Got thanks guys.

There is Dusty May will come back with Kim Barnes, Rico as we continue here on Inside Michigan

basketball from Learfield.

And now we talk Michigan women's basketball with head coach Kim Barnes,

Rico quite the week.

So where does your mind take you first after all that took place on and off the court?

Oh my gosh.

It was such a, such a busy week, but such an incredible week.

You know, prior to this week, we were heading into a stretch with four top 15 programs.

And for us to come out three and one with our only loss being on the road at Iowa,

but going on the road to Columbus and winning that game, beating Michigan State,

and then coming home and finishing the season with the win against Maryland,

what an incredible stretch.

We're playing some of our best basketball.

I thought we played great on Saturday.

And then also just a special opportunity to honor Caitlin Flarety and the legacy that she

has left on our program and also our senior class.

Yeah, considering how well your team has been playing, coming down the

stretch, I'm going to say this, you didn't say it.

So I don't want people to get ahead of themselves.

This is Terry Mills.

This is Terry Mills saying this, did you get a chance to participate in the Caitlin Flarety,

which your team being up 15 in the ceremony?

No, I mean, I, um, you know, I, I got to spend some time with Kate.

I didn't really get to participate too much in the ceremony.

But the post game ceremony, I certainly did get to participate in with

Caitlin, with her family, with our seniors and their families and our entire team.

It's awesome.

It's so cool.

Let's go back to the Ohio State game from a, from a basketball standpoint to start.

Have you, can you compare that to any game you've been to when you consider how it

played out, the matchup, the rivalry, all of that over time, anything like that in your

life?

I've been coaching for a long time and that one is right up at the top, for sure.

Silo Swartz said it best in her post game, um, press conference.

When she said, you know, we think we have faced every possible situation this year.

And then we had tonight happen and just another situation that we could have never

imagined that we would be in.

So we are battle tested.

We have been in a lot of different type of situations with a young team and for us

to learn these end of the game situations with time outs, without time outs,

sideline out of bounds, baseline out of bounds, full court, like every possible

situation to be down to come back to be up to go down to come back.

We've kind of lived it all and that Ohio State game was just absolutely unbelievable.

But what a comeback down eight with a minute and a half to go in the, in over time

after, you know, most of America thought we had it one in regulation.

So just a game of swings, but the perseverance of our team was incredible.

Yeah, coach, if I had here, it'd be great because I listened to Matt part

until I got home and when I got home, I caught the end of the game.

And I said, the ladies never let me down on having a close game or keeping me on the

wire. Uh, but like you say, what a game.

But can you talk to me a little about what Brown can do for us?

Macy Brown. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh.

Um, I don't know.

I haven't seen the hair though.

You look, you look, you look, you look good without it.

But Matt Park, Matt Park on the radio is amazing.

I hear I go back and just try to listen to him sometimes because he, he,

like lives and dies every play.

It's so emotional and, and you can kind of hear it through the radio.

So he's unbelievable.

But Macy Brown, wow, um, she has shown the ability to do that a little bit

earlier this year when we were at a work in and one at a work in and over time.

And then the ice in her veins to make the plays and the confidence to take the

shots down the stretch.

She had been playing well in that game prior to the over time.

And I think there were three or four players on our team that were fouled out

at that point in time.

And she just had the confidence to make the plays.

And the first one was smooth.

And the second one bounced up, bounced again and went in.

You know, we feel like this year we've been on the other side of that a few

times with the bank shots that people make against us down the stretch.

But for us to get the ball to bounce our way, um, was pretty special.

And for someone like Macy Brown, a Michigan kid, a kid that kind of buys into

a role, a kid that works incredibly, incredibly hard every single day, um,

and just is ready for her opportunity.

When her name was called, that was Macy Brown.

Yeah, you talked about it.

And I'm saying as players file out, I'm kind of like, where are we going to

get some offense right now?

This is what I'm saying as I'm watching the game and it all said, and I

seen that first one going, I said, well, that's what we're going to get

an offense from.

Yes, Terry.

Yes, I'm jumping and screaming at the TV and I'm like, I know what

shots you're talking about.

We went in and out and went back in.

Yeah.

Cause I'm always that kind of a believer that usually that first team

the scores in overtime comes out and like, no, no, I'm not.

We shifted it, Terry.

We shifted it.

You sure did.

We shifted it.

We made you a believer in the other way.

That's, that's the goal.

Uh, take us through the final place.

So you tie it up with that.

And then you go with, with the player who came up with a career high in

Olivia Olson, uh, take us through that final sequence where she got the game

winner on Wednesday night.

Yeah, we got the ball back.

We called time out.

We advanced and we had a sideline at a, at a bounce play.

And we've had, we've been in this situation many, many times this season.

Silas made a ton of threes when we've been in this situation.

But it was a tie game.

We didn't need a three.

Um, so we decided to go in a different direction.

And, um, we were going to run something.

We were actually going to go inside to Olivia because she was doing such a

great job of posting up and she had a great match up inside.

Well, we were a little bit nervous of throwing it immediately in there because

we thought she was going to be crowded right away off the initial pass.

So Alyssa Crockett, who was in the game during that time.

A senior on our team, a team that's been with us, a, a player that's been

with us forever, um, battled through a lot of injuries last year.

And she kind of became our assistant coach on the sideline last year.

She goes, coach, just put me in a ball screen.

They're, they're really struggling with the ball screen action.

She said, just have a live run off my ball screen.

I said, oh, great, Crockett.

So we inbounded the ball to live, ran her off Crockett's ball screen, got

right downhill and got a layup, a semi contested layup.

But Olivia was making was making it on that night, making, making it on

most nights. Um, so that was, that was the end of the game play.

Did, did she come up right to you or was that in the timeout circle when you,

you had already kind of gotten into it?

When did the Crockett, uh, action come in?

Yeah. So we were, so we usually set up that way.

Um, we were going to bring probably somebody else and try to keep live

down low and she's like, I, I think we can run her out there really struggling

with the ball screen.

So it was in the hot all, you know, um, she's like, they're really struggling

with that. And I said, you know what, you're right.

Let's, let's slide her up here, run her off to her right hand and let her get

downhill. We'll put silent in the corner, um, lives corner.

So if they help on the ball side, she can kick to silent and then Crockett,

you screen and you fill behind her.

If they help off of you, she can hit behind you, but Liv's going to try to get

downhill and she did that just that.

It was awesome.

But I, but I, you know, we, we've been giving a shout out to Crockett all

week because, you know, that's kind of what it's about too.

When we talk about, you know, understanding your role and being a part of

something special and making an impact in our program and Crockett has had

a tough career, whether that's injuries, illness, different things that she's

battled through for four years.

But boy, she made a great play for us the other night.

Yeah, coach, what do you feel has shifted for your team?

Every since the loss up in Iowa, the second quarter of the Ohio State game

going forward, you guys have been playing some of your best basketball.

Yeah, Terry, I think Iowa, um, at Iowa, you know, I don't know how you, who

you guys would compare it to.

Maybe it's at Purdue or at Indiana.

Um, it's one of the most challenging places in our league to play.

And it just seems like we've played there on, you know,

Caitlin Clark, record breaking, setting night.

Then this last time we played there at 11 o'clock on a Sunday on their senior

day, um, just the environment and the crowd and how emotional it was for Iowa

that day, um, really caught us, I think off guard.

And we talk about life in the big 10 and going, going on the road in the big

10 and, and how you got to be ready for every type of challenge.

Well, this was one that our, our sophomore class had never been in before

because last year they were freshmen and they didn't play at Iowa.

This was their first time playing at Iowa.

Um, and just, I mean, it was just a different type of game.

I mean, we went to the free throw line three times to give you perspective.

Olivia Olson, who was top in our conference and getting to the free throw line

didn't get to the free throw line that day.

It was just a different game, you know, but I think for us, it was another

learning experience.

Where can we grow?

What are our takeaways?

Where do we need to get better?

Um, and that was really what our focus was coming out of Iowa.

We were shook for the first time.

And I don't know if, you know, our men have felt that all year,

but this was the first time all season where we were like, whoa, maybe a

little bit earlier at Washington.

Um, but that's been a long time ago.

So we just, we talked about it.

We regrouped.

We went back to work.

Oh, we talked about, okay, what are we doing?

When teams are face guarding these guys?

What are we doing when teams are packing the paint?

What are we doing when you're not getting the foul called?

Like how are we working on playing through these type of situation?

And continuing to handle that type of physicality,

physicality, continuing to, to finish through contact.

Um, and then continuing to get better on the defensive end.

And, you know, most of that game, the outcome, looks like it wasn't that close

of a game, but the game was a five to seven point game till four minutes left

in that game.

Um, and then we gambled a little bit down the stretch to try to come back in it.

And that's why the point to step discrepancy is what it is.

But it was a close basketball game, but I think, you know,

losing sometimes gives you an opportunity to really, you know,

go into detail on where you need to get better.

And that was a turning point for us moving forward.

You know, when it starts with ownership to me, uh,

from a player's perspective standpoint, and also from a coaching standpoint,

because you're saying, what could we have done better?

And as a player, you got to say, what could we have done better for you to be

able to move on the way your team has?

Yeah.

And I think that, Terry, that is one of the greatest things about this team.

Um, they accept ownership.

And when you have players like Olivia Olson, Silas,

the words Mila Holloway, that are the first ones after the game.

You know, when, when Mila doesn't have a great game, she, uh, you know,

is overcoach, you know, can we watch film?

Like, what can we do better?

Like, where do I need to improve?

Like, and they accept it immediately, which a lot of times you don't have.

And when you have your best players like that, I think it just defuses

everyone else and everyone else looks in the mirror and says, how can we get

better? And we do it from the top down, the coaches are the first ones to figure

out, hey, where can we put ourselves in a better position next time moving forward?

But that's what's really special about this group is they want to continue to

improve. They want to continue to get better.

And we went back to work right after that Iowa game.

And, and like you said, I think we're playing some of our best basketball right now.

And they will try to continue that coming up in Indianapolis.

Well, Michigan women's basketball is the three seat.

We'll talk about that event with coach Kim Barnes-Rico as we continue here on Inside

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Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Wolverines getting ready to head down to Indianapolis for the big 10 tournament.

As the three seed, they'll face either Maryland or the winner of Purdue and

Oregon if they can knock off the Terps in the second round on Thursday.

And potentially, if seeds hold another match up with Iowa in the semi finals,

coach, what makes this week unique, fun, challenging, go into the big 10 tournament?

Well, I think what makes it fun is to just, you know, before we start preparing today,

to take a breath and say, you know, this is our best big 10 record ever, regular season.

This is our best record heading into the playoffs ever.

I mean, we don't want to forget what an incredible season this has been.

So I just want to make sure our team knows that.

But then to have a double buy and have the opportunity to have yesterday off,

have another day of rest, really work on ourselves today.

Have a great practice today and then start preparing for our opponent, you know,

Wednesday and Thursday to prepare for Friday.

This is spring break week for our team.

Our players are hungry headed into March.

They're down there working on their game already.

But I just think it gives us an opportunity to focus and to get ready for our

second season or playoff season.

Yeah, best basketball record and women's basketball history.

Congratulations on that.

When you put this team together back in the summer because of what we deal with now,

what the NIL, where people go here, go there and you put it together.

Did you see this coming?

Or did you just say, yeah, we'll be all right.

But did you see this coming?

Well, you know, headed into last year.

We only had four players returning the original quads, go odd.

And then we had that that freshman class entering and the immediate impact

that Milla, Sila and Olivia made last year was absolutely incredible.

But then in the off season, Teyalla, Delphaz's developments, you know,

Berkhoros, Daniels had an extra year with our team.

Macy Browns continued developments.

You know, you add our freshman class and then you add two great kids

out of the portal.

You knew we had a chance to be pretty good.

You know, we always talk about player developments and in the age of transfer

portal and NIL, kids bouncing here, they're in everywhere.

The University of Michigan women's basketball prides itself on developing players.

And we knew if our freshman class took that step in their development to sophomore season,

we would have the ability to create something special and, you know,

what they've done in the off season and where they are right now in one season of time.

Wow, I mean, you know, whether that's Olivia Olson, who is arguably one of the best

players in the world right now and Sila Swords, who's right there with her,

or Milla Holloway as our point guard that has a year under a belt or sophomore season.

It's been absolutely sensational and then Teyalla Delphaz and Macy Brown and all the other

players that we mentioned, they're just incredibly hard workers.

They're driven at a really high level.

They're committed to our program and to this university and it's been a really special,

special season. I had coaches in the business, some of my friends called me the last couple of days

and a lot of them can't wait for the season to be over because they got a bunch of paint

in the net kids, you know. And I said for me, man, I just still love coming to work every day.

It's not even work. I love coming to the gym every day to be around this group of players

because they're really special. Well, Michigan as a three seed in Indianapolis and the big 10

tournament, hopefully we get to say that that's a big 10 tournament championship men and women.

The men did it last year, women have a chance this year. The one thing you probably can start to

prepare for is the uniqueness. You guys will be the last team to take the floor for the first time

in this event. That last game of the day, how do you prepare leading into that day? And also,

I'm sure there's some nervous energy, some readiness to get out there because you have to wait

until the last game of the night. Yeah, it's funny. That's how it is for me. But I joke with our

team quite often like Mila Holloway, when we have an 11 a.m. game, her eyes are puffy. She looks

like tired. When we have a 9 p.m. game, she's got bounce in her steps. She's got hop. I think,

you know, their kids, they're young, they're their night owls. For me, it's getting close to

bedtime at that time. But for them, I think they're playing their best basketball at that time

of day. So it is a long day and they'll have a big break in between. And it's the tail end of,

you know, the first round of games, for sure. But I think for our players, they really

like that type of time. And they've shown to play some of their best best basketball at that time

of the day. So it is for sure that we are playing Maryland as a career. No, no, no,

they still up in there. Yeah, Maryland, Maryland will face the winner of the game, the late game,

the day before either Purdue or Oregon winner of that will face mission. Got you. From the big 10

standpoint, what's your observation of the league from top to bottom? To me, it's a gauntlet.

I feel like you can improve. You can lose a game and then prove the next game because of how teams

are wanked in the big 10. Yeah, I think right now the big 10 is the best basketball conference in

the country. I think we have some of the best teams in the country in our league. Like I said,

we played four three out of or last four games or against top 15 teams in the country. So every night

at the big 10 tournament, every game at the big 10 tournament is unknown. You don't know who's going

to win the game because the competition from top to bottom is absolutely incredible. I think it's

probably going to be a great tournament for people to watch. Come on out, come to the games,

it's going to be unbelievable. If not, turn in on the tele because it's going to be really great

basketball, high level basketball. I think the same heading into the NCAA tournament. Just

some really incredible basketball teams. Well, coach, good luck in the preparation. Good luck

with the travel out there. I hope you are incredibly busy. It's a whirlwind. It could be three games

in less than 48 hours. I hope you have a lot to do this weekend. Thanks, guys. Go Blue.

Thanks for listening to tonight's episode of Inside Michigan Basketball. If you missed any of

the show, you can catch the entire episode on our podcast feed. MGO Blue Podcasts. Just search

and go Blue Podcasts wherever you listen to your podcasts. The preceding has been a

Learfield presentation of the Michigan Sports Network.