University of Minnesota Athletics
Postgame Quotes: Michigan
2/10/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Minnesota Head Coach Richard Pitino
On success from 2-point range compared to 3-point shooting...
"It is hard to tell a guy. Hey you are not a good three-point shooter. You have to find ways to manipulate them and tell them in a nice way. But we started driving it obviously, and we were very tough to cover. We keep doing. They will keep talking about it. We have to stop shooting so many threes. We are not a great shooting team, but we are a really great driving team. But that's why we shot 57 percent in the second-half."
On the close losses...
"I felt like tonight we were going to break through. We came back showed great heart, and they just made one or two more plays than we did. There have been a lot of close losses, and we just have to find a way to break through. Hopefully sooner than later because those are hard to take."
On improvements he is seeing...
"Yeah I mean we are getting more shots, which I always like. We made more free throws, which is nice. Shot 57 percent and showed great heart, but at some point let's get some wins. It is very challenging, but they are fighting and that's all I can ask right now. So, hopefully, we can find some way to get some wins."
Sophomore Nate Mason
Michigan Head Coach John Beilein
Opening Statement:
"Great team win for us. We knew it would be a struggle in [Williams Arena]. A lot of people have struggled in here. Whether it was Michigan State, Purdue, or Indiana, everybody has had that similar type of game. They have tremendous quickness on the outside and it's just really difficult to stay in front of them, I don't care who you are. We're not particularly great at that, so they got to the rim. They got to the rim, they made shots, and then we just went dry for a little bit. Our first half, we had some great shooting from the outside. We executed and made some big shots. In the second half we got similar shots, we just didn't knock them down."
On the game still being tight at the end despite Michigan's good shooting:
"I think those turnovers down the stretch were really huge. We were trying to run a break out of the foul shot, and they were just waiting on it. We had that turnover, and the five second call was a bad turnover. Those two things, I think, resulted in the nineteen point lead not staying. [Minnesota] is not going to quit - they're too quick and they can score points - but all of a sudden that went from a ten or twelve lead to a four or two lead like that. We had a couple really good looks. Duncan [Robinson] had one and Derrick [Walton Jr.] had one and it didn't go in and [Minnesota] converted. So all of a sudden it's a two point game."
On some of their late-minute mistakes as the game got close:
"That's the way this league is going to be. People are not going to stop, especially on the road to get a road win. I can't tell you why Zak [Irvin] didn't call timeout when he couldn't get it in or why we didn't execute that play. I can't tell you why we threw it away there. But those are things that we have to learn from. We were good enough to make the right plays at the end. […] If you look, unfortunately as I do way too often, at the dark side of this one - if we lose this game then it's going to be very difficult. We needed this win #8 in the conference, win #18 overall."
