Big Ten Tournament Game 1: #8 Michigan Beats #9 Iowa, 59-52. Coach and Player Comments from Both Teams.

Iowa Coach and Players Comments

THE MODERATOR: Coach?

COACH LICKLITER: I'll just say that I've

always been impressed with John's teams.

Michigan has been a tough opponent for us.

Played them better at home the time before this,

and then this time I thought we competed hard.

They got away from us early, and we cut into it but

just couldn't make it up.

But this team has fought, and they've

competed hard all year, and I've always been

proud of them for that. It doesn't mean it's always

looked real good.

The last two games on the road

people were very critical, but that's what happens

sometimes. This team is trying to become a good

team, and I'm proud of them for the effort today.

Cully played beyond his years today, I

thought, and that's a real good thing. I think he

enjoyed it. I told him coming in here, he's going to

love Conseco, and I think he must. Jarryd has

been a very good leader for us. We're obviously

going to have to shoot better than 5-for-20 from the

three to be able to beat them. But it was -- it just

wasn't to be today.

But it's a really good group.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for the

student-athletes?

Q. Cully, you seemed to be more

inclined to really push the ball and be offensive

minded today. Was that by design or by

nature, or just because you like Conseco

Fieldhouse?

CULLY PAYNE: Coach kind of joked

about it coming here, he's like, you're going to play

great at Conseco Fieldhouse. I'm like, what's so

great about this place. I love it, but it's great. That

was kind of our game plan today, push the ball a

little bit more. We got a lot of transition stuff, which

was good for us, so that was kind of the game

plan.

Q. Jarryd or Cully, can you talk about

switching to a zone defense? What was that

like for you?

JARRYD COLE: You know, in practice

this week we were trying to -- trying to mix things

up a little bit. You know, in Big Ten play,

everybody knows what you're going to do

basically. You scout all year for each other, and

most likely are going to play each other twice. You

get into a tournament it's nice to mix things up,

give people a different look, and we did, and it

ended up being successful for us, but not

successful enough.

CULLY PAYNE: Like coach kind of said in

practice, the zone will throw them off a little bit and

take a little time off of the shot clock in the

backcourt, and I think the zone was good for us

today.

Q. Either player, I've heard speculation

about your coach's future. Have you guys

team at all?

JARRYD COLE: Personally, no, I've never

heard anything. I don't know if you're talking about

us as players leaving or him going anywhere. I've

never heard anything. Whatever you hear, I don't

know, it's news to me, I guess, too.

CULLY PAYNE: I think like Jarryd said,

we haven't heard a lot about it, but I know that I

came here to play for coach, and our staff, and

we've got four great guys coming in. With the

freshman class I know me, Eric and Brennan,

that's coach's first class he recruited. We've got a

great, true foundation and we're excited for coach,

so we're kind of by his side the whole way. I can

speak for us freshman class and the whole team

that coach is our guy.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach

Lickliter?

Q. Coach, three seasons ago, take me

through this: If I had sat there and told you

that by this point almost the entire team would

have transferred out, most of them would have

been guys that could start and Iowa basketball

would be in the state it's in now, would you

have said I'm crazy or would you have said

that's part of the plan to begin with in the sense

that you have freshmen coming in that are your

guys?

COACH LICKLITER: I'm not sure I follow

the question.

Q. The question is, this is the worst

Iowa basketball I've seen in probably 35 years

as far as the amount of wins. What I'm asking

you is because of the style of play that you had

at Butler, you knew you'd have to come in and

shape this over the course of time. Has that

went like you thought it would or is this beyond

what you thought it would be as far as a bad

season?

COACH LICKLITER: Well, I didn't

anticipate -- you don't look and project wins and

losses, you prepare daily and try to put the best

players out. I think the hardest thing coming in

here has been that the recruits that we've been --

that we have targeted, that we feel like are going to

be able to compete have got to go through some

tough times. We're not recruiting All-Big Ten

players to Iowa their freshman year. If we do,

great, if we can find them.

But realistically what we've had to do is

recruit players that will develop into that, and that

has been hard for players to go through the

frustration, the grind, the hard work. So we've had

to continue to fight through some of that.

Of the players that have left, I had

recruited one of them to-date if I'm not mistaken.

It's not -- if you look back, players have left the

University of Iowa before I came. If you look at

Butler, I had very few players leave. I had a few. I

didn't have a plan for -- as a matter of fact, I take it

very seriously your commitment to

student-athletes. I want them to progress and

graduate, and that's been my commitment to them.

I think that because student-athletes can

leave, there's probably some of you sitting out here

right now that if you could leave your job and go to

another job that was very similar without any

repercussions, you might do it. And there might be

some days you'd do it more readily than others.

But that's the state we're in right now, and so we've

had to do a little fighting through that.

We do have a foundation. I don't know

what's going to happen. People have to make

those decisions. But we've invested; players have

gotten better, and this team is better than the first

two teams that won more games.

Q. There has been a lot of speculation

today about your future, and it's unavoidable.

Are you confident you're going to be the coach

of this team next year?

COACH LICKLITER: You know, my future

is that I'm healthy, I have a great family. I love

what I do. I've done it well, and that's not in my

hands.

Q. Along those same lines, have you

met with Gary Barta to discuss whether or not

you're going to be the coach?

COACH LICKLITER: No, I haven't, no.

I'm trying to prepare for the Big Ten tournament

and give my undivided attention to this team.

Q. Either specifically with you or for

any coach, is three years a reasonable amount

of time to judge the progress or not?

COACH LICKLITER: I think it depends on

what you go into and the amount of support that

you have and that sort of thing. You can judge

some coaches as far as wins and losses

immediately depending on the situation that they

go into.

Q. You mentioned how much this team

has improved throughout the course of the

season. What can you say about all the

freshmen that contributed and played today,

where they were at the beginning of the

season, where they are now, guys like Cully,

who had a huge game.

COACH LICKLITER: Yeah, he shows a lot

of toughness, and that's handled the grind pretty

well. Now they have a whole year of Big Ten

experience. It's a Big Ten that I've talked to a lot of

time, media personality a couple days ago and

said he cannot remember -- now, he's been at it a

while. He can't remember the Big Ten being this

good, and we played 18 games this year. They've

had a little bit more of a grind than past teams

possibly. I think they've held up pretty well.

They're pretty beat up emotionally, they're pretty

beat up physically. You saw today they don't have

any quit of them. They're going to be successful

these guys. I think anyway, I think they've got the

right approach.

Q. How long is this going to go on? I

assume you'd like to know whether you're

going to be the coach or not. It's kind of a

tough situation.

COACH LICKLITER: Do you think that

would have to do with me? I mean, it's not --

you're asking me to answer on speculation. I don't

have any. I haven't been told I'm not, so until I'm

told I'm not, I've got to -- I am.

Q. A month ago, Gary said without

hesitation that you will be back. Is he not

saying that now to you?

COACH LICKLITER: He doesn't say -- we

don't talk about that. We just talk about what -- the

task at hand, and I really don't -- we haven't met on

anything of that.

Michigan Coach and Players Comments

COACH BEILEIN: I'm sorry Manny Harris

is not here. The instructions from Zack and

DeShawn, we'll be getting a cold tub right after the

game. The strength coach took me literally and --

he's in there right now, so I'm sorry about that. But

I think these two guys will be fine.

We got off to a great start, which I thought

was really important always in these tournaments,

to get off to a good start with our defense. Made

some shots early. Things got a little bit cold. Todd

went to a zone defense, which I don't know, the

Iowa people may know, you very rarely see, shook

us up a little bit, and they made a great comeback,

and then we made a couple great shots to get

back out in front to hang on.

Q. The two of you guys started off cold

in the second half, you hit that one big three.

Do you think that kind of ignited you guys in

the second half?

ZACK NOVAK: I mean, we got a nice little

run after that, and Laval also came and hit a really

big three. But I think we just kind of -- like you

said, we got cold for a little bit, but seemed like

once that went down, we got back on the right

track and were able to finish it out.

DESHAWN SIMS: That shot probably

started some momentum for us to kind of get back,

take the lead again and got the game within four.

You know, that kind of separated us a little bit.

Q. Talk a little bit about the team effort

it took to slow Fuller out there.

ZACK NOVAK: Like you said, total team

effort. I mean, he really hurt us when we played

there. I don't know what exactly he did today, but I

mean, it wasn't anything near that. I don't know,

we had good defensive rotation on him, and it

seemed like almost every time somebody was

making a hit on him, and then our guards really did

a good job coming in to help rebound, too, I

thought.It was a total team effort, and I think we got

it done.

Q. You guys have seen Ohio State

twice over the season. Can you just talk about

what you sense about tomorrow's game going

into it?

DESHAWN SIMS: It's a talented team.

You know, we've just got to come out and not be

scared, just go and attack them. We played them

twice, we beat them once, and we just have to go

and -- it's all or nothing, and try to win it.

ZACK NOVAK: I mean, we beat them for

a full game, and I think we beat them for a half

then the next game. We're confident going in.

They're a really good team. They've got a lot of

talented guys. But we're going to be ready to play,

and just go out there and have fun, see what

happens.

Q. How important was it for you guys

to jump off to such a quick start and start so

strong after the Michigan State game, just like

rebounding from that?

ZACK NOVAK: I think it was -- it was just

good for our psyche. We came out. Shots were

falling, people were making good plays, and kind

of built us a little bit of a cushion there. Any time

you can do that in a tournament, in any game, that

really helps. They're a good team. They fought

back, and they definitely didn't give up.

But I thought we did a good job coming

out.

DESHAWN SIMS: We always have good

games with Iowa. They battle us and we battle

them. We didn't know their mindset. They didn't

have the season they expected just as well as we

did. So we knew both teams was coming to fight,

and we had to come out and try to sustain some

energy.

Q. Manny obviously had a tough game

against Michigan State the last time out. What

did he do differently today, and maybe how did

you see him prepare differently than that

game?

DESHAWN SIMS: He played confident.

He let the game come to him. He hit his first shot,

and that usually does it for him, for a player of his

caliber, just being able to hit your first shot. You

see the ball going in, and it just gives your overall

game confidence.

ZACK NOVAK: Yeah, I mean, he was

good today. Like DeShawn said, he came out. I

remember he hit a three in transition, just pulled up

a real nice shot, and I mean, when he's on, he's

really tough for anybody to stop. When he just lets

the game come to him, we're a really good team.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach

Beilein?

Q. On paper with the talent you have, if

I said eighth seed coming into this tournament

at the beginning of the season, is that where

you envisioned you would be right now?

COACH BEILEIN: Well, we were seventh

last year. There wasn't a lot of attrition within the

league last year, from last year to this year. I don't

think too much about those things. I wanted us to

get better. I had hoped we'd get better. We won

nine games in the league last year, we won seven

this year. Obviously we weren't as good. But it

was smaller than people think, probably, about the

difference, but it's a difference.

Q. Did you limit DeShawn's minutes

intentionally because of the nature of the

tournament? It seemed like he played fewer

minutes today than --

COACH BEILEIN: What was his final

minutes?

Q. About 30.

COACH BEILEIN: I mean, that's pretty --

we wanted -- playing Iowa, we do not like to play

big. They really play really big because they set so

many ball screens, it takes some stuff away. I

wanted to make sure Zack Gibson gave us some

minutes there. And so 30 -- it turned out 30 and 10

or something. I did play them together for a

second.

Q. If you could talk about your two

games with Ohio State and the differences

between how they both play now.

COACH BEILEIN: I think that Ohio State

was in a bit of a transition. They started out in the

league with four out of five on the road without

having Turner and had gotten beat I think maybe

up in Wisconsin and then came to us. They looked

like they were feeling like who they were without

such a fabulous player.

The second time we played them, I

thought they really had -- they'd all gotten better

without him, and then adding him, it's just an X

factor to really make them -- like one of the league

co-champions or tri-champions and a great chance

to win the National Championship.

Q. In that vein, just talk about the

opportunity that your team has tomorrow. You

could have a special win with a win over them

tomorrow, just the opportunity you guys have

in that game.

COACH BEILEIN: Yeah, I mean, once

you get to the quarterfinals, then -- now, this is like

the old eight-team leagues now. You're down to

eight teams and you're three wins away from really

a magical experience for these guys to go through,

given the type of season that we've had.

But it's got to go through Ohio State, so

it's -- you have to get that win to continue to

advance, but it would be great to beat them.

They're very, very talented. We're going to have to

play our best game. We're not going to be able to

shoot 6-for-25 and can't give up a bunch of

offensive rebounds and turn the ball over late like

with he did today. We'll just do our best. That's all

we're going to do.

Q. They're talking about expanding the

tournament to 96. What's your thoughts about

that?

COACH BEILEIN: The NCAA

Tournament?

Q. Yes.

COACH BEILEIN: I've never been in favor

of that. Being a guy who was in the low majors to

mid-majors and the high majors, I just think it's

really a great tournament right now. Now, they

may know more than I know, but I just -- when we

were at Canisius, we only won the tournament one

time, and we won the championship game three

times. But it was huge to just get in there for no

other reason than you won that tournament.

Same thing at Richmond. Were in it a lot,

but only once we won it. It was just great to get

there. I think it's really nice and tight right now and

we probably should keep it that way. But I'll do

whatever people say. And if we're the 96th team in

sometime, I'll be happy about it.

Q. They didn't start off really on fire.

Can you talk about their form especially early?

COACH BEILEIN: Yeah, they came out

and played us man, and we really executed them

to be able to get them the ball.

When they go zone, that presents the

different issues getting the ball to the right people

at the right time, and the timing. I'm glad -- we

may see zone from Ohio State, as well, I'm glad

we could work on that a little bit today. But the

zone really changed that plan from Manny to

DeShawn. We dialed them up a lot at the

beginning of the game.

Q. After Michigan State you talked

about eliminating turnovers, Manny, having a

season low at that point. How pleased were

you at those areas?

COACH BEILEIN: I liked everything until

those last three. I mean, we finished with eight,

but we had five going into those last four minutes.

Those three gave them a chance to come up in the game

But it's important, now Iowa is a little bit

less aggressive than Michigan State at turnovers,

but that was a huge part of our game with Michigan

State. I mean, they deserved to win. They were

certainly better than us. Their record shows it. But

those turnovers just changed that game from a

10-point game to a 30-point game in no time.

Q. Can you talk about Harris and Sims

and just kind of the way they're working

together inside-outside? There's one time in

the second half they had a give and go, and the

team work and how they're clicking?

COACH BEILEIN: Yeah, they room

together. They see each other a lot and they look

for each other in our offense quite often,

sometimes too often. You can see like DeShawn

threw one up right after that thinking he could get

him, as well. That's where we're got to separate

from being great friends and finding the next

option. But they've really done a good job with that

and they've clicked together and it's no secret we

try to go to the two of them a lot. DeShawn is one

of the leaders in the Big Ten in shots taken and

Manny is pretty close.

Q. You guys had I think it was 16- and

14-point leads where Iowa came back. Are you

concerned that maybe you guys were a little

complacent at times out there?

COACH BEILEIN: No, you know, to win

we had to make a foul shot. We had the three

turnovers. I don't think any of them were careless

turnovers, and I don't think we stopped playing

defense. If there was a time tough in that game,

four or five minutes to go, and they got to the one

and one, we were careless with our unnecessary

fouls, and then they were just -- you saw they were

just going to drive it in the last four minutes and try

to slow -- to change the game and lengthen the

game. So we've got to take care of the ball better,

and if we hadn't had those fouls early we could

have kept them off the foul line or guarded them

differently.

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