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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan came flat out of the gates on Wednesday night, fighting back hard early to take a 5-point lead after a 7-point deficit, but ultimately struggling to keep Penn State from having a double-digit lead.
The Wolverines cut the lead to just five late, but the Nittany Lions continued to score at will, and Michigan earned its third-straight loss at the hands of a Big Ten Conference opponent.
After the game, head coach Juwan Howard was perplexed and frustrated, noting that a lack of defensive communication — also mentioned by sophomore forward Brandon Johns as the culprit — as to why the maize and blue struggled against a Penn State team that’s offense wasn’t much to write home about coming into the game.
Read the entire transcript of Howard’s press conference below, or watch the video above.
Assessing the energy
“I thought we came out with a lot of good energy. We had a sense of urgency in the beginning of the ball game. But once they made a run and went up 9-2, and I called timeout, I kinda seen guys that had a little doubt in they eyes. And that’s not how we have to approach games that we play. Especially when we’re playing at home. This is a place that we’ve had a lot of success. This is our home court. Very familiar with the rims. Very familiar with the lighting. As well as the atmosphere.”
3-point shooting difficulty
“After the game, there’s no need to keep rubbing it in. They understand exactly how they shot the ball, being 5-of-28 from three, and having open looks. You can’t point the finger or blame the offense or blame the coach, anything like that. Not saying that has happened. But, I would say this, yes, come tomorrow, we will watch film. We’ll see on some of the actions we either made the right read or we didn’t shoot the ball with confidence, or maybe the ball just didn’t go in. It’s important that our group has to watch the film tomorrow and we can see how to grow and get better.”
Penn State’s offense
“They got too many open looks and that’s because of a lack of communication on the defensive end. It’s January 22nd. We talk about we have to communicate on defense, be physical, don’t be surprised. We have a great scouting report. We watch film on every opponent. We see guys’ tendencies as well as their strengths and who can shoot the ball and where they shoot the ball from. So there is no surprises. I don’t understand why guys get open looks. It tells me because of lack of communication on switching.
“At times, I thought we were lazy on our switches. We switch up on our shooters, not back or assuming that a guy has the man and unfortunately that particular guy is not guarding him or if your hand’s down versus a shooter, for example Curtis Jones who was lining us up and shooting it right in our face, that’s unacceptable. So you have to own it, you have to be able to do your job.
“But they’re gonna see it tomorrow, for sure.”
Early timeouts in the game/out of the half
“I’m not gonna tell you exactly what I said, but I would say this: it was about we had to make an adjustment about how we had to play this game. It was good that I took the timeouts, because we responded. Unfortunately, we wasn’t consistent with our level of play. There was too much lack of focus throughout the game and that’s where some of the mistakes were made on the defensive end.”
Getting to the line more this game
“It wasn’t a point of emphasis. We always attack the basket. When you look at it tonight, we scored 34 points in the paint. The last game, we scored over 20-plus points in the paint. Yes, you can look at the threes and say 5-for-28, 17%. So we have paint attacks, paint finishes, but we didn’t do a good job of shooting the ball from the outside.
“Those were open looks, by the way. Very wide open looks.”
Why more trips to the line?
“Well, we got fouled. Referee called it.”
How does he make sure it doesn’t spiral downhill?
“Oh, man. I got that under control. You can trust me on that one. There is not going to be any doubt in that locker room. We will not lose trust in one another. There’s a lot of season to be played. You learn from games like this. No one said we’re gonna win every game this season. Yes, our goal was to win every game this season. Our goal was to protect home court and have an undefeated record at home. But that has not happened.
“We will keep and continue to keep grinding throughout the process and growing and staying together and playing hard.”
How much of a concern it is about lack of defensive communication?
“Great question. It’s very challenging to come up here and to have to talk about that we’re having a lack of communication and we’re not communicating enough. I don’t understand why. At times, I see our guys — not see, I hear our guys in the locker room with a lot of energy. They get along very well with one another. They talk to each other. I don’t see them always picking up the phone, and sometimes you see guys texting each other and they’re standing right next to one another. But this group, they look like they enjoy playing with one another. So it’s too late in the season for I have to beg for our guys to communicate on defense.
“And not just on the defensive end, the offensive end, too. It just so happened that it’s a lost art in the game and we have to bring it back. Yes, I’m old school, but it’ll force us to forge ahead and improve. Communication has to be a part of the process. It surprises me that some of our guys don’t like talking on defense. Assume that a player knows exactly what the other opponent is gonna do and assume that your teammate knows that he’s gotta pick him up on the defensive end. There’s a lot of guessing going on. I just don’t understand it.”
Is confidence an issue?
“I think it’s just a problem of that you see you’re down and got hit in the mouth. And the score’s not in your favor. And you don’t see that you can’t break through an opponent. And they’re just pretty much able to score at times when you’re trying to go back and score and they come back and score again. And you look up and are like, ‘Wow, we’re still down 8 or 9.’ And your huddle becomes quiet. Guys are starting to overthink and overanalyze. I think that’s what Brandon (Johns) is speaking of.
“Is there some doubt within? I don’t know. I assume that there is not. But I will make sure, it’s my job to make sure there’s no doubt within this group. I will continue to forge ahead, keep teaching them, keep coaching them and also leading them. Because that’s what they need. They need a guy they can trust being the head coach to lead this group. And I will do that job, for sure.”
What needs to happen differently defensively vs. Illinois?
“I haven’t started thinking about Illinois yet. But to answer your question, I know that we can’t have the same performance tonight on the defensive end and expect that come Saturday that Illinois is gonna feel sorry for us. They’re gonna try to run it down our throats. They’re playing good basketball. They want to come in here and get a win. We’ve gotta protect our home and we gotta redeem ourselves from a game like this because each and every guy, including myself, has to look ourselves in the mirror and see how — ‘How can I get better on Thursday when I walk in this door tomorrow?'”
The seven-man rotation
“It was just challenging to put Adrian Nunez as well as Colin (Castleton) in the game. They play a lot of small ball and Colin would have — if he was playing the four, would have had to guard one of their smaller perimeters that also were shooters. So I had to make an adjustment from there.
“As far as, when it came to Adrian Nunez, really had some guys that were playing very well on their end. Also were driving us down our throat. I trust that Zavier — unfortunately, at times I thought I’d maybe give him a breather, but we needed him in there. He had 40 minutes tonight. I was trying my best to sub him out, but it was challenging. So I was mixing and matching.”
Team feeding off Zavier’s energy and worry about his load management
“I always do. I always do. Yes, I do. Yup.”