March 2, 2008

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Coach Ed DeChellis

Can you talk about Talor Battle's performance today?
"I thought Talor played with a lot of confidence. I was real concerned coming in because he did not do as well in the last two games. I thought he might hit the wall as some freshmen do, but tonight he came out with a lot of energy and he was rebounding well and shooting pretty well at practice today. I thought he played well. He had 13 defensive rebounds as well, we were on the guards all weekend to rebound and he did pretty well. "

Does facing a defensive player like Udoh encourage you guys to play on the outside more?
"It is a lot harder for the post guys to score. We probably should have been gone in more and challenged. It wasn't so much that we didn't want to get in there, the guys just stayed on the perimeter, so we went with it."

Michigan's defense is a little different than some of the other teams you have played. Can you talk about their mixing the zone and man to man?
"We talked about that we didn't want any empty possessions during the game. They played 4 or 5 possessions in a 1-3-1, and we made a shot or two. Their defense at half court, they do a lot of switching. They do a lot of switching from big to small screens. We are not an older team; we can look at that stuff and read. We had some younger guys try to make plays and turn it over too many times doing that. We tried to jam it in there a little too much. When we had a guard on the post we tried to force it in there, which we talked about doing, but we forced it a little bit."

You won by eight, even though you guys made some mistakes. Does that say a lot about the team?
"I am really proud of this team. We have been resilient. People put us to be dead. A month and a half ago we lost five or six games in a row and the whole world was coming to an end. I think our staff has done a good job and our players have done a great job. I think they have stayed the course, and do what they do. We continue to get better, and I hope the young kids will continue to get better. We have gotten better as the year has gone on and the kids have improved. I am proud of our guys. They have always had pretty good spirit, though we did lose some tough games, I think they all of them kept playing and fighting and doing things that we ask them to do. I am really proud of them."

It seems that Talor keeps everyone's spirits high. How does Talor's attitude affect the team?
"I think Talor has that chemistry that rubs off on other guys. He plays with some confidence. Confidence is important, especially when he has the ball. He is the quarterback. He thinks we are going to win every game and make every shot, and that is what you need out of a young guy."

Freshman guard Talor Battle

It seemed like every time you touched the ball something good happened. Can you talk about the kind of game that you had tonight?
"From the beginning of the game I was hitting shots and that is always good when you can knock your first couple shots in. But, not every time I touched the ball something good happened because I had five turnovers too many (five total). My teammates were looking for me and finding me and I was making shots. I was trying to kick it to my teammates as well, Mikey was making shots as well."

What happened when you fell under the basket? Did your injury effect your play at all?
"When I fell, I couldn't put my hands under me, so I just came down and landed on my tailbone. It is just really sore right now and I tried to walk it off but that took a while. I tried to stay moving because that is the only way I could feel comfortable. When I was ready I asked coach and he put me back in and I kept going."

Coach DeChellis talked about the need for you guys to rebound. With 13 rebounds, is that something you worked on?
"Well, yesterday coach got on everyone about rebounding, primarily Stanley (Pringle), which I laughed about. Early in the game I was crashing and I got a couple good ones. Rebounding is like scoring, if you are doing it, you just keep going after it. There were some plays where I was going from the top of the key down and I was taking the rebound and I was feeling great."

Senior guard Mike Walker

Having this game as your Senior Night, how satisfying to have this type of game?
"It was great to get this on Senior Night, a night when you not only want a win, but you want a good individual performance. It felt good to hit shots. It was fun being out there with Talor. Obviously, he is the future of Penn State. I think everyone is going to have a lot of fun watching him for the next four years. I am a guy who is going out, so it was fun to be out there with him, just playing our game and shooting the ball well."

How much does it mean to get this sixth conference win?
"It is real important. We are looking forward to the last two games. We have a lot of momentum. We haven't played well against Wisconsin for the past four years and we are then going to be excited to play Indiana at home, for our real last home game. We are just excited to be playing extremely well, especially at home, and we are just trying to get as much momentum as we can at the end with the Big Ten Tournament."

Michigan Coach John Beilein

Opening Statement

"Well, I think the key obviously was their ability to make three's, and we didn't shoot the ball obviously nearly as well. For (Talor) Battle, he's a 30 percent guy now, 29 overall and 7 of 9 overall is incredible. It just shows you the value of having a really good shooting team. Look at the turnovers we created. We did a really good job of all those things. Manny (Harris) had a good game, and Kelvin (Grady) hit some threes, but we are going to have more people make some shots right now. "

Why do you think this is the pattern especially in three of the last 3 of 4 games that one guard has really stuck it to you guys? "I don't know. We certainly lost more several times. Some of the places now that Battle was shooting from, and Talor was shooting from are deep for anyone to pay attention, so they stretched us pretty far on those shots."

Are you still trying to figure how much zone and how much man you need to play?

"Our zone was very good. They got that really deep three, and that was the only one of the three's they got, and it took them out of their rhythm a little bit. We were in foul trouble. We had a technical. It was a unique game, let's just say that. I liked the way our kids fought until the end. We're showing signs of sticking in there, but we certainly played a team that shot great. Ed (DeChellis) should be real proud of his kids."

What do you think is wrong with DeShawn (Sims)?

"I don't know, but we just have to keep working. He's in a heck of a big shooting slump right now and he just has to believe in himself. Most times people lose confidence they shoot not to miss instead of to make. I loved the one we set up for him when Manny hit him right in the numbers. I was standing right behind him and it looked like it was going dead in. Then it didn't go in. It was really the only time that I thought he had a shot that really had a good chance of going in. So we just have to keep working with him and being positive. The mistake he would be making now would be not shooting when he is open. He's made more three's than anyone on our team. But even his inside thing right now has lost some confidence and we have to get it back to him."

You haven't defended the three well all year, but did you feel that was almost more fluky out there?

"Some of those were from real deep. Talor (Battle) shoots some really odd threes where he has such a quick release that you can't get to him, where if he's on, it's hard to get to him. Where I thought it was more that, all of a sudden we got, I wouldn't say lazy, didn't have attention to detail in that one. This one, sometimes some of those shots you can't defend them. It's like a guy just gets them going."

How do you measure progress even though the wins have not come along the way you would like them to come along?

"Well, you know what, if you look at our team right now I don't think there's been a game since, you have to go back to Cameron Indoor Stadium, where we didn't battle and weren't in the game the whole time. I'm proud of the kids. There are an awful lot of young kids that are growing up in a hurry. We would like to have more wins, but obviously I've looked at the Big Ten of winning five games and possibly being able to win six, possibly be able to win in the tournament. What ever happens, I just hope right until the last whistle whenever someone says you can't play anymore, that we are still playing as hard and the best we can."