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POST-GAME QUOTES

Oakland University head coach Greg Kampe

Opening Statement
"I like the way we played. I like my team a lot. We have a chance to really be a special team, whether Nelson comes back or not. Maybe he doesn't come back. I really like this team. We're doing the things we want to do. We ran into a Michigan team that made shots tonight. The first five minutes of that game was unbelievable, on both sides. They kept it up and we didn't. Then we battled back and we did what we had to do. Like I said, I like my team, and I like everything about it. We ran into a team tonight that made a lot of deep shots. You can look at the tape of tonight's game, and with a lot of those shots they were beyond the NBA line. I give them a lot of credit, they made some key plays. We got it down to four and they made a back-door play after we got caught sleeping. They hit the back-door layup and made two threes in a row after that that opened it up. They're a good team and they did what good teams do. They didn't beat Duke and UCLA for no reason, but I like my team and I'm proud of the way we played."

On how he feels the team would play if Derick Nelson were not injured
"I cry myself to sleep about that. If you coach as long as I've coached, and you get a team like this, and a freak thing like that happens - we went to Cleveland State to open the season, and the day before he breaks his foot. Without him, we lead double-digits all the way and we give it away down the stretch because we don't know how to finish without him. We have started to learn how to do that. (Johnathon Jones) did it at Oregon. We're finding other ways now, and we're developing. I played nine guys tonight, and six of them are freshmen or sophomores. There are three guys out there that have played, in Waterstradt, Kangas, and Jones. We went from a veteran team that was going to have really good young players to a team where the young players have to play. I tell you what, it's a knife in the gut every time I think about it because this was supposed to be the year. And maybe it still will be, but this schedule we put together and the things that we did were because we really believed we could do some stuff this year. So, it's life, it's part of the game, everyone goes through it, but if you took Manny Harris away from (Michigan), what would happen? Every team, if you took that guy away, it would hurt them. Maybe not the Carolinas of the world, but at our level, it's hard enough to get good players, let alone lose a player like that. So yeah, it's really disheartening to me, and I feel bad for the team and I feel bad for the kid. I'm going to have lots of other teams, but I feel bad for the kid. On the other side of that, this team is really fighting, and battling, and getting good. It's a talented young group."

On whether his team's tough schedule has helped so far
"That's debatable. Some say it will, who knows. Can Keith Benson play like he did tonight against Centenary? There won't be as many fans there and it's not on TV. Who knows? We played that schedule for numerous reasons and one of them is recruiting, but hopefully the answer is yes."

On U-M's hot shooting
"If you look at the tape, I guarantee you they were behind the white line, the Pistons' line. I'm proud of our defense. I think we caused some struggles, I think they struggled to get where they wanted to and at the end of it they found the guy standing 28 feet out and he buried it. They had 15 field goals at halftime and 10 of them were threes. If they were just standing there, shooting, and we were just standing there with our hands down, that would be different. But I pat them on the back. (Lucas-Perry) hasn't played a year and he hits four straight threes."

On the magnitude of today's game
"I hope you don't take this wrong, but when we scheduled this three, four years ago, this was going to be a big thing for us. We were going to play with the big boys, rub shoulders, you know? But, I don't think we have to prove ourselves anymore. We've done enough in the last couple years. There's no proof here. We came here expecting to play, expecting to compete, and we did that. We didn't come out on the winning side. I think the score is not indicative of the game. Michigan played great. They didn't play bad, and then we got lucky and hung around, they played great. We could have taken a knockout punch and we didn't. We battled back and we were right there with five minutes to go. So we believe we don't have to prove ourselves. We know we're where we want to be and where we're going, and we're proud of that. We're playing these games with the expectation of winning. We come back here (to the Palace) next Saturday and we're coming back trying to win. We're not coming back hoping to play a good game against Michigan State."

On U-M's 18-0 run in the first half
"We went stagnant on offense, and we couldn't keep that pace. It was unbelievable. Their shots were deep and our shots were deep. We thought 'okay, we'll just shoot these long shots,' and they kept making them and we didn't. Then we collectively got ourselves back together at halftime, talked about our offense and decided to try to get the ball into Keith, and we ran a much better offense in the second half. But we fell in love with the bomb in the first half and stopped making it. Kangas never really got going until the second half. So, when we stopped making it, they didn't. And I think we played a very, very good second half." On whether or not the run evoked any fears he had about UM's explosive offense "I fear that about every team we play. You're trying to win that particular game. They have come a long way quickly, they believe in their system. They shoot it, and they made it tonight."

On U-M's early long-range shooting
"I think if you look at their shots they came late in the shot clock. We kept them out there, and finally (Harris) put his head down, and he drove down there, put his head down, our defense collapsed and they kicked it out. We went man-to-man for a little bit after they did that, and they still got those shots, because of the same thing. Their offense is designed to do that. Unless you're committed to having great athletes that can just stand with a guy, you can't do that. If we played man-to-man the whole game, I don't think Benson could have played, because they keep everyone so far from the basket. So we had to play zone, and the zone was effective in the second half. If you look at the run they made, late in the game it was a four-point game, and then we made a mistake on defense and they got the back-door cut. We came down, and we got the ball into Maynard's hands, and maybe I'm wrong for giving it to a freshman at that time in the game, but we ran an isolation play for him. He got to the basket, he shot-faked, and he didn't go through the contact, which he has to learn to do. We lost the ball up in the air, and they got it and made a three in transition. They were only 3-of-11 on the three in the second half. We came down, we got it to Maynard in the corner, he drove it and instead of taking it strong, he did all that high-school stuff, and tried to flip it up. They got it, went down, and got another three in transition. So two of their three three-pointers in the second half, were in transition, and the last one was when they were running out the clock, and they hit one in the corner. After they went nuts in the first half, our defense was very good until that stretch in the last four minutes; and it wasn't just against the defense, it was in transition."

On what he said to his team when U-M's 3-pointers kept falling
"I don't think anyone sees things like that very often. That was unbelievable. I've been coaching 31 years and I haven't seen too many things like that. And those were deep, deep shots for both teams. We stopped and they kept going. All I said was 'you know what, if they're 10-for-18 in the second half, we're going to pat them on the back and say that's the damnedest thing we've ever seen and let's go play our next game.' We're not going to change and say we have to take that away completely, because if you do they'll get back-door layups on you all day. I think we really defended well in the second half. You want to teach your team that when someone plays well against you, you pat them on the back, but keep doing the things you do well, and we did that."

On what positives he took from the loss
"In 31 years of coaching, I don't know many positives about losses. A loss is a loss. I'd rather win and play terribly than lose and play well.

Redshirt Sophomore Keith Benson

On how going up against one of the top big men in the nation, DeShawn Sims, will help his confidence
"He's a good player, and it helped me to go against him. I feel like I can do well against the people in our league after playing against a great player."

On his aggressive play
"I was trying to be as aggressive as I could, and go after any ball that I saw."

University of Michigan Head Coach JOHN BEILEIN

Opening Statement
"I think Oakland is a terrific team, and this is a very good win for us. We've got a lot of things going on, a lot of storylines. For us to come out and play that well, and we did have a week to prepare, while they beat a very good Green Bay team less than 48 hours ago, putting that into the context of what just happened, I'm really pleased. It's not the same approach you'd have going to play Oakland in their gym, to go on the road and winning on an NBA floor, against a very, very good coach who runs a good system, is an accomplishment."

On his team's hot start
"I was happy for Stu (Douglass), because that really got us going. And of course, we couldn't stop them either. (Kampe) is such a brilliant coach with his offense. You have to try to outscore them. That's really hard. We didn't want to be shy today, because you don't know when you're going to get a good look. Stu was great, and Manny (Harris) was finding people. One of the things about beating the zone defense is getting two people to play you, and then finding the open man, and Manny just did it over, and over, and over again and it just went in. It was one of the best performances I've ever seen."

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