March 9, 2006

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MINNESOTA

Head Coach Dan Monson:
Opening statement:
"It's indicative that this was a real team win for us just by the two student-athletes (Zach Puchtel and Maurice Hargrow) who are sitting up here with me. These are two guys, one who started as a walk-on and the other who started at the beginning of the year as a guy we thought was going to be one of our leaders, and neither one of those ended as expected. But tonight they really stepped up, along with Dan Coleman.

"When you come to the Tournament you have to have other players step up and help the guys who have been there all year. These two, along with Coleman, really had big games for us.

"I didn't think we played particularly well offensively, but this was one of our better defensive efforts of the year. At halftime when Michigan had 27 points, I told our guys if we held them to another 27 we were going to score 54. We barely made it, especially with our free throw shooting, but we made it.

"I'm just proud of our effort, as indicated by the fight we had for rebounds. Michigan is so athletic inside, but I thought Zach's passion for the ball, along with Spencer Tollackson, was the difference for us. It was a good team win. Michigan did a good job on Vincent Grier and Maurice Hargrow, guys who have had great offensive games for us, but these other guys really came through."

On the play of Vincent Grier:
"People judge kids too much on their points. Vince spent a lot of energy trying to contain Daniel Horton. We had no chance playing him the way we did the first two times with our point guards on him. And I challenged Rico Tucker for his role to come in and give Vince a blow and be happy with only playing one or two possessions and coming right back out. Rico really accepted that role and did a great job on Horton as well.

"We just couldn't play Horton the same way we did the first two times. It didn't work and we needed something to change that. We challenged Vince early in the week, and just giving a potent point guard a different look was really important for us."

Maurice Hargrow
On halftime adjustment:
 "I feel good about coming down here to this tournament. Earlier this week, we put in work. Going down 4-0, it wasn't so much about us. (The deficit) was about the approach we had for this game and the focus we had in that first 20 minutes. I definitely felt good about our chances of pulling this one out."

On taking care of ball in second half:
 "That's always a key to winning any ball game. You can't turn the ball over, especially against a team like Michigan that is so athletic. They turn turnovers into baskets better than anyone in the country. As a team, we emphasized taking care of the ball. We thought if we just get a shot off we can get a tip-in or a chance to get a fresh 35 (second shot clock) to get something better."

On Vincent Grier:
 "I can't say that Vince struggled because when you have a guy like Daniel Horton, who puts so much pressure on you on defense, your focus can't be to come back and score on him every time he scores. Your focus should be sitting down on defense and making him work for every basket. That's going to take a lot out of you. You're not going to have the normal statistics you normally have unless you catch fire that night.

"I can't say Vincent had a bad first half. He still had a solid game overall. He rebounded and defended Horton as well as anyone that I have seen. You can talk about the free throws and you can talk about stuff like that but I still say Vincent had a solid all-around game."

Zach Puchtel
On playing Michigan for the third time:
 "They jumped us in the second game, 36-5. I knew we had to sustain that first blow, not only withstand it but punch them in the mouth as well. It was a big focus of ours to come out strong and play tough defense like we knew we could and not let (the big deficit) happen. We did a pretty good job of that."

On a win at the Big Ten Tournament:
 "It's an absolute dream. It's a pleasure to be out there on the floor with all of my teammates on a big stage like this. It's awesome. I love every minute of it. I'm having a blast, kicking it up with the guys. There's really nothing like it. The win just puts the cherry on top."

On Michigan's passiveness in the second half:
"I wasn't really surprised because once we settled down and got into our game, we not only hung with them but actually beat them. We knew we could come out and play with them. We just fought really hard and wanted it more than they did."

MICHIGAN

Head Coach Tommy Amaker
On the match-up:
"This was certainly a disappointing loss for us. Obviously, we have not played a good stretch of basketball lately. It was very difficult offensively for both squads. I thought the difference was our inability to take care of the basketball. They were able to knock it off us and get some easy baskets in transition.  Because both teams were struggling to score, any easy baskets made throughout this game seemed to be the difference."

On the team's preparation:
"I don't think we took anything for granted.  We got off to a good start today, and we were ready to play.  We certainly recognize in the course of a conference season and conference tournaments how difficult it is.  I thought Minnesota played well enough today and deserved to win the game, and they did, so we are just hoping for good things to happen for us this weekend."

On the team's intensity:
"I thought that their aggressiveness on the ball knocked us back a little bit.  To be very honest, we haven't been good when people put pressure on us. We know that, and we try to do things against it and safeguard for it, but it wasn't enough today."

"I certainly didn't think we were passive. At times we were sloppy; we were not paying enough attention to detail with the ball and would turn it over. We were trying to do too much and we got into trouble with that. We dug ourselves a hole in a possession by possession game and sometimes it's very difficult to get out of it. We found that out the hard way."

Daniel Horton
On the team's effort:
"We weren't strong enough and they made some savvy plays. We needed to be tougher and take more pride in having the ball."

On the NCAA Tournament:
"It's hard to think about after having lost, but we will make the most of it. We have to be prepared and since we are not on any committees we will just have to wait and see."

On Vincent Grier:
"Vincent is a great player and the defense of the whole team is great. The defense is a whole and not depended on by just one person. With the help of the other guys on the team, the defense does not let the ball get through. They did a great job."

On the turnover problem all season:
"We had so many lineup changes and it has to do with chemistry. It comes down to us being tougher with the basketball and that has been a problem. It also comes down to the little things such as playing together and that was not done well today."

Graham Brown
On the NCAA Tournament:
"We do have a chance for the tournament if we go out and play hard."