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Wolverine TV: Phil Martelli, Michigan players discuss crushing loss to Indiana

clayton-sayfieby:Clayton Sayfie•12/05/23•

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Phil Martelli
(Photo by Lon Horwedel / TheWolverine.com)

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan Wolverines basketball associate and interim head coach Phil Martelli, redshirt sophomore forward Will Tschetter and graduate guard Nimari Burnett met with the media following a 78-75 loss to Indiana to open Big Ten play at Crisler Center. Watch video of Martelli in the player at the top of the screen and the players in the embed below. As always, also find our video content on The Wolverine’s YouTube channel.

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Martelli started his press conference with an opening statement on the loss.

“Disappointment in the result, and more disappointment because of the way we prepared yesterday and today’s walkthrough,” Martelli said. “Certainly, the fan support was terrific, but we just had these … I don’t want to exaggerate and call them ‘monumental,’ but we had these breakdowns on one-on-one plays. Terrific job in the first half. They had two second-chance points, seven in the second half. And now, today, the number is 14 turnovers. [Michigan assistant coach] Howard Eisley had addressed them offensively and said 11 or fewer and we would win the game going away.

“When you sign up, they don’t tell you every day is going to be a great day. They say, ‘every day is going to be an opportunity.’ For separation in the league, you have to win road games — that’s stating [the assumption] that you’re going to win at home majority of time.

“Hats off and congratulations to Indiana. They went to their strength. Fifty two points in the paint, and we didn’t have enough to win a 15-round fight. We probably had enough to win a 12-round fight, but not a 15-round fight, and every night in the Big Ten is going to be a 15-round fight — and a championship fight. So, [the Michigan team is] off tomorrow, back at it on Thursday.”

Martelli was asked if Michigan is still ‘figuring out’ what it can rely on nine games into the season.

“If we’re figuring it out … I would say, no. We’re not executing it exactly how it needs to be executed. This is going to be built on balance. It’s gotta be a balanced attack. It has to be quicker — not faster. It has to be a quicker attack. And I’m not sure that a lot of times we had quick … again, strong half-court defensive team, heavy help team — you have to attack that. It happened against Memphis, it happened against Texas Tech, where we’re playing sideline to sideline and not enough in an attack mode. We have to start thinking about how many times the ball touches the paint and playing off of that.”

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