Video: John Beilein previews Western Michigan

1 Like

Brandon Johns day! Seemed like every question was about Johns :laughing:

1 Like

You mentioned in the preview that it’s unrealistic to expect 20 minutes out of Johns and DeJulius. I was thinking something like “if we’re up by a lot at the under 8 we’ll see them with the other rotation players for a bit before the bench empties at the under 4:00.” Does that seem reasonable?

Yeah, Beilein discussed that today. He said early in the season you are worried about getting starters enough minutes to build their endurance. Seems to be less of a concern now. I do think we’ll see Johns a bit, but who knows.

Others have mentioned it, and I agree that it would be nice to see Johns and DeJulius get some minutes with regular rotation players. Seems Beilein empties the bench and there’s just no equilibrium out there with the five freshmen or a mix of freshmen and walkons. I’d like to see how those two function when they’re playing with guys who understand what’s happening out there.

The other issue is that it might be even more pertinent to get Isaiah Livers minutes with the starters … especially at the 5.

Totally agree about Livers. It also seems that Livers is more accurate from the 3 corner than the 4 corner. Do you have any stats readily available in that regard? He probably has more attempts from the 4 corner though .

Read that Brandon Johns met with reporters today… do you have that video, by chance?

No video of Johns but some quotes from him and Beilein on him here:

Very few people watched player pregame videos in the past, so we’ve been just shooting video of Beilein before games.

1 Like

Got it, makes sense. Saw that posted on the site like a minute after I submitted my reply. Thanks!

I would love to see Brandon Johns get some run with the “rotation” players, as I’ve said before. Having said that I will always trust Coach B to know what is best for the team. He is in practice with them everyday. He knows what he wants from this team, what he wants it to be and to become. But, having said that, I would love to see Johns become part of what is (could be) a solid, deep, and very interchangeable 8, or perhaps 9 player rotation.

Just watched the video of the Beilein presser. My favorite part was when one of the reporters , I think it was Nick, asked about players who don’t perform particularly well in practice but play well in games. Coach B said something like it very rarely happens that a player isn’t very good in practice but is a “gamer.” Then Belien said something I just loved. He said, “That’s a big question, there must not be much news happening today.”