Feb. 16, 2010
Recap | Box Score | Photo Gallery 
Michigan at Iowa
Postgame Quotes
Michigan Head Coach John Beilein
“It was a great game. I think everybody in the building got their money’s worth. It was entertaining. If we would have dropped that game, not winning in overtime, we still would have walked away feeling good about the direction of our team. I’m happy for Todd [Lickliter] because his team played so well. It was a good basketball game.”
On DeShawn Sims’ end of regulation shot
“It was the same play that we ran at the end of the first half, and he backed up instead of sliding over for a closer three. My thought there was that they’re really going to sit on our three-point guys, and Sims was the one guy they weren’t going to sit on. It was a quicker hitting play as well; I thought they’d be sitting on a lot of our other stuff. We just had a hunch and it worked. I really thought it was in right away. Sometimes I’m wrong, I’m usually right when it’s way off. I watch these guys shoot thousands of shots in practice and you know when the release is good and it looked good from the beginning. I’m just disappointed he stayed on the ground for so long, that could have hurt us.”
On DeShawn Sims closing shots
“That may be a record for shots, 25 shots in a game. I think he’s capable of finishing even better. Iowa does a really good job of walling up and getting into you, knocking you around a little bit. He didn’t finish some of those, but credit Iowa’s defense.”
Iowa Head Coach Todd Lickliter
Opening Statement…
“I was concerned that we needed to get our offense fixed, but I think we got it fixed. We struggled to defend. They shoot so well and run stuff that gets them good shots. To our guys’ credit, it was a hard fought, good basketball game. Much different than when we went up there, and it doesn’t surprise me with our guys. They have great character. The thing that haunts you is, going with percentages, over ten seconds, you foul, under ten and you don’t. When a team shoots three like this, knowing what I know now, we should have fouled them. But then they miss and tip it in, but you never know. I just know what didn’t work. The game was really hard fought. Our guys fought hard.”
Why didn’t you choose to foul on that last possession?
“Because there were 14 seconds to go; it’s early. There’s going to be a few more possessions. They get the three, it goes into overtime, plus you probably have another chance to score. If you foul, they make the free throws, they foul you and then you miss, now they have a chance to win in regulation. The worst you can do is tie, but the way they shoot it, there was a debate going on. Normally, less time means you foul, but 14 seconds is a lot of time. There was going to be two or three more possessions.”
Asked about Fullers’ performance…
“He’s pretty good, isn’t he? The sad thing is, you have guys playing really well and you don’t get the win. I thought Matt Gatens was really good tonight. Cully [Payne] was good. Eric [May] defended well. They have a guy where, if you’re on him, he just raises up and shoots it in. They have two guys that, you can guard them if you want, but they’re going to raise it up and shoot it in. It’s a tough thing to have to handle. Plus, they run great stuff. They’re well coached, but they do have some special players.”