Wolverine TV: Juwan Howard, Michigan players react to win over Penn State

Michigan Wolverines head basketball coach Juwan Howard, fifth-year senior guard DeVante’ Jones and freshman wing Caleb Houstan met with the media following the team’s 58-57 win at Penn State Tuesday night in Happy Valley.

After struggling early on, Michigan’s defense did tighten up a bit and force some tough shots for an already poor offense. The Wolverines couldn’t stop dribble drives in the first half — freshman guard Kobe Bufkin had his fair share of struggles and was benched — but was better in help-side defense after the break. Penn State made just seven of its 29 overall shot attempts in the second half and went 4-of-19 from inside the arc.

Howard was asked what the difference was defensively after halftime.

“The difference was, in the first half, [Michigan] allowed their shooters to get open looks, too many paint touches,” Howard said. “I looked back from the first half stats, and they scored 18 points in the paint. They also shot the ball extremely well from the outside — they made four threes and shot 57 percent in the first half.

“So at halftime, I talked about that it’s too easy, everything they’re getting is too easy and [Michigan has] to make them work for every bucket, that they don’t feel us. We’ve got to cut off the paint touches.

“And looking back at the second-half stat sheet, and in total they scored 26 points for total for the game in the paint. Do the math, eight points they scored in the paint [in the second half]. Also, you look at the field goal percentage in the second half — they shot 24 percent from the field because we got hand, ball, contest.

Added the Michigan coach: “We did a good job of keeping our man in front. When they did touch the paint, we limited them to one-shot opportunities because our guys did a really good job boxing out.”

For more from Howard, Jones and Houstan, watch the videos below.

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Michigan Basketball Head Coach Juwan Howard

Guard DeVante’ Jones, Wing Caleb Houstan

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