Wolverine TV: Phil Martelli, Dug McDaniel preview Michigan basketball opener against UNC Asheville
Michigan Wolverines basketball associate and interim head coach Phil Martelli and sophomore guard Dug McDaniel met with the media Monday afternoon ahead of Tuesday night’s season opener against UNC Asheville. Watch video of Martelli at the top of the screen (or on our YouTube channel) and McDaniel in the embed below.
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Martelli opened up his press conference by discussing the beginning of the Michigan and college basketball season, as well as the health of the team, including with head coach Juwan Howard, who’s still recovering from a Sept. 15 heart procedure.
“For every basketball coach and every basketball team, this is a great time of year. Everybody’s undefeated. And then, some time after 9 o’clock tonight, half the teams in the country that have played will be devastated, half the fans will be devastated. And then you go back to work again tomorrow.
“It is early, but that’s not an excuse, it’s just a fact. I’ve never really been a fan of starting this early in college basketball, but it is the way of the world. For the most part, we are healthy — mentally, physically. Yo Yo has been banged up a little bit. He’ll be back at it today at practice. [Graduate guard] Jaelin Llewellyn is day to day, doing things — maybe one more drill, one more time he bangs with somebody. He will not be in uniform. [Junior guard] Jace Howard has been stated he’s out four to six weeks. And Juwan Howard is in the building. He will not be on the sideline, but he will be in the building — I assume. I have not heard. He has not said that directly. But he has, as is his nature, watched a lot of UNC Asheville video, watched every one of our practice videos, so his hands are involved — more his mind has been involved. And it’s good for him, so we’re excited about his progress.”
UNC Asheville returns four starters from last year’s team and will provide an opening night challenge for Michigan Tuesday evening at Crisler Center.
“Seven of their nine scorers are back — top scorers are back,” Martelli noted. “Their fifth starter could be a transfer from VCU or from Georgia Southern. They have a horse, and I say that affectionately. This kid, [Drew] Pember, was the player of the year, was the defensive player of the year [in the Big South], led the country in foul shots taken, led the country in foul shots made. Eighty blocked shots. And I guess we’ll see this more and more, to be honest with you, he and [Michigan graduate forward] Olivier [Nkamhoua] were teammates together for a couple years at Tennessee.”
Michigan and UNC Asheville tip off at 8:30 p.m. ET Tuesday.
