...coverage:

GoBlueWolverine Magazine (Scout.com) has part 1 of Coach Beilein's comments to the press.

Question: How will you allocate Zach Novak’s minutes in practice and talk about the benefits of him playing guard?

Coach Beilein: “Yeah I think first of all, we would like to get him down, if he is playing 32 minutes at his normal position I think he’ll be much more productive. There were some times because he was such a good defensive player, he’s a scrapper, high IQ player, he got tired at times. I think we’ll have enough backups to allow him to have a bit more time. I’m thinking that his rebounding numbers will go up because he’s not boxing out Mike Davis now from Illinois or Raymar Morgan. He is boxing out a two guard, so he can go in and clean up defense rebounds and start the break a little bit more. He was the starting two guard I believe going into our wins over UCLA and Duke. Maybe he came in off the bench and played for Stu but that was what he was playing at that time. So I think he is going to…he is shooting the ball well. He loves playing back there, but he can be anywhere but the five man for us this year. He can still play anywhere.”

Question: What did Smotrycz show you over in Europe?

Coach Beilein: “There are not too many shots that he doesn’t like is one thing that we saw over there, which I think is good. I would rather have that than someone tentative, but he has really worked hard since he came back…the summertime, the weight workouts and they prepare to do for Europe that he showed some ability. Now these last five weeks, I’ve seen in his workouts just a little bit more bounce, a little bit more quickness, but he is a high IQ player that still has to learn how to play the college game, but he’s got a moxy and a confidence about him that I like. There are some other things. Those are strengths right now. His shot selection and things like that are something he will learn.”

...an AP article.

Michigan shot under 30 percent from 3-point range last season, a recipe for disaster in Beilein’s free-flowing offense. The Wolverines averaged 24 attempts a game from beyond the arc.

“In my experience with shooters, a bad night is 2-for-6, and a good night is 4-for-6. We don’t have 1-for-6 nights,” Beilein said. “And we’ve had way too many 1-for-6, 1-for-7 nights from the 3-point range. When you’re a shooter— 1-for-6—you want to avoid those like the plague, and I think you’re going to see that evolution as they go into this year.”

“I think naturally, when you lose great scorers like [Sims and Harris], the following year, you’re going to have a lot of balance,” [Darius] Morris said.

[Stu] Douglass says the Wolverines might have become too reliant on Harris and Sims. “We had two huge weapons in Manny and DeShawn, so whenever they caught the ball they were a threat,” Douglass said. “But a lot of times, we’d take really quick shots, and the defense would still be fresh the next possession down.”