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Posted on Mon, Jan 4, 2010 : 9:44 p.m.

Michigan coach John Beilein offers thoughts on Crisler Arena renovations

By Michael Rothstein

When John Beilein first arrived at Michigan nearly three years ago, he looked around at Crisler Arena and said to himself that the aging facility needed to be redone.

Immediately.

Yet as he learned more about the logistics of driving between Crisler and the basketball offices and the lack of dedicated practice space, he realized a practice facility - approved by the university's regents in September - was the more immediate concern.

So he waited. This week he got the news he wanted. The athletic administration would recommend the regents approve the first phase of renovations for Crisler at their Jan. 21 meeting.

“Crisler really needs to get retooled on the inside,” Beilein said on his radio show Monday night. “It’ll be exciting the next couple years at Michigan as we get up to speed with the rest of the Big Ten programs.”

Beilein and some of the administration toured Michigan State and other basketball facilities - including Kansas - taking video cameras with them and asking along the way what different coaches and administrators didn’t like about their arenas.

From there, Michigan formed a plan.

“We’ve worked at it periodically since we’ve been here and nothing but positive feedback,” Beilein said. “With the administration behind it, there’s no question the regents will be behind it.”

Practice schedule

With Michigan restarting classes this week, Beilein gave his players Monday off following the Wolverines’ 73-64 win over Ohio State on Sunday.

It's not unusual, considering the way Michigan likes to practice. Beilein likes to run his wwek like this: two hard days, game, and then a rest day/day off the day after games.

It becomes tricky on Thursday-Sunday turnarounds like Michigan has this week at Penn State and then home against Northwestern, but it is the style he prefers.

“We practice and watch film quite a bit still,” Beilein said. “(Tuesday) we’ll be on the floor 2 hours, 15 minutes and it’ll be like we practiced October 16. We don’t taper down like a lot of teams do.

“We think we can go two hard days and then a good game and then the day after rest.”

This and that

Stu Douglass was Beilein’s guest on Monday’s radio show. Douglass’ grandmother is a big Michigan fan and wanted one of those Wolverine hats with the actual Wolverine on it that some fans wear. Douglass said his family won’t allow her to wear it to games. … Also from Douglass: When Matt Vogrich let Zack Novak cut his hair, Novak looked at Douglass right before he did it and said “I don’t know why Vogrich is letting me do this.” Novak ended up buzzing off almost all of Vogrich’s once-floppy do.

Michael Rothstein covers University of Michigan basketball for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow along on Twitter @mikerothstein.