Reminiscent of the Illinois game except that Illinois was better equipped to take advantage of our poor play. I will say that losing Eli hurt us defensively in guarding Watts. And Zeb on the offensive end was like playing 4 on 5. I thought the refs were actually decent overall, but MSU was chucking the cutters and were only called once. And MSU was very physical with Dickinson because they had so many fouls to use between Marble, Bingham and Hauser. Watts pushed off a few times with no calls. And Hunter committed some needless fouls of his own.
We had several turnovers on routine passes, a couple by Franz. I wish we would enter the passes to Hunter on the right side of the basket so that he can work his way into that little lefty hook shot. When he posted on the left side, he still tried to finish with his left hand and bricked several short bank shots. Unlike Thursday night, MSU won the rebounding battle, especially at the offensive end. Second chances really hurt, and made us work longer on D with a short bench. Most of MSU's scoring was Watts, Henry and Hauser putting the ball on the floor and knocking down mostly mid range shots. We'd get hung up for a second on a screen, which was enough for them to get free. And they made their shots, something that they don't always do. They also hit their free throws down the stretch. You have to give them some credit. As an aside, Davis's form on free throws is text book bad. No bend in the legs, low trajectory. 53% is the result.
Smith did everything he could to keep us in it. But he had little help. Chaundee's shooting was so so, which was better than Franz until very late. He couldn't execute the high degree of difficulty finishes that he normally does, and Henry got the better of him tonight at the other end. I really didn't like our zone because Henry could get inside of it and get up a mid range shot, and, of course, it yielded Langford three with less than a minute left to give them a 5 point lead. There was confusion between Franz and Brown on who should close out, just enough to give him a good look. And he made it. If he misses, we have the ball, down 2, with 45 seconds on the clock. As bad as we played, we cut it from 10 to 2, just couldn't finish it.
It's been too easy lately for opponents to take Livers out of the game. Getting him open looks is job 1. He can get one if he steps 4 or 5 feet behind the three point line, but that's not a high percentage shot even for him. Franz launched a few ill advised threes that he rushed. His shooting percentage goes way down when he rushes just a bit. Having Zeb and Johns on the floor at the same time for a long stretch of the first half was not going to work, and it didn't. When both Livers and Franz struggle and Eli is out out, it's tough to score. OTOH, we scored 69 one Thursday, 64 tonight. The big difference was MSU scoring 70 instead of 50, and that comes down to defense and rebounding.
Of course, we're all nervous about Eli's status. I puts a big question mark on our hopes for BTT title. If he's not ready, we don't have the backcourt to beat the better teams. We'll have to regroup anyway after two subpar efforts in our last three games. If not for the BTT, then for the NCAA. The year when Trey lead us to the final game, we sputtered late in the season.
We had several turnovers on routine passes, a couple by Franz. I wish we would enter the passes to Hunter on the right side of the basket so that he can work his way into that little lefty hook shot. When he posted on the left side, he still tried to finish with his left hand and bricked several short bank shots. Unlike Thursday night, MSU won the rebounding battle, especially at the offensive end. Second chances really hurt, and made us work longer on D with a short bench. Most of MSU's scoring was Watts, Henry and Hauser putting the ball on the floor and knocking down mostly mid range shots. We'd get hung up for a second on a screen, which was enough for them to get free. And they made their shots, something that they don't always do. They also hit their free throws down the stretch. You have to give them some credit. As an aside, Davis's form on free throws is text book bad. No bend in the legs, low trajectory. 53% is the result.
Smith did everything he could to keep us in it. But he had little help. Chaundee's shooting was so so, which was better than Franz until very late. He couldn't execute the high degree of difficulty finishes that he normally does, and Henry got the better of him tonight at the other end. I really didn't like our zone because Henry could get inside of it and get up a mid range shot, and, of course, it yielded Langford three with less than a minute left to give them a 5 point lead. There was confusion between Franz and Brown on who should close out, just enough to give him a good look. And he made it. If he misses, we have the ball, down 2, with 45 seconds on the clock. As bad as we played, we cut it from 10 to 2, just couldn't finish it.
It's been too easy lately for opponents to take Livers out of the game. Getting him open looks is job 1. He can get one if he steps 4 or 5 feet behind the three point line, but that's not a high percentage shot even for him. Franz launched a few ill advised threes that he rushed. His shooting percentage goes way down when he rushes just a bit. Having Zeb and Johns on the floor at the same time for a long stretch of the first half was not going to work, and it didn't. When both Livers and Franz struggle and Eli is out out, it's tough to score. OTOH, we scored 69 one Thursday, 64 tonight. The big difference was MSU scoring 70 instead of 50, and that comes down to defense and rebounding.
Of course, we're all nervous about Eli's status. I puts a big question mark on our hopes for BTT title. If he's not ready, we don't have the backcourt to beat the better teams. We'll have to regroup anyway after two subpar efforts in our last three games. If not for the BTT, then for the NCAA. The year when Trey lead us to the final game, we sputtered late in the season.
