1. Our defense was spectacular tonight. Not only did we hold MSU without a 3 point make, something extremely rare in colege basketball, the Spartans didn't even get a decent look until Hauser got a few after the game was long decided. We gave no spece whatsoever to their shooters when they caught the ball, and took away dishes when they drove; a team which came in number 2 in the nation in assists per made basket (66.3%) had just 7 assists in 20 makes, 2 late against our walk-ons. Franz Wagner had a ton of deflections and poke aways, and controlled Aaron Henry--Henry didn't even want to challenge Franz in the second half. Eli Brooks put the clamps on Josh Langford, who is at least 4 inches bigger than is he. Hunter Dickinson walled up on their bigs and dominated the defensive glass--MSU, which is a very good offensive rebounding team, had only 7, and 1 of those was Sissoko against the walk-ons. I can't say enough about our defense; about the only nit-pick I had in the entire game on that end was when Hunter got his second foul on an and 1 where he didn't even impact the shot which went in. Yeah, it was a crappy continuation call, but still, Hunter is too important to this team to pick up a bad foul like that at that stage of the game. If you're beat, let him go--all he did was give MSU an extra point and earn yourself a seat on the bench for the remainder of the half.
2. Eli, in addition to his great play against Langford on defense made at least 3 great hustle plays, and made big plays on the offensive end early when we needed them. If this is his last game at Crisler, thanks, Eli, you have been an incredibly valuable, smart, underrated, hard working player this year (and last year as well).
3. If you want to say the offense was sloppy tonight, then the truth is that you should limit that to our 5s were sloppy on the offensive end. We had 15 turnovers, and 10 of those were by Hunter, Austin Davis, and Brandon Johns during a shift at the 5--that means the rest of the team, the guys who generally handle the ball, had 5 for the game (1 by Rico Osuna-Harrison). I'll take that from our perimeter guys every day of the week. Hunter, to me, just had a game where he thought he could score at will in the low blocks (he could, and did, when he didn't turn it over) and rushed himself or lost focus. He'll learn from that. Otherwise, I thought we got good shots, and made some nice adjustments from the Illinois game, including Mike Smith's recognition that pull-ups and turnarounds in the lane were/are better shots for him that what he did against Illinois. I actually was not displeased with the offense at all--too many turnovers to be sure, and a few runs of thoroughly empty possessions, but MSU has been pretty good defensively recently against some very good teams, and when we weren't turning it over, we were getting everything we wanted.
4. Back to defense for a moment--unless I'm forgetting something, MSU had zero fast break points despite all of the turnovers. This MSU team needs to get easy transition points. We played great transition defense.
5. For all the grief Brandon Johns sometimes takes, I thought his play in the last 3 minutes of the first half was crucial. He's going to make mistakes; when he's allowed to play through them, which is difficult on this team, with the talent at his positions, he can make up for them with really good plays as he did tonight.
6. I guess Franz can shoot from 3 after all. Over 39% for the season after an 0-6 start.
7. Quiet night for Isaiah Livers on offense, but he smothered Gabe Brown on defense and spaced the floor. He may have been hobbled a bit, or it may simply have been that his threat allowed us to play as we did. Either way, I'm really going to miss Isaiah as a player, as a leader, and as a person.
8. Interesting stat--for all that folks complain about Bo Borowski, the last 3 MSU games he has ref's have been a 30 point loss at Rutgers, a 30 point home loss to Iowa, and a 19 point loss tonight which was not nearly that close.
9. MSU is a team which clearly is less than the sum of its parts. Offensively, the lack of both a point guard ans a lost post player, and the dearth of distance shooters leaves them with nowhere to go excpt mid-range forays by Henry or Langford, which is not a sustainable strategy. Hauser and Watts are both complete messes. Those guys have to get better next year (if they're still there), or MSU will still struggle, even with a good recruiting class.
10. Congrats to Juwan and the staff. The transition from a HOF level guy who has never been an assistant (drink!) to a guy who had never been a head coach has been more seamless than anyone, including me, could possibly have imagined.
11. Besides Eli and Isaiah, kudos to all of the seniors on this team, from starters like Mike, to key subs like Austin and Chaundee Brown to walk-ons. This is a group which lost its coach halfway through, fully bought into the new coach, and have a Big Ten regular season championship to go with a BTT tournament championship and a national championship game appearance. We don't win a lot of BT regular season championships--now 7 (including shares) since I entered college in 1972--despite the number of truly great teams we've had. Like everyone else, I was unhappy Tuesday night, and frustrated in the moment tonight when we made mistakes, but this team has been incredible all season, including coming back from a 22 day pause. Sometimes, we should all just enjoy the moment instead of thinking about what comes next. That's where I am tonight. Go Blue!
2. Eli, in addition to his great play against Langford on defense made at least 3 great hustle plays, and made big plays on the offensive end early when we needed them. If this is his last game at Crisler, thanks, Eli, you have been an incredibly valuable, smart, underrated, hard working player this year (and last year as well).
3. If you want to say the offense was sloppy tonight, then the truth is that you should limit that to our 5s were sloppy on the offensive end. We had 15 turnovers, and 10 of those were by Hunter, Austin Davis, and Brandon Johns during a shift at the 5--that means the rest of the team, the guys who generally handle the ball, had 5 for the game (1 by Rico Osuna-Harrison). I'll take that from our perimeter guys every day of the week. Hunter, to me, just had a game where he thought he could score at will in the low blocks (he could, and did, when he didn't turn it over) and rushed himself or lost focus. He'll learn from that. Otherwise, I thought we got good shots, and made some nice adjustments from the Illinois game, including Mike Smith's recognition that pull-ups and turnarounds in the lane were/are better shots for him that what he did against Illinois. I actually was not displeased with the offense at all--too many turnovers to be sure, and a few runs of thoroughly empty possessions, but MSU has been pretty good defensively recently against some very good teams, and when we weren't turning it over, we were getting everything we wanted.
4. Back to defense for a moment--unless I'm forgetting something, MSU had zero fast break points despite all of the turnovers. This MSU team needs to get easy transition points. We played great transition defense.
5. For all the grief Brandon Johns sometimes takes, I thought his play in the last 3 minutes of the first half was crucial. He's going to make mistakes; when he's allowed to play through them, which is difficult on this team, with the talent at his positions, he can make up for them with really good plays as he did tonight.
6. I guess Franz can shoot from 3 after all. Over 39% for the season after an 0-6 start.
7. Quiet night for Isaiah Livers on offense, but he smothered Gabe Brown on defense and spaced the floor. He may have been hobbled a bit, or it may simply have been that his threat allowed us to play as we did. Either way, I'm really going to miss Isaiah as a player, as a leader, and as a person.
8. Interesting stat--for all that folks complain about Bo Borowski, the last 3 MSU games he has ref's have been a 30 point loss at Rutgers, a 30 point home loss to Iowa, and a 19 point loss tonight which was not nearly that close.
9. MSU is a team which clearly is less than the sum of its parts. Offensively, the lack of both a point guard ans a lost post player, and the dearth of distance shooters leaves them with nowhere to go excpt mid-range forays by Henry or Langford, which is not a sustainable strategy. Hauser and Watts are both complete messes. Those guys have to get better next year (if they're still there), or MSU will still struggle, even with a good recruiting class.
10. Congrats to Juwan and the staff. The transition from a HOF level guy who has never been an assistant (drink!) to a guy who had never been a head coach has been more seamless than anyone, including me, could possibly have imagined.
11. Besides Eli and Isaiah, kudos to all of the seniors on this team, from starters like Mike, to key subs like Austin and Chaundee Brown to walk-ons. This is a group which lost its coach halfway through, fully bought into the new coach, and have a Big Ten regular season championship to go with a BTT tournament championship and a national championship game appearance. We don't win a lot of BT regular season championships--now 7 (including shares) since I entered college in 1972--despite the number of truly great teams we've had. Like everyone else, I was unhappy Tuesday night, and frustrated in the moment tonight when we made mistakes, but this team has been incredible all season, including coming back from a 22 day pause. Sometimes, we should all just enjoy the moment instead of thinking about what comes next. That's where I am tonight. Go Blue!
