Hoops 2023

[johnny2x2x]

probably like 3 on 5 if Sossoko was out there with Hall.

Sissoko played hard, but was awful defensively in the pick and roll defense. They were letting Boo Bouie get past the pick defense and into the lane all game, he had 10 assists kicking it to wide open guys. Cooper did a much better job.

Northwestern runs a weird motion offense that Izzo has problems defending.They bullied us last night but it wasn't as bad as the score looked. There was a 21-7 run in the last 5 minutes of the first half that essentially was the difference, was a more even game the other 35 minutes. And it was a weird run. Northwestern clearly stepped out of bounds and the refs missed it, led to a 3. A couple weird bounces. A breakaway pass was deflected and led to a 3 for NW.

Hall was every bit as bad as his stat line suggests. On offense he was standing in the corner doing nothing and didn't even crash the offensive boards after a shot. He was late on defense, he got outworked for loose balls and rebounds all game. Dude had 42 points and 13 board the previous 2 games and then went and laid a goose egg across the board. Never een anything like it.

I know Hall has dealt with health problems with his family. Maybe being home in Chicago was a distraction for him. But he looked like a zombie out there.

 

[gotime909]

Mady is not a big ten center and the fact that izzo is STILL trying to make him a thing makes me not watch them. 2 years straight that the stubborn fuck didn't bring in a playable center. If we had a consistent 10 and 8 center this team would be a contender. I'm also over AJ. Izzo has tried so many times to make it Hoggards team and its just not gonna work.

 

[Spartanmack]

Sissoko played hard, but was awful defensively in the pick and roll defense. They were letting Boo Bouie get past the pick defense and into the lane all game, he had 10 assists kicking it to wide open guys. Cooper did a much better job.

Northwestern runs a weird motion offense that Izzo has problems defending.They bullied us last night but it wasn't as bad as the score looked. There was a 21-7 run in the last 5 minutes of the first half that essentially was the difference, was a more even game the other 35 minutes. And it was a weird run. Northwestern clearly stepped out of bounds and the refs missed it, led to a 3. A couple weird bounces. A breakaway pass was deflected and led to a 3 for NW.

Hall was every bit as bad as his stat line suggests. On offense he was standing in the corner doing nothing and didn't even crash the offensive boards after a shot. He was late on defense, he got outworked for loose balls and rebounds all game. Dude had 42 points and 13 board the previous 2 games and then went and laid a goose egg across the board. Never een anything like it.

I know Hall has dealt with health problems with his family. Maybe being home in Chicago was a distraction for him. But he looked like a zombie out there.

Didn't see the game, but sounds like Sissoko had the best seat in the house for a handful of NW offensive rebounds and he's always been a ghost on offense. He's just not the guy - useless on offense and inconsistent on other end.

And that wasn't the only run. We tied the game with 7:13 left in the 1h then NW went on a 20-5 run to close out the half.

Hall has always been streaky, plays out of his mind then disappears. He's been up and down his whole tenure at MSU.

 

[Spartanmack]

Haven?t watched the Illinois game yet. While it hurts as an incremental 4th B1G loss, at least Illinois is a good team. It doesn?t hurt nearly as badly as getting our asses kicked by NW, a team that struggled against PSU a few days later.

Izzo has to stop losing to the NWs and Nebraskas or even Wisconsin at home.

 

[gotime909]

Haven?t watched the Illinois game yet. While it hurts as an incremental 4th B1G loss, at least Illinois is a good team. It doesn?t hurt nearly as badly as getting our asses kicked by NW, a team that struggled against PSU a few days later.

Izzo has to stop losing to the NWs and Nebraskas or even Wisconsin at home.

Maybe if he stopped looking for reasons to sit guys like Booker and Carr. Also, what is the fucking point of putting in Kohler for 1 minute again. You want him to reinjure that foot, that's how you do it. Either he's healthy or he isn't. Play the damn kid. Mady and Cooper suck

 

[Spartanmack]

Maybe if he stopped looking for reasons to sit guys like Booker and Carr. Also, what is the fucking point of putting in Kohler for 1 minute again. You want him to reinjure that foot, that's how you do it. Either he's healthy or he isn't. Play the damn kid. Mady and Cooper suck

I think losing Fears is really going to hurt this team - seemed like he was getting momentum. I'm sure Izzo would still favor Hoggard but Fears was getting meaningful minutes. If he makes it back this season, there's going to be an adjustment period - maybe a streak of games where he gets in for 1 minute.

 

[gotime909]

I think losing Fears is really going to hurt this team - seemed like he was getting momentum. I'm sure Izzo would still favor Hoggard but Fears was getting meaningful minutes. If he makes it back, there's going to be an adjustment period - maybe a streak of games where he gets in for 1 minute.

Fears showed the 1 thing that this team is woefully missing. Leadership

 

[Spartanmack]

Fears showed the 1 thing that this team is woefully missing. Leadership

Stat sheet says we only scored 4 points in transition last night - in addition to another mediocre shooting night.

 

[gotime909]

Stat sheet says we only scored 4 points in transition last night - in addition to another mediocre shooting night.

Fears helps in both if those stats. Pushes the ball and finds open shooters.

 

[Spartanmack]

Fears helps in both if those stats. Pushes the ball and finds open shooters.

especially if those shooters can hit a few of them.

 

[Spartanmack]

If there is such a thing as a disappointing win, that Minnesota game was it. Missing their starting PG who is one of their 2 best players and winning the turnover battle by a mile (19-5), dominating the pts in the paint and adding 17 in transition we struggled to put away a mediocre team until the last 2 minutes and even trailed I think in the last 4 or 5.

Got out-rebounded again as well as had a lousy FT and 3 pt shooting night.

Not a particularly inspiring result but a win is a win.

 

[gotime909]

If there is such a thing as a disappointing win, that Minnesota game was it. Missing their starting PG who is one of their 2 best players and winning the turnover battle by a mile (19-5), dominating the pts in the paint and adding 17 in transition we struggled to put away a mediocre team until the last 2 minutes and even trailed I think in the last 4 or 5.

Got out-rebounded again as well as had a lousy FT and 3 pt shooting night.

Not a particularly inspiring result but a win is a win.

Mady is still getting 20+ mins a game. I won't watch until that changes. The guy just isn't a big ten big. Probably not even mac level. There has to be a random 6' 9 kid on campus they could throw a uniform on that could do better.

 

[Spartanmack]

Back-to-back disappointing wins. Maybe it's a good thing CBS isn't on Sling so I couldn't watch or record it.

Looks like Mady had another 5 rebound game to go along with his 2 points as the Spartans get dominated on the boards 37-22. To be fair, it looks like he may have had some foul trouble as he only played 10 mins. Malik led the team with a measly 6 boards. Cooper scores a big fat 0 in 27 minutes (probably at least partly a function of Mady being in foul trouble) while Xavier never got off the bench.

Apparently the team attempted just 16 threes. I'm not a coach but I feel like in today's game, even in the B1G, that number has to be at least in the high 20s with a conversion rate in the high 30s otherwise it's gonna be hard to get many layups and foul shots. We're not gonna go far taking tough 2s.

On the plus side, it looks like Holloman had a decent game on top of making a nice play to thwart MD's potential tie or game winning effort and Walker kept his streak of double digit scoring games alive.

 

[johnny2x2x]

MSU up to 21st ranked in the NET, which is the only rankings that matter as they're all the NCAA committee looks at.

Important win at Marylan, a team who has now only lost 3 games at home the last 2 seasons. They lost 1 game last season to #16 UCLA, and 1 game this season to #1 Purdue at home.

2nd half was more about Maryland coming out and playing their best than it was about MSu collapsing. That we were able to match their grit and energy in the end and hold on is a big step for this team. Really important win with a game at Wisconsin coming up Friday.

 

[Spartanmack]

you can't polish a turd bro. Maryland's home schedule this year has been:

Mount St Mary's
UMBC
South Alabama
Rider
Penn St
Alcorn State
Nicholls
Coppin State
Purdue
michigan
Michigan State

And they lost to Davidson and UAB in neutral site games. They had some respectable home and road wins last year but this isn't the same team - 12 games left and they're 1 loss away from matching their total from last season.

Not a lot of positives to take away from this other than it's a win. If they play anthing like that on Friday, they won't even be in the game - kinda like last time we played Wisconsin. This team has potential but it also has a lot to figure out before they can be a threat.

 

[Spartanmack]

Watched the first half and 4 or 5 minutes into the 2nd last night, wisco hadn't pulled away just yet but MSU still looked pretty awful, particularly on defense. Hopefully they have enough shitty teams left on the schedule to get a 9th seed, keep the tourney streak alive and call it a year.

3 upperclassmen in the backcourt + experience (although little to no talent) up front should be a recipe for success but this is the best Izzo can do? What a waste.

Edit: I know foul trouble hurt us in the first half but they didn't really pull away until well into the 2nd. MSU shot worse from the floor than from 3, ouch. And they only attempted 14 3s - that would be a decent number of attempts for a half. It's going to be hard to beat anyone if we're taking 3pt attempts in the mid teens.

 

[gotime909]

Watched the first half and 4 or 5 minutes into the 2nd last night, wisco hadn't pulled away just yet but MSU still looked pretty awful, particularly on defense. Hopefully they have enough shitty teams left on the schedule to get a 9th seed, keep the tourney streak alive and call it a year.

3 upperclassmen in the backcourt + experience (although little to no talent) up front should be a recipe for success but this is the best Izzo can do? What a waste.

You can't have such a glaring hole in the post. Don't care how good the backcourt is you can't consistently win being that 1 dimensional.

 

[Spartanmack]

You can't have such a glaring hole in the post. Don't care how good the backcourt is you can't consistently win being that 1 dimensional.

True - even though guards win championships, you have to have some presence up front. I suppose it?s possible that they?re not getting looks because it?s easier to defend the arc when you don?t have a post presence but the number of 3 pt attempts were taking seems ridiculously low.

I think on top of having no front court, part of the problem is the backcourt hasn?t lived up to expectations. Sure we had 3 experienced guards coming back but Hoggard is a mediocre PG, definitely not a winner. Aikens has shown flashes and a lot of potential but I think everyone would agree this year has been a big disappointment in terms of his production.

Why Izzo hasn?t used the portal and why he red shirted Normand will be the questions asked when this team misses or barely makes the tourney and gets bounced the 1st weekend.

 

[gotime909]

True - even though guards win championships, you have to have some presence up front. I suppose it?s possible that they?re not getting looks because it?s easier to defend the arc when you don?t have a post presence but the number of 3 pt attempts were taking seems ridiculously low.

I think on top of having no front court, part of the problem is the backcourt hasn?t lived up to expectations. Sure we had 3 experienced guards coming back but Hoggard is a mediocre PG, definitely not a winner. Aikens has shown flashes and a lot of potential but I think everyone would agree this year has been a big disappointment in terms of his production.

Why Izzo hasn?t used the portal and why he red shirted Normand will be the questions asked when this team misses or barely makes the tourney and gets bounced the 1st weekend.

His stubbornness to adapt to the new ways is feeling a lot like Dantonios last couple seasons.

 

[Spartanmack]

I completely forgot to watch and record the uofm game - that’s how unenthused I am about this team. One thing that game shows is as bad as things are in E Lansing, they could definitely be worse.

If Izzo tried to make “Who’s got it worse than us?” a thing, do you think it would catch on?