Hoops

[gotime909]

They played fine last night. Refs kept bailing out psu players driving out of control at the basket with cheap foul calls. PSU also hit a lot of tough 3's late to keep it close.

Great team ft shooting this year, but fears worries me with his late ft misses. Especially when he misses front ends of 1and1.

 

[Spartanmack]

Yeah, seemed odd that there were 22 fouls against, at home vs penn state. Their top scorer took 12 foul shots (and hit 11). That part of the stat sheet reminded me of the 2003 tournament game against Texas - except in that game all he whistles were one way.

 

[gotime909]

Very weak effort by our big men vs USC so far.

 

[gotime909]

I'll never understand how Fidler, Kohler and Booker get so many 3 pt attempts.

 

[gotime909]

Izzo has been awful today. Bad lineups and horrible plays out of timeouts.

 

[Spartanmack]

I cancelled Paramount+ a few weeks back out of frustration over getting nickeled and dimed for every stupid streaming channel. It's obvious this by design. There's no reason why all the games not on major networks, ESPN or FS1 simply aren't on BTN other than to generate more revenue. First, you need cable or a streaming streaming service. I use YouTubeTV (for now). I'm just not going to subscribe to all these extra channels just so I don't miss that random Tuesday night game at Nebraska.

Then they move the MSU game from the Rack in New Bruswick (which I have yet to go to) to MSG the last 2 years where an OK seat starts at $350 before the service fees which brings it well over $400. Add in all the NIL and transfer portal drama and college sports have all the problems that turned me off from professional sports 30 years ago.

Anyway, I didn't see the game because I refuse to subscribe to 5 channels at $6/mo each just to watch a bad game on the DVR 2 hours after I already know what happened.

Looking at the box score and the gamecast, it looks like the starting 5 once again got off to a slow start and unfortunately the bench seems to have played well just not well enough to bail them out. You can't win them all and this team was due for a loss but to trail USC for the entire game is pretty awful. Akins has not played well the last 4 or 5 games and continues to not make 3s. I'm not saying he should be benched but it's pretty hard to understand why Richardson isn't starting ahead of him or Holloman at this point.

 

[gotime909]

I cancelled Paramount+ a few weeks back out of frustration over getting nickeled and dimed for every stupid streaming channel. It's obvious this by design. There's no reason why all the games not on major networks, ESPN or FS1 simply aren't on BTN other than to generate more revenue. First, you need cable or a streaming streaming service. I use YouTubeTV (for now). I'm just not going to subscribe to all these extra channels just so I don't miss that random Tuesday night game at Nebraska.

Then they move the MSU game from the Rack in New Bruswick (which I have yet to go to) to MSG the last 2 years where an OK seat starts at $350 before the service fees which brings it well over $400. Add in all the NIL and transfer portal drama and college sports have all the problems that turned me off from professional sports 30 years ago.

Anyway, I didn't see the game because I refuse to subscribe to 5 channels at $6/mo each just to watch a bad game on the DVR 2 hours after I already know what happened.

Looking at the box score and the gamecast, it looks like the starting 5 once again got off to a slow start and unfortunately the bench seems to have played well just not well enough to bail them out. You can't win them all and this team was due for a loss but to trail USC for the entire game is pretty awful. Akins has not played well the last 4 or 5 games and continues to not make 3s. I'm not saying he should be benched but it's pretty hard to understand why Richardson isn't starting ahead of him or Holloman at this point.

I think izzo was trying to let his vets try to get the win. Went pretty much the last 10 mins with Fears, Akins, Holloman, Fidler and Cooper. Probably cost then a win.

 

[Spartanmack]

I think izzo was trying to let his vets try to get the win. Went pretty much the last 10 mins with Fears, Akins, Holloman, Fidler and Cooper. Probably cost then a win.

Last night was also on Paramount+ with a late tip off so I didn't watch. I followed it briefly on my phone before falling asleep - I saw they opened up pretty strong 15-3 or something like that but UCLA closed that gap pretty quickly. Woke up with morning and saw we lost by 2.

Hopefully these back-to-back losses aren't the front end of an extended slide. The schedule is getting tougher though for the back half so hopefully they can get it together.

 

[gotime909]

Last night was also on Paramount+ with a late tip off so I didn't watch. I followed it briefly on my phone before falling asleep - I saw they opened up pretty strong 15-3 or something like that but UCLA closed that gap pretty quickly. Woke up with morning and saw we lost by 2.

Hopefully these back-to-back losses aren't the front end of an extended slide. The schedule is getting tougher though for the back half so hopefully they can get it together.

He did the same thing again last night playing those 5 basically the last 10 minutes.

Playing Cooper 30 minutes is criminal. As is letting Kohler, Booker and Fidler shoot multiple 3's every game.

 

[Spartanmack]

He did the same thing again last night playing those 5 basically the last 10 minutes.

Playing Cooper 30 minutes is criminal. As is letting Kohler, Booker and Fidler shoot multiple 3's every game.

I thought that's what Fidler was brought in to do - maybe they play with a smaller ball below power 4. If we had a 3 for every 3 times I've heard an announcer say "he can make that shot" when Booker lets one go, we'd probably be undefeated. Why Kohler is even that far from the basket on offense to begin with makes no sense to me. He shouldn't be going much past the elbow and then only for a pick-and-roll.

I didn't see the game but a couple things stick out from the stat sheet. We out-rebounded them massively (45-27) but had another poor shooting night at just under 38% fr the field and 22.7% from 3. 16 turnovers was a bit high but that shouldn't have mattered if we hit shots we win that game walking away.