MSU women don't play again until tomorrow, already watched the Hope women's film, and no Friday night basketball yet, so got to watch 2 MSU men's games live in one week. Might be the last time this year!
+3
1. MSU basketball. It's awesome. Great environment. Friday night before a home football game. When Akins threw that down and we were getting stops, place was electric. Have no idea how good this team will be, but they have been so fun to watch/root for so far this year. They will have some scoring droughts due to being so perimeter-oriented, can see them having trouble with elite 4/5 men, but they have played with great effort. Don't take it for granted. Wasn't always this way and at some point it won't be. Pretty win, ugly win, still a quality win.
2. Tyson Walker. The other night it was Joey for two halves and then Tyson took over in OT. He picked up right where he left off. 9/14, 3/6, made open shots, made tough shots, was willing to take shots.
3. Perimeter shooting. We don't have a consistent post threat. Our best post players are probably a 3-man (Hall), a 4-man (Hauser), and a point guard (Hoggard). Point paints are probably going to come more in transition and off the bounce than in the post. Because of that, perimeter shooting is going to matter a lot for this team. 13/25 from 3. Make one less and they might've lost. Scary way to live and die, but that sure seems to be the strength of this squad.
-3
1. Got the lead to 16 and had everything going, then really struggled in the last 9 minutes, especially on the defensive end. Gave up straight line drives to the rim, open 3's, slightly contested 3's, and a few careless pick-6 turnovers, too. Giving up 47 in the 2nd half is a big step backwards from how they had defended so far this season. Sucks to end a game that way when you controlled the first 31 minutes.
2. Not a good night for the 5-position. 0/3 from the floor for 1 point. Outscored 24-1 at that position. Hard to win games when 3 players give you those numbers against what Dixon gave Nova. Yes, I know who Dixon is. I know how good he is. I know how inexperienced our guys are. Still can't be 24-1.
3. If Akins is hurt for any length of time, that would be the minus 1, 2, and 3 for this game. He's that important.
MISC
* I love how Mady played vs. Gonzaga and UK. Awesome kid. Development has been unreal. Potential to still get better. But he has a long ways to go, still, IMO. I'm sure there will be pushback on this and maybe I'm just slow to react and everyone can see it more clearly than me. Not bashing him at all, far from it. But maybe I see it at a different stage of the process and the ceiling being different? So be it.
* 13, 10, and 8 tonight from AJ. Almost a triple-double. Was unguarded, basically Tum-Tum disrespected at the 3-point line and made 3/6, which were big.
* 2 calls were unbelievable. The double-dribble on Walker was a joke. Simply a hesitation-crossover. It's not a carry or double-dribble. Watch 100 games and you won't see it called. Then the call on Hoggard simply can't happen. The fouls are already 10-3 in Nova's favor and Daniels kicks his leg out on a 3. Hoggard was not going to touch him at all. We are up 7 at the time. They call a completely phantom foul on AJ. Should've been a T for flopping. You simply can't make that call, one that bad, in that moment. Players and coaches get grilled/chastised on social media for those type of errors, but that ref just gets to go away, collect his check, and not answer a question. Zero accountability. Brutal.
* Wish we ran more sets for Joey to get jumpers than post touches. Was 5/7 tonight and 3/4 from 3. Jumper was clearly working. Wish we could've got him more looks, but I know it's hard to do vs. a team that switches. Tonight is the night where we needed him to get 15 shots.
* When Nova gets those two guys back, they are going to be tough.
* Hall did an amazing job on Daniels.
* Got the transition game going a bit better tonight.
* Let's talk about why Nova gave up so many jumpers. It's not because they were just packing 4 bodies in the lane every possession. Rewatch the game, stop it at any point in time on a defensive possession, and you will see that wasn't the case. They decided to switch every single screen, 1-5. Combine that with RUNNING away from Hoggard, Sissoko, or Holloman at the 3-point line. When their posts switched onto Walker for example, that man would back up so he wouldn't get beat by a quicker guard. They would live with our guards taking a contested 3 against a bigger man. Take that and add playing off a few of our guys, and you had selective bodies in the paint. I thought we spread them out on those switches in the first half better than in the second. Sometimes, I think teams make that too complicated. I'd simply take my guard I wanted vs. a big or my big I wanted vs. a guard, set one screen, and then attack the mismatch. That's the downside to switching. If you can't make them pay for the guard vs. big or big vs. guard, they can just keep switching. Especially if you aren't going to slip screens, which we didn't do at all.
* 3 time-outs when we were throwing the ball in late. Wish we would've taken one vs. turning it over.
* My expectations for this team have been raised since the beginning of the year. UK win was enormous. Message boards are for predictions, highs and lows, I get it. Doesn't hurt to talk about expectations on here. If you are ranking the team on what they've accomplished, you can't find 10 better resumes than ours. Having said that, I think this is a good, not great team. Yet.
+3
1. MSU basketball. It's awesome. Great environment. Friday night before a home football game. When Akins threw that down and we were getting stops, place was electric. Have no idea how good this team will be, but they have been so fun to watch/root for so far this year. They will have some scoring droughts due to being so perimeter-oriented, can see them having trouble with elite 4/5 men, but they have played with great effort. Don't take it for granted. Wasn't always this way and at some point it won't be. Pretty win, ugly win, still a quality win.
2. Tyson Walker. The other night it was Joey for two halves and then Tyson took over in OT. He picked up right where he left off. 9/14, 3/6, made open shots, made tough shots, was willing to take shots.
3. Perimeter shooting. We don't have a consistent post threat. Our best post players are probably a 3-man (Hall), a 4-man (Hauser), and a point guard (Hoggard). Point paints are probably going to come more in transition and off the bounce than in the post. Because of that, perimeter shooting is going to matter a lot for this team. 13/25 from 3. Make one less and they might've lost. Scary way to live and die, but that sure seems to be the strength of this squad.
-3
1. Got the lead to 16 and had everything going, then really struggled in the last 9 minutes, especially on the defensive end. Gave up straight line drives to the rim, open 3's, slightly contested 3's, and a few careless pick-6 turnovers, too. Giving up 47 in the 2nd half is a big step backwards from how they had defended so far this season. Sucks to end a game that way when you controlled the first 31 minutes.
2. Not a good night for the 5-position. 0/3 from the floor for 1 point. Outscored 24-1 at that position. Hard to win games when 3 players give you those numbers against what Dixon gave Nova. Yes, I know who Dixon is. I know how good he is. I know how inexperienced our guys are. Still can't be 24-1.
3. If Akins is hurt for any length of time, that would be the minus 1, 2, and 3 for this game. He's that important.
MISC
* I love how Mady played vs. Gonzaga and UK. Awesome kid. Development has been unreal. Potential to still get better. But he has a long ways to go, still, IMO. I'm sure there will be pushback on this and maybe I'm just slow to react and everyone can see it more clearly than me. Not bashing him at all, far from it. But maybe I see it at a different stage of the process and the ceiling being different? So be it.
* 13, 10, and 8 tonight from AJ. Almost a triple-double. Was unguarded, basically Tum-Tum disrespected at the 3-point line and made 3/6, which were big.
* 2 calls were unbelievable. The double-dribble on Walker was a joke. Simply a hesitation-crossover. It's not a carry or double-dribble. Watch 100 games and you won't see it called. Then the call on Hoggard simply can't happen. The fouls are already 10-3 in Nova's favor and Daniels kicks his leg out on a 3. Hoggard was not going to touch him at all. We are up 7 at the time. They call a completely phantom foul on AJ. Should've been a T for flopping. You simply can't make that call, one that bad, in that moment. Players and coaches get grilled/chastised on social media for those type of errors, but that ref just gets to go away, collect his check, and not answer a question. Zero accountability. Brutal.
* Wish we ran more sets for Joey to get jumpers than post touches. Was 5/7 tonight and 3/4 from 3. Jumper was clearly working. Wish we could've got him more looks, but I know it's hard to do vs. a team that switches. Tonight is the night where we needed him to get 15 shots.
* When Nova gets those two guys back, they are going to be tough.
* Hall did an amazing job on Daniels.
* Got the transition game going a bit better tonight.
* Let's talk about why Nova gave up so many jumpers. It's not because they were just packing 4 bodies in the lane every possession. Rewatch the game, stop it at any point in time on a defensive possession, and you will see that wasn't the case. They decided to switch every single screen, 1-5. Combine that with RUNNING away from Hoggard, Sissoko, or Holloman at the 3-point line. When their posts switched onto Walker for example, that man would back up so he wouldn't get beat by a quicker guard. They would live with our guards taking a contested 3 against a bigger man. Take that and add playing off a few of our guys, and you had selective bodies in the paint. I thought we spread them out on those switches in the first half better than in the second. Sometimes, I think teams make that too complicated. I'd simply take my guard I wanted vs. a big or my big I wanted vs. a guard, set one screen, and then attack the mismatch. That's the downside to switching. If you can't make them pay for the guard vs. big or big vs. guard, they can just keep switching. Especially if you aren't going to slip screens, which we didn't do at all.
* 3 time-outs when we were throwing the ball in late. Wish we would've taken one vs. turning it over.
* My expectations for this team have been raised since the beginning of the year. UK win was enormous. Message boards are for predictions, highs and lows, I get it. Doesn't hurt to talk about expectations on here. If you are ranking the team on what they've accomplished, you can't find 10 better resumes than ours. Having said that, I think this is a good, not great team. Yet.
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