Spartans Weblog

Another scheduling note: MSU will not be playing an exhibition game vs. the University of Victoria after all (hat tip: Up with the Colors).  No explanation for the cancellation.  I still haven’t seen any additional information on the preseason Canadian tour.  Not sure if this is a sign it’s not going to happen now or not.

Austin Thornton scored 13 points in a summer league game last weekend.  And he’s reportedly added 25 pounds, going from 180 to 205, since arriving on campus last year.  Couldn’t ask for a better walk-on player: ability to contribute in a pinch but realistic about his role on the team.

Tom Izzo was on WDFN this past Thursday.  Here’s a link to listen to the radio appearance.  Not a lot of new information, except an indication he plans to play a lineup with only one big man quite a bit.  That would mean Raymar Morgan would play at the 4 spot most of the game.  A lineup like this one looks pretty good:

• PG: Lucas
• SG: Allen
• SF: Summers
• PF: Morgan
• C: Suton

That’s a versatile lineup with a good combination of quickness and toughness.  The problem is that as soon as you go to your bench, you’re looking at a multiple point guard lineup with either Walton or Lucious playing next to Lucas (assuming Dahlman won’t be a major contributor).  This past season, my feeling was the multiple-point-guard lineups often contributed to the offense bogging down.

Izzo made the comparison to the 2005 Final Four team, where Alan Anderson played power forward most games.  The difference is that the 2005 team had more pure wing players: Ager, Torbert, and Brown–plus Chris Hill,  who arguably most effective when he wasn’t playing the point.

I do expect we’re going to see smaller lineups across the conference this next season, as most teams are shallow at the post positions.  Based on that, you can make an argument either way: MSU should go small to keep up with the quickness of other teams or they should go big to take advantage in the post and on the boards.

The key, I think, is whether Delvon Roe is ready to be a starter-level player pretty quickly into the season.  Suton should get 30 minutes per game as a senior.  If Roe is ready to play 25 minutes at a high level, that’s 55 minutes of big men, with Gray/Green/Ibok/Herzog filling in most of the remaining 25 minutes at the 4/5 slots.  This lineup looks pretty good, too, in terms of versatility and would be able to take advantage of the week interior depth in the conference without giving up the ability to push the ball on offense:

• PG: Lucas
• SG: Allen
• SF: Morgan
• PF: Roe
• C: Suton

If Roe isn’t ready to play starter-level minutes fairly early in the season, then Izzo may be forced to use a smaller lineup pretty heavily, as it’s unclear whether any of the other big men can be counted on to consistently play more than a handful of minutes per game.  (I do still hold out some hope that Marquise Gray will progress to being a 15-20-minute player as a senior.)

In any event, having the depth and versatility to go small or big as the situation calls for should be an asset this season.  The key will be to not get too attached to any one configuration to ensure that 9-10 players are getting regular playing time and can be counted on in high-pressure situations.