The Spartans grind out a 70-58 victory against the Gophers in a 61-possession game. Unofficial box score.
MSU’s performance today deserves that oft-used moniker of “workmanlike.” Outside of a brief Gopher spurt to close MSU’s lead to one point going into halftime, the Spartans played with intensity for 40 minutes, slowly building a lead that eventually reached 19 points with two minutes remaining.
And they did all the things we thought they had to do to pull this game out:
- Defended well on the perimeter: The Gophers were forced into taking 21 of their 53 shots from 3-point range. And very few of them were good looks, as Minnesota converted just 6 of those 21 shots (28.6%).
- Allowed Minnesota to steal the ball only 6 times–accounting for just under half of MSU’s 13 turnovers (TO%=21.3%).
- Took good shots, resulting in just 5 blocked shots by the Gophers (led by Damian Johnson’s three).
- Took advantage of Minnesota’s weakness on the defensive glass, pulling down 23 of 39 offensive rebounding opportunities for a whopping offensive rebounding percentage of 59.0%. Raymar Morgan and Goran Suton led the way with 5 offensive boards each.
From a four-factors perspective, offensive rebounding was clearly the difference:
Kalin Lucas found his jumpshot just in time for the commencement of conference play. 24 points on 9-18 FG shooting. He scored from 3-point range, on mid-range shots, and going all the way to the basket. This is a very, very good sign. Just two assists, but Travis Walton picked up the slack with 5 assists (vs. just one turnover).
Outside of Lucas, the only real sources of scoring were offensive rebounding (11 points for Suton, 10 points for Morgan) and some early Chris Allen jumpshots (3-8 three-point shooting).
Morgan didn’t match-up well with Minnesota’s multiple shot-blockers, but, once again, he stayed within himself–even when his outside shot wasn’t falling. He didn’t turn the ball over a single time and played hard for all 30 minutes he was on the floor. I dare say he’s turned a major corner in terms of his psychological approach to the game.
I didn’t think our depth would be an advantage in this game, but Izzo extended the rotation to 12 guys (with Isaiah Dahlman getting some token minutes in front of the hometown crowd). As a result, our starters looked fresher than their’s at the end of the game. Delvon Roe played 5 minutes–all in the first half, I think. I assume his ankle didn’t respond very well.
Izzo played Morgan at the 3 and 4 spots in rough equal measures, by my calculations. Minor gripe: Can we get Marquise Gray a few more minutes? He hasn’t played more than 12 minutes in any of the last four games. I may be missing something, but he’s seemed pretty solid on both ends of the court. None of the glaring mental lapses on defense and a decent low-post threat on offense. His rebounding numbers are down a bit, though.
The bottom line today is a road victory against a ranked opponent to start conference play. Given that two other ranked Big Ten teams failed to win their conference openers at home, that’s worthy of some sort of Youtube-based celebration. Our friend Brian began a tradition of celebrating key wins with Muppet videos this fall. Ever since, I’ve been trying to think of something that’s better than the Muppets.
But, of course, there is nothing in the known universe better than the Muppets. I’ve decided, therefore, to go with the less-ingenious, but nevertheless appropriate, “Dance of Joy” from everyone’s favorite sitcom of the late 1980s, Perfect Strangers:
Hey!
Next up: On the road against Northwestern. Saturday at 7:00 on BTN.
P.S. Speaking of our friends from Ann Arbor: Disappointing result for them this afternoon. Tough start to conference play for Manny Harris: 3-13 from the field. I can’t believe I fell into the trap of underestimating the Badgers going into conference play, after criticizing the national pundits for doing it last year. In my defense, the nonconference statistical indicators weren’t there this season, the way they were a year ago. And it remains to be seen if they can score consistently against nonporous defenses.
We outrebounded a conference rival and top-25 team by 22. A very nice way to close out 2008, indeed.
KJ
Good stuff but two gripes: only brief mention of MSU defense (rebounding, FG%). I think you need to put the perspective of your analysis upside down and instead of talking about MSU offense vs Minny offense, talk about individual defensive efforts… which leads to..
#2 – lack of qualitative analysis. I’d argue that the Spartan defense vs Minny guards was so solid and just built a wall around them, they could not penetrate or be efficient.
I’m all over your stats, great stuff… but need to look at defense more critically — and supportively!
ES
I love that you dug up the Dance of Joy from Perfect Strangers. Think I’m going to go blog about it now…
Why is the FT rate so out of whack? MSU shot more FTs at a higher percentage, yet it shows Minn at nearly twice the rate as MSU
Shioda, Statsheet calculates the FT rate based on free throws attempted, rather than free throws made. Gives a better fundamental sense of how well a team forced the defense to foul them. Minnesota attempted 3 more free throws than we did (16 to 13)
And the rate compares FT attempts to FG attempts (to make the stat tempo-free). We took 11 more shots than they did (64 to 53) due to our offensive rebounding.
But you’re right that the rate is somewhat misleading relative to this particular game.
(1) All these numbers are making me dizzy…or maybe it’s that final drink I had last night
(2) After watching the game, my impression is the Spartans, and as you mentioned Morgan, may have turned a corner psychologically. So much of the game is attitude and confidence. Minnesota and its fans wanted this one badly. Games are usually decided by the team who is aggressive rather than reactionary. They took the game to the Gophers on both ends of the court and they won. A solid road win to start to the conference season but don’t let your guard down against Northwestern.
I agree, and hope that I’m invoking no jinx by stating, that MSU has turned a corner to some extent. They’re playing smarter, much less selfishly, and with a greater cohesion than earlier this year. And with what appears to be genuine confidence.
Other than the last minute or two of the first half (which is where I was able to begin seeing this one), they looked very sharp and comfortable with one another. I think Minnesota is a bit suspect, but they’re certainly no slough and that neutral-site win over Louisville doesn’t count for nothing (even though THAT team has been exposed a bit as of late). I’m looking forward to Saturday night at Northwestern, and I hope Izzo has his players focusing on the Wildcats instead of their looking ahead. Like kj said, there are very few (countable on one hand) conference softballs lobbed up to us this year.
Go Green!
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