The Spartans bury the Gophers 76-47 in a 65-possession game. StatSheet box score.
A very impressive start to the new home-court winning streak, to say the least. MSU did everything we thought they needed to do, and they did it in abundance:
- Knocked down perimeters shots (7-12 on 3-pointers).
- Controlled both the offensive and defensive glass (42-26 overall rebounding advantage).
- Played lock-down man-to-man defense (15-52 FG shooting for the Gophers).
Even when Minnesota did score some points in the second half, they had to make tough shots to do it. The Gophers posted just 6 assists for the entire game; MSU forced them to play one on one. The MSU interior defense was particularly good, as the Gopher big men were held to a collective 5-22 shooting line. Kudos to Delvon Roe, Idong Ibok, Marquise Gray, and Draymond Green for avoiding any breakdowns inside leading to easy baskets.
Your bar graph:
Lots of positives to talk about in terms of individual players in a game in which 14 Spartans saw the court and 11 of those players scored. The highlights:
- Durrell Summers was, once again, the go-to guy on offense. 21 points on 10 FG attempts. He was hot early, and when he’s hot, he’s very hard to stop. 6’4″ players who can jump really, really high and knock down 3-pointers consistently are a rare asset.
- Goran Suton didn’t look too hampered by the knee problem: 6 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, and a block in 19 minutes. A major benefit to the blow-out win was that Izzo could rest Suton for most of the second half.
- Delvon Roe showed some flashes of playmaking in the paint that have been pretty rare in recent games. 6 points and 7 rebounds in 19 minutes, mirroring Suton’s output.
- Chris Allen: 13 points on 7 FG attempts. He still looks a little out of synch, but is at least playing with a modicum of confidence.
- Korie Lucious: 5 points, 3 assists, 1 turnovers. I was actually most impressed with Lucious’ defense; he did a good job of staying in front of Al Nolen when Nolen tried to drive the lane in the second half.
If there was a negative in this game it was that Kalin Lucas looked a little off kilter, making just 4 of 14 FG attempts and turning the ball over 3 times. That’s a very small concern in a 31-point win, though, especially given that Lucas is coming off four consecutive 20-point outings.
This game was just what the doctor ordered. A home game against Indiana on Saturday (4:00, ESPN) should provide another chance to keep Raymar Morgan on the bench and limit Suton’s minutes (the Hoosiers’ big win tonight notwithstanding). With any luck, we’ll be back at full strength for next Tuesday’s trip down I-96.
[...] Minnesota Game Recap (2/4/09) MSU destroys Minnesota at home [...]
It is great when you get a wake up call and actually wake up. We may find that the Penn State loss was actually a blessing. The team played great defense tonight and played with the kind of passion we’ve been seeking. When we play that swarming defense, we demoralize teams and we create easy opportunities on the other end.
Roe is beginnig to assert himself. He is going to be a handful as he gets healthier and continues to mature. Not to nitpick, but I hope over the next few weeks we find a way to improve our free throw shooting. Down the stretch and in the tournament, we are going to need to be solid from the line. Lucas, Summers, and Suton seem confident from the line, but the rest are inconsistent. It would be great to have Roe in the game at crunch time, but to do so he has to hit the free throws.
This was a huge win against a solid team and it looks like they learned a lot about themselves. Very satisfying. Make it a pattern.
I think Izzo has to keep Summers in the starting line up even when Raymar comes back. Bring Raymar or Travis off the bench. Summers seems like he has a better feel of the game when he starts. I wouldn’t be surprised if Izzo told him to not embarrass Minny. They had no one who could stop him. The only complaint I have is with Izzo is the substitutions. When a player is hot, keep him on the floor. Basketball is a game where sometimes you feel it, sometimes you don’t. Nice to see Roe be aggressive on the offensive side of the ball. This team will not win a championship if Kalin is our leading scorer. We need him to distribute the ball more. His assist have dropped lately. Big win tonight to build confidence for what should be a good game next week against Michigan.
not impressed with the classless student section chanting wash your face to colton iverson.
i hope he shuts those particular fans up in the future.
go green!
Why would you hope he shuts them up? That would mean playing well against MSU. And honestly, that’s what the Izzone is supposed to do, make them miserable.
There’s a fine line between making your opponents miserable and being completely classless. I think that chant was over the line.
Make fun of someone’s basketball abilities, or even their personal behavior. Don’t make fun of their physical appearance.
Agree on keeping the student section creative but classy. Ridiculing people’s physical appearance is beyond the pale (well, maybe you can make fun of their hairstyle because they actually have control over that). This was a fun win and important for our Big 10 title hopes, but I wouldn’t read too much into it in terms of predicting future dominance. The game dynamic was similar to our loss to UNC in reverse. We aren’t (and weren’t) as bad as we looked against UNC, and subsequent performances have pretty much shown that they aren’t always as good as they looked against us.
Minnesota really aren’t as bad as they looked last night and we probably overachieved to some extent. A heartwarming win, but we’re not going to shoot 50 percent or better on three pointers in every game, or force the rest of our opponents to hit less than 30 percent of their shots. Sometimes these nights just happen in college basketball.
Still it was a big win and fun to have one where the outcome isn’t in doubt. Also good that we got to get just about everyone 10 minutes or more of rest. Sounds like Morgan may be done for the season unfortunately – mono, from what I’ve heard, takes a long time to come back from (like 6 months or more in some cases). Lets hope he heals faster than the norm.
I really just need to get BTN. I wasn’t emotionally prepared to see 42-16 Half in the ESPN crawl when I checked.
So I didn’t see the game, but in general I don’t like huge wins like this where nobody misses a shot either, just as I don’t know how to make sense of a loss after the other team can’t miss a shot either. In my basketball utopia, all MSU games would end with an 8-12 point victories, through methodical offense, defense, and exceptional rebounding. I love my basketball utopia, by the way.