The Spartans dodge a bullet and win an outright title, all in same night. 64-59 MSU in a 60-possession game. StatSheet box score.
Weird game:
Indiana kept the rebounding battle close, both teams turned the ball over with regularity, and sloppy defense led to a lot of free throw attempts. Thankfully, our shooting was good enough (5-11 from the beyond the arc) to prevent Indiana from ever grabbing the lead and really getting their confidence rolling.
It’s hard to say what had MSU so out of whack:
- Short turn-around between games
- The zone defenses Crean threw at them
- A failure to take a cellar-dwelling, but still very scrappy, opponent seriously
Regardless, this was easily our least inspired performance of the season. The good news? Tom Izzo now has four full days to prepare for Purdue–and all the ammunition he could want to keep the team motivated.
Speaking of Izzo, you have to question the wisdom of egging on the official during a timeout to get the technical called on him that seemed to spark IU’s run after MSU had built a double-digit lead (which was down to 9 at the point the T was called). I went back and watched the previous play again. The travel call on Lucas was a bad one (assuming that’s what set Izzo off); it was an awkward sequence, but he only took one step after he picked up his dribble. But, by going after the ref during the timeout, Izzo took what was a fairly stable situation and gave IU something to hang its hat on to make one more run.
Anyway, my inclination is to write this game off as an outlier in what has otherwise been a stellar (and consistent) run through the conference season. The glitches on offense don’t concern me too much; the entire team seemed half a step slow all night, which is fairly easy to write off to the first two bulleted excuses above. (Our 14 turnovers were spread across 9 different players.)
The defensive lapses worry me a little more. For whatever reason, MSU kept letting the Hoosier players get behind the defense. Indiana’s swing men (Jones, Williams, and Story) combined for 37 points on 31 FG attempts as they continually found ways to get open on the baseline or in the lane. That’ll need to be corrected, as our opponents’ guards are only going to get more athletic from here on out.
The one clear positive coming out of this game is the performance of Raymar Morgan: 14 points on 6-6 FG shooting to go with 7 rebounds (and 3 turnovers). His jumpshot looks like its back. And his legs are definitely back; I’m fairly sure he’s never jumped any higher than he did on the dunk off the Summers 3-point miss in the final minute to seal the game.
Next up: Purdue. Noon on Sunday. The Breslin Center. CBS.
The banner’s all ours. This one’s just for pride.
it was an ugly win. but, a win is a win on the road in the big ten. crean is a great coach and i’m a little scared of how good the Indiana program is going to be in a few years.
here’s one thing i’ve questioned lately. with so much on the line, why does izzo play chris allen in crunch time? is there anyone else that makes you as nervous as he does everytime he touches the ball? what good is he really going to do? i mean, is allen really going to make a play at the end to help win the game? i’m the biggest fan of his since he came to east lansing. i think he’s got a world of talent but he doesn’t have the drive and his confidence is clearly shaken and has been for a while.
p.s. after these last two games raymar is offically back baby!
Anyone else feel that Ibok should have taken some more time tonight? He played very well against Illinois, Suton was not playing well tonight so I figure his defensive presence around the rim should have been worth trading for Goran’s offensive non-contributions.
Just what I was thinking during the game anyway.
Matt, how soon you forget the Wisconsin game.
Sparty Like It’s 1999.
SI’s college basketball home page.
There’s more than pride on the line. If Oklahoma stumbles (against Mizzou tomorrow and in the Big XII tourney), we could be playing for a #1 seed.
Regarding the technical, Izzo was mostly arguing with Hillary during the time out. Janssen (I think) came from across the entire court, right in the middle of MSU’s huddle because he could see that his bad call was being argued over. Izzo actually tried to put distance between himself and Janssen, clenching his jaw the whole time in an effort to keep his yap shut, a player (Lucas?) stepped in between a little bit, but Janssen kept pursuing and poking at Izzo. Finally Izzo blows up and gets teched.
As for the #1 seed, we have to not stumble, and hope that a current #1 stumbles. And by not stumble, that almost assuredly means beat Purdue and take the BTT crown. Even then, we need help from someone above us.
Izzo will push the limits with the officiating crew from time to time, but this did not appear to be one of those times. Maybe a situation between Izzo and the official reached a boiling over point.
I saw the technical as Spartalytical did. The confrontation was clearly created by the official, who went out of his way to do it. Merits a reprimand from the league in my book.
Well, I guess we have to give Izzo the benefit of the doubt. My reading of the TV replay was that, when Janssen went over to the huddle, Izzo didn’t waste any time before lighting into him. Maybe that’s unavoidable once a ref decides he wants to create the deadball confrontation, though.
Regarding a possible #1 seed: I do worry that last night’s game–on national TV so close to Selection Sunday–will linger in the selection committee’s subconscious. We certainly didn’t look like a #1 seed.
Dan, Do you think Memphis needs to drop a game, too? Crashing the Dance has them as the #5 team in the S-Curve at the moment. And last year’s tournament run may cause the committee to give them the benefit of the doubt if they only have 3 losses at the end of the regular season.
Finally, anyone have a report on last night’s celebration at Breslin?
I thought assistant coach Mark Montgomery should have pulled Izzo back to help prevent to tech. That was a crucial part of the game. If we lost this game it would have been devastating this close to the post-season. No way we get a #1 seed. Two bad losses at home and 35 point blow out loss to Carolina. I’m dissapointed to hear that Izzo is not celebrating the B10 championship. All he talked about during the offseason was how much he wanted to win the B10. Agree with what Steve Lavin said that this is not the time of year to be complaining about wins.
Is there a correlation between the success of the Indiana swingmen and whether Chris Allen was in the game? Allen was late getting around a screen and gave up a Roth 3-pointer on his first defensive possession. How do you not know that Roth is a shooter? Inexcusable. Story was very aggressive, and successful, every time Allen was matched up with him. Allen’s defense is far below all of the other perimeter players and it is difficult to watch. Plus, he is a turnover machine and that is not counting the travels that the refs don’t call (Is is just me or do the refs miss a lot of his travels?). Why are Allen and Summers splitting minutes? Summers defense is OK (compared to Allen’s terrible D) and provides more on the offensive end as well. So why can’t Summers play 30 minutes and Allen 10 minutes instead of 20 minutes each?
We didn’t look good but a win is a win and it gave us the outright Big 10 title so I can’t complain too much. I agree with Seer on using Ibok more in this game. He is limited offensively but Suton really wasn’t giving us that much tonight offensively after the first few minutes. That elbow he threw could have gotten him in trouble. He’s just seemed out of sorts the last couple of games for some reason but hopefully he’ll get straightened out by the Purdue game.
I can’t believe how many drives along the baseline and through the lane our D gave up – we did not look good. Maybe the two games in three days made us a step slow, but Ibok is our best shot blocker and could have negated some of those lapses – with him in the lane it’s hard to get clean looks near the basket.
Morgan definitely looked back, which is great. 3 turnovers is a bit much but when a guy shoots 100 percent and gets 7 rebounds he’s making up for the miscues and then some. A win over Purdue would be icing on the cake.
I was at the game last night, and I can tell you that Assembly Hall was the loudest arena I have ever been in. That includes the Breslin as I was in the Izzone from 1997-2001. The atmosphere was both amazing and frustrating.
Michigan State has too many “outlier” games. Why is that?
(DVR’d the game, have not watched it yet. )
Congrats on the win, Sparties. I don’t like to see the Hoosiers lose, but you definitely have the better team this year.
I notice that you pick out Williams, Story, and Jones as the “swingmen who got behind the defense.” Jones plays point exclusively but scores like a wing, and Story spends most of his time as the back-up power-forward, and nominal 3-man Williams gets some minutes at the 4 too. Could part of the problem been simple confusion due to Indiana’s wings playing out of position?
Like I said, I didn’t watch the game, but I’ll keep an eye out for this when I do.
Devin, I’ll be interested to see what you think about how those 3 guys managed to get free near the basket so often. Very uncharacteristic, since our defense is normally geared toward preventing perimeter players from getting into the lane.
Sparty, I really question whether we have any more “outliers” than other top teams (going back to my post on inconsistency). I think our expectations have gotten a little unreasonable in reaction to past teams’ inconsistency. Given the circumstances (the Morgan illness situation, in particular), I think this team had been about as consistent as you could hope for during Big Ten play (up until last night).
This team certainly frustrates at times. We’ve seen how good they can be, and then we get efforts like last night. However in the big picture, they have enjoyed a laudable season. They are 20-3 over the last 23 games. They have lost only one true road game, along with the two neutral court losses. Their record against the RPI top 50 is the best in the land. On any given night, a different player can and has carried the team. They have demonstrated a resilience down the stretch in close games in hostile environments. This is a team that has had to battle illness and injury to significant contributors throughout the year. Yes, many of the games were not masterpieces, but the potential is there to end the season with a masterful run.
The Dunk:
http://blog.mlive.com/flintjournal/its_just_sports/2009/03/morning_links_michigan_state_w.html
As great as Raymar’s dunk was, it didn’t even make the live morning Sportscenter’s Top 10 Plays, although a couple of routine dunks from the ACC, a couple of routine hockey goals and a see it five times a game hockey save, and a Big East up and under lay-up did. Don’t know what Josh and Hannah were watching and smoking but they sure missed this one.
Regarding Memphis: I don’t know. It depends on who you talk to, I think (Luke Winn seems pretty certain that should Oklahoma falter, the fourth #1 would go to us, Louisville, or Duke given the relative strength of schedule). The Bracket Matrix has us as the top #2 right now (three people have us at #1, three at #3; for Memphis, seven have them at #1 but 11 at #3). I can’t imagine that winning out (presumably putting us at a ridiculous 14 RPI top 50 wins; the last time any team matched that in the regular season was Kentucky in 2004) wouldn’t put us well ahead of Memphis in the pecking order for a #1.
If Missouri beats Oklahoma tonight and either they or Kansas win the Big XII tournament, I think we would get a #1 seed if we win out. It’s not like any of the other candidates doesn’t have those “we don’t look like a #1 seed” moments (see: Louisville getting annihilated by Notre Dame, Duke getting destroyed by Clemson; Memphis doesn’t have one but I think having 9-10 more RPI top 50 wins should this scenario arise would more than make up for that).
Congrats from a Purdue fan, you guys deserve the crown in a much improved Big Ten. I popped over to see what the tech was about. I tuned in late, a little after the tech and only saw it once on replay. Gotta agree that the conference should reprimand the 2nd ref who stuck his yap in the huddle. But the Big Ten’s record with overall officiating and acknowledging errors is not good.
Re your chances for a #1 seed, as a neutral (re MSU) observer but a Big Ten fan, your chances are close to zero unless you
1) beat Purdue,
2) win the BT tourney, and
3) 2 or 3 other steams take a big stumble
The media don’t give us much love as a conference other than an occasional mention as the #2 RPI conference. It’s all Big East and ACC. Those have more teams at the MSU level (and Purdue when Hummel is healthy) than BT does but they also have more patsies than the BT.
Finally, Raymar’s dunk brought me out of my chair! That was a big time rebound dunk, very manly and in clutch time, game over. Didn’t make the Top 10 plays? Huh, more of the same from espn.
See you all next weekend. Bring your A game.
groundzeroeastlansing…in response to “have i forgotten the Wisconsin game”. the answer is no i haven’t. if i remember, allen made one big 3 towards the end. the rest of the game he was his usually “traveling and not shooting when open” self. he was 2-7 from the field. although he did have only 1 turnover.
i agree with spartanloaf that summers should get a lot more minutes than allen. in fact, i’d rather have lucious in during crunchtime than allen. not trying to be negative here but after allen’s performance in last year’s game against memphis, i expected this to be a breakout year for him.
did you see that izzo is shaving his head after the season to keep good on a promise he made to the izzone about winning the big 10? i’d like to see him and the entire team do it for the tourney. what do you say?
I’d think with the Izzo goes to Broadway show in May that he’d shave it asap so he could grow his hair back.
On an unrelated note, good to see Walton getting some recognition as a member of Seth Davis’s All Glue-Guys Team:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/seth_davis/03/04/glue.guys/index.html?eref=T1