Your turn
Posted by kj on Thursday, November 29th, 2007
So we’re a week into this endeavor. And I’ve been blogging considerably more than I thought I would be. This is turning out to be quite enjoyable, but also more time-consuming than I anticipated. So I’m going to take tonight off.
But in the interest of making this a learning experience, I’d love to hear from some of you out there. I know you’re out there. The blog has had 250+hits per day the last four days, so at least a few people seem to be finding some value here.
Now it’s your turn. We’re almost halfway through the nonconference season. Take a crack at one or all of these questions:
- Which player has surprised you the most?
- Which player has been a disappointment so far?
- Which player do you think is the biggest key to conference and NCAA tournament success?
- Which player has the best hairdo?
(My answers: Suton, Lucas, Gray, Morgan–in that order.)
Basically, it’s open mike night (/morning/afternoon) on the 2007-2008 Spartan basketball team. Throw out some statistical insights, or just play good old-fashioned armchair quarterback. If no one chooses to comment, I may be forced to post old vacation photos to fill the space.
Thanks for continuing to check the blog out these past few days. The initial level of readership has been pleasantly surprising.
Filed in basketball, general, msu
Spartalyticalon 29 Nov 2007 at 6:49 pm 1Surprised the most? The man of the hour, Suton. He’s been painfully inconsistent over his first two years, and even the beginning of this season. Last year he just drove me nuts with his comments of “I just have to do better. I’ve got to pick up my game. It’s just time to go out and do it instead of talking about it.” Same stuff over and over, it seemed. Well, two points don’t make a trend, but these last two games have me hoping he’s turned a corner. In interviews, he’s made comments alluding to the idea that he’s learned some things he’s been doing wrong and he’s now taking action to correct them. He’s been more aggressive. He still has his moments where he looks like a scared deer, but he’s shown every bit of his talent (and he is talented!) over these last two games. Keep it up, big guy!
Disappointment? I hate to say it, but I’ve not been as impressed with Travis Walton’s play as I was last year. Where’s the tenacity on the defensive end, and the floor general attitude on the offensive end? Maybe I’m paying too much attention to the freshmen so far. This isn’t quite what was asked, but I was hoping to see a lot more Tom Herzog last night. Even Izzo said he should have played him more against Oakland. Last night we were up 30 — a perfect time to get him some minutes and experience!
Biggest conference/tournament key? Our big men, definitely. The back court will evolve with Neitzel and Walton in charge and the freshmen gaining experience and confidence as Izzo can work them in. We’ve already seen that all three are talented. But the big men have to make some positive steps in defending well while staying out of foul trouble. Last night’s foul situation wasn’t great, but it wasn’t bad. Against Oakland was great — everyone seemed to behave (except Walton getting screwed with cheapies). The previous games this year, and a recurring theme last year, was the foul-happiness of our bigs. What’s Ibok’s career foul-to-minutes ratio, or defensive fouls-to-blocks ratio? Gray is good at muscling his way around inside, but he can be a bit of a bull in a china shop. Naymick made great strides last year, I thought (after some adjustments, I thought he did extremely well with Greg Oden), but he has a tendency to slip back into his slappy behavior. No one’s expecting or asking these guys to shoulder a significant offensive load. Just rein in the fouls while keeping up the defensive intensity, and keep rebounding! If that can be instilled, we’ll have a lot of our problems solved.
Best hairdo? I’d love to see Neitzel grow a mop.
spartanproduceron 29 Nov 2007 at 8:08 pm 2biggest surprise–Summers, he was the least hyped of the three freshmen and came from a class D school but so far seems to not be overmatched. In fact his first game (GVSU) lead us in boards and outplayed many of the regular big men. He’s already beaten several people on baseline drivers and has a nice jumper, already a solid player and gives us the freedom to move Raymar to the 4 if needed.
biggest disappointment- until Weds. Walton, not only was his offense inconsistent (and his refusal to shoot frustrating) but his d hadn’t been up to his usual standards. Weds. he was back to the guy who was huge in all of last year’s big wins, people harp on Suton for his inconsistency but I could make a case that Walton is as up and down at times.
guy needed for success- Gray and Naymick, assuming Suton is at least decent (I won’t assume he’ll have a double double in every game) we need another solid big man, especially for defense and rebounding. Obviously these two have vastly different styles but Gray’s energy and Naymick’s intelligence can both be strengths. For all the grief he takes, our last two great runs as a program (Final Four in ‘05 and end of last year) had Naymick playing key roles.
Best hair- Neitzel
bring on Jacksonville, will Artis Gilmore suit up??
Dre27on 30 Nov 2007 at 12:31 am 31. Lucas’s speed
2. Everyone is playing as exepected, maybe a little sub-par..no really big dissapointments for me so far
3. Big men..if we get good play from the big men then we will do well
4. Definitely Naymick, or maybe Dahlman. His hairdo is wild.
Dre27on 30 Nov 2007 at 12:34 am 4Well done on the blog by the way..
spartanbloggeron 30 Nov 2007 at 8:54 am 5Spartalytical,
The numbers confirm that Ibok is going to have a hard time staying on the floor. Personal fouls/100 possessions so far this season:
Idong Ibok 16.1
Drew Naymick 8.7
Marquise Gray 6.9
Chris Allen 6.8
Travis Walton 6.6
Goran Suton 5.5
Durrell Summers 5.4
Raymar Morgan 5.2
Isaiah Dahlman 4.9
Kalin Lucas 4.8
Drew Neitzel 3.2
Tom Herzog 0.0
So he’s picking up a foul every sixth time down the floor.
My guess is this is something he’s never going to completely overcome. He’s a very long, not-that-athletic guy. He’s going to pick up a certain number of fouls unavoidably.
He is what he is: A tremendous force on defense when he’s on the floor but probably not a guy who’s ever going to play more than 10-15 minutes per game.
TMadison25on 30 Nov 2007 at 10:49 am 6Biggest Surprise: Suton has to be the pick… Seems to work with much more confidence than before. [Runner-up: Lucas]
Biggest Disappointment: Can I say the whole team for their second half efforts against UCLA? I guess I would pick Allen, although he clearly is on his way to getting in the groove. I know Izzo gave him the green light to shoot, but the shot-selection often times seems forced. [Runner-up: Walton]
Tourney success: It seems Raymar Morgan is the one that is most needed to come up big in big games. The foul trouble in the Missouri/UCLA games combined with the decrease in rebounds in those contests could prove huge in future marquee games. [Runner-up: Gray]
Hairdo: C’mon… It’s gotta be “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” Naymick, right? [Runner-up: Neitzel]
Note: Thoroughly enjoy the site. I moved to Raleigh (Thank you Big Ten Network for access to most of the games I normally can’t watch) from East Lansing a few years ago and was looking everywhere for some good analysis on the team. Found it! Also…It was amazing how fast the loud-mouthed Wolfpack fans quieted down Wednesday night when I went to watch the game in downtown Raleigh.
Go Green!
Spartalyticalon 30 Nov 2007 at 12:00 pm 7That’s a crazy number for Ibok. He’s a defensive force alright, but some of that forcefulness is negated if he can’t stay on the floor. He’s not Izzo’s first option, which is fine, but if he could corral those fouls a bit, he’d be more effective. I’d rather he get two blocks a game and be available for 20 minutes than get one block a game and be available for 10. The more he’s out there, the more the other team has to take him (and his known shot-blocking abilities) into consideration.
I’m still a Comcast holdout as well, so I don’t get the BTN. I watch what I can, attend what time and costs allow, and track the rest of it online or on the radio. Raleigh’s a fun town — been there a handful of times.
Tuxsteron 30 Nov 2007 at 2:48 pm 8My picks have already been picked, but I really don’t want to see your vacation pictures, so I figured I’d add to the traffic:
Biggest Surprise: I think by now it’s unanimous that it’s Suton… Particularly since he probably was last year’s biggest disappointment.
Biggest Disappointment: Walton, I think. I was really hoping for him to step up in offense this year, but he is still mostly a no show on that end. We need him to produce more.
Tourney Success: I think it’s Morgan. Yes, we desperately need our big men to show some presence, but we’ve managed before without consistency of big men. I think Morgan is what drives this offense currently, so when he is having an off-night, we struggle. [Runner-up: Neitzel for the same reasons]
Hairdo: Got to be Morgan, even the Internets is talking about his hairdo….
Great job on the blog, keep it going!!!
spartanbloggeron 30 Nov 2007 at 4:00 pm 9OK. I’ll spare you the vacation photos.
Quick explanations of my picks:
Suton has been the biggest surprise with his more consistent play, as is the consensus from the commenters above.
I’ve actually been disappointed with Lucas more than Walton. I’ll tell you why in my next post. See if I can stir up some controversy.
I think Gray may actually be the key down the stretch. He’s our best rebounder on a per-possession basis (at least based on last year’s stats). He needs to stay healthy and out of foul trouble so he can stay on the court more. His defensive rebounding can fuel the fast break.
Morgan has the best hairdo. I’m still a fan of Neitzel’s dome, but the Morgan’s cornrows are fine. And Naymick’s new painted-on-orange-skullcap look is somewhat disturbing.
Costelloon 30 Nov 2007 at 9:42 pm 10I have only been able to see the UCLA and NC State games so far, but I think the biggest surprise is Summers. I was under the impression that this guy was rail thin and wouldn’t be able to hold up against D-1 competition. His And-1 plays against UCLA and NC State changed that impression.
I think Dahlman has been the biggest disappointment. I know he has supposedly bulked up, but he still doesn’t look like a big ten player. He desperately needs to knock down a few shots against some of the patsies to gain a little confidence. His team defense though is pretty good. Minnesota high school basketball must be weak.
Obvious answer, but I think Neitzel is still the key to any postseason success. I’d rather they let him create his own shot from time to time rather then run him through screens like Rip Hamilton all game, but the play where he curls around for a three and the point guard hits one of the bigs down low for a dunk always seems to work. I wished they would have ran that a few times down the stretch against UCLA.
Naymick has the best head of hair of anyone in college basketball not named Lute Olsen.
denise kerron 30 Nov 2007 at 11:03 pm 11Biggest surprise so far to me is the contribution of all 3 freshman. Your statistics re the effective production of summers was quite interesting. They have a long way to go to beat the defense of last year’s 6 or 7 top contributors, but if you watch, they are all down in stance on defense, seem to really be hustling, and i like their body language and how they really seem to be listening when Izzo is talking to or yelling at them.
Have to agree with the disappointment for Zeke. He seems to be trying hard (maybe too hard and too anxious), seems to know what he is doing and seems too light. He would’ve benefited from a redshirt year last year and i think could have redshirted this year though with the talent coming in next year and this year’s 3 freshmen growing and developing, next year’s playing time will be hard to come by too. He didn’t score all those points in high school as a poor shooter plus sounds like a great kid and team player/leader in high school.
I think Naymick may end up being more important than Gray because of his defense. With the emergence of Suton and Morgan being able to slide to the 4, we still really need a lock-down defender in the center. Gray could end up passing up Naymick but Naymick’s 6 years in the system give him an edge if he can just roll a little and gain some confidence. Gray, like the freshmen, really listens to Izzo. He will become more consistent but hard to say if this year, maybe his last.
I like Austin Thornton’s short blond hair.