Bradley Game Recap (12/4/07)
Posted by kj on Wednesday, December 5th, 2007
A very nice win for the Spartans. A hostile environment. An opponent that played with confidence on both ends of the floor. A night when MSU’s shots just wouldn’t seem to drop. And MSU still found a way to win: 66-61.
I have to confess my hopes weren’t too high at the eight-minute TV time-out. I just wasn’t sure MSU would be able to make enough high-pressure shots down the stretch to pull ahead. But hit them they did. They had five possessions between the 5:11 and 1:48 marks and scored on all five of them: Neitzel, Naymick, Lucas, Lucas, Suton (from Morgan on the inbounds play).
And give them credit for hanging around as long as they did. For most of the second half, I was surprised whenever I looked the scoreboard and realized they weren’t down by that many points. (I took this one in at a local watering hole and had to stretch my neck to see the score around the guy sitting in front of me.)
This is the kind of game that will pay dividends down the stretch, both in terms of the team’s confidence level in close games on the road or in neutral settings and in terms of their resume for the NCAA selection committee when it comes time to seed teams for the Big Dance. Bradley is a good team. We were only three-point favorites going into this game; the result shouldn’t be construed as “escaping an upset.”
On to the stats. Box score here:
- Tough night shooting for Neitzel. Only 13 points on 16 FG attempts. He was surprisingly aggressive early. Then the shots stopped falling. He wasn’t taking bad shots; the toughest shot he may have taken was the three-pointer he hit to pull them within one with five minutes left. I think his shot is just slightly off at the moment, as indicated by the disproportionate number of free throw misses he’s had of late.
- Luckily, Bradley didn’t have much of an answer for Morgan and Gray inside. They combined for just 25 points on 15 FG attempts. Morgan was 9-11 from the free throw line.
- Kalin Lucas picked a great time to put a big-time offensive performance. 13 points on seven FG attempts–including his first three-point make of the season. And it was a huge one, stretching the lead to four just past the three-minute mark.
- MSU only put up an effective FG% of 43.2%. Again, I think that was mainly a function of some good looks just not falling. Caught Izzo on the radio after the game. He said he thought they executed better on offense than the stat sheet shows. I’d say that’s an accurate assessment.
- Bradley can definitely shoot the three. They only made 8 of 25 (32.0%) but a bunch of those were very long looks. MSU did a good job of extending the defense. In the first half, Bradley took advantage by moving the ball quickly and getting easy looks around the hoop. In the second half, I don’t think they were as methodical in taking advantage of MSU aggressiveness in playing perimeter defense.
- Rebounding is, of course, what kept them in the game. They pulled down 21 out of 40 offensive rebounding opportuniites (52.5%) and 27 out of 37 defensive rebounding opportunities (73.0%). Suton had 11 rebounds, including seven on the offensive end. Naymick put up a quiet 10 rebounds in just 20 minutes of play.
- Surprized Izzo didn’t go with the smaller Morgan-as-power-forward lineup more. The three big men (no Ibok) played a combined 70 minutes, implying MSU only went small for 10 minutes. The big men seemed to do a fairly good job when Bradley’s picking forced them to guard small players on the perimeter, though. Interesting to see all three point guards on the floor for a good stretch at the end of the game.
I’m sure Izzo was questioning why he scheduled this game at tip-off tonight. But, in the end, it was exactly the kind of game a developing team needs to play before we hit the conference season.
Next game: At BYU. 4:00 Saturday afternoon. On the Versus network.
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No Responses to “Bradley Game Recap (12/4/07)”
wifeofaspartanon 05 Dec 2007 at 9:05 am 1? if the three point guards for extended minutes at the end was for ball-handling? Bradley good at steals, sounded like on the radio that both teams were playing good defense. Many possessions deep into the shot clock on both sides.
Do you think Lucas is ahead of Summers in defense at this point? Summers played really well when he was in.
Also very encouraged by Quise and Naymick. Naymick should be a 90% shooter with the shots he takes and is not but good defense and 10 boards from the sounds of it. Nice to have Gray contribute a good chunk of points (i think 10, and thought he really helped keep us in it in the first half especially).
Thanks for your blog, we are really enjoying it!
spartanbloggeron 05 Dec 2007 at 11:38 am 2I think playing the three point guards at once was probably more for defensive purposes than offensive purposes. Izzo wanted the quickest possible defenders out there to get out on three-point shooters to prevent a Bradley comeback once we got the lead.
Hard to say, though. Nice to have so many interchangable parts.
Costelloon 05 Dec 2007 at 1:40 pm 3Not to nitpick, but did anyone notice Walton a couple of times during crucial offensive possessions shy away from the ball? At one point he was wide open underneath the basket on an out of bounds play and didn’t make much of an effort to demand the ball, he simply kept running. I know he is usually the fifth option on offense, but I don’t like the idea of playing 4 on 5 offensively down the stretch.
On the other hand I was very impressed with Morgan. When they couldn’t get the ball to Neitzel to shoot free throws Raymar busted his ass to the ball and calmly knocked down his free throws. I think I might be more confident in Morgan hitting free throws down the stretch than anyone else on the team.
I think Neitzel will be fine, on a few of his shots it looked like he was over-rotating the ball instead of just flicking them unconsciously like he usually does. This will change as he adapts to his role. He is really getting good at drawing the double team and then hitting the open shooter at the last minute. He could lead the big ten in assists as a 2 guard.
Overall a great win. The 2 Assembly Halls and the Kohl Center shouldn’t seem as imposing to the freshmen now.
Costelloon 05 Dec 2007 at 1:44 pm 4This is a fantastic blog by the way, keep up the good work.
Spartalyticalon 05 Dec 2007 at 9:03 pm 5Alright Mr. Blogger, you’ve got me keeping my own statistics now, so that I can twist and turn them to look and compare things whenever I so feel. Thanks for pushing me over the edge!
As for last night’s game, I feel this was huge. HUGE. Sportswriters are saying similar things but merely based on the fact that Bradley’s been a sleeper in the past, so it must be good to beat them, especially at home. That’s it. I think it was even bigger than that.
We had a crappy night shooting (almost ten percentage points below average, fewer looks for three) and awful free throwing. Turnovers were right where they have been, the bigs were in foul trouble (although kudos to Dr. Naymick for a single foul in 20 minutes of play!), and we only logged two blocks for such a small opposing lineup (maybe because the Braves were busy lobbing threes all night). However, the rebounding ultimately enabled this win, with 48 overall (21 offensive (and I think we had 23 total at halftime)). With so many shots not falling that regularly do, this team found a way to muscle out a win in a nasty environment with the wind and snow howling outside. This team would have rolled over last year, but this year they found a way to grit it out. That’s why this game, to me, is just huge.
If we can take this intensity to BYU Saturday and come to East Lansing with another tough road win, we’ll be certified as for real. Of the Cougars’ first six games, four have been blowouts (against pasties, mind you). They hung close losing at Louisville by two, and then lost at home to #1 UNC by 10. I don’t know about the environment, but BYU has a more talented team than does Bradley, with three players scoring in double digits, and has a good mix of height and experience. As of right now, the line is about even, and the disparity in rankings is far greater on paper than will actually play out. It should be a great match up, and will definitely be an even bigger test for the Spartans, who (knock on wood), seem to be putting some things together.
And let me also add my gratitude to the growing heap for keeping up this blog. I’ve got a handful of sites I frequent for Spartan basketball news and notes, and this has shot to the top of the list. Keep it up!
Spartalyticalon 05 Dec 2007 at 9:17 pm 6My bad, BYU did beat Louisville, in Las Vegas.
Carry on.