BYU Game Recap (12/8/07)
Posted by kj on Saturday, December 8th, 2007
MSU wins 68-61. The score turned out to be very close to that of the Bradley game (66-61). And the script was roughly the same, too: playing a quality team in a hostile environment; shots wouldn’t drop early in the game; offensive rebounding kept them in it; hit the big shots down the stretch to pull it out.
It was an ugly first half. At times, I was thinking that the “Culinary Connections with Mary Crafts” program the BYUTV video window showed as the regularly-scheduled program might have been more enjoyable. MSU couldn’t score at all through their regular offense. Of their 25 first-half points, 17 were off second chances. Offensive rebounding was all that kept them within striking distance. They shot 0-8 on three-point attempts. There were a few bad turnovers and some forced shots, but generally they just looked very tentative shooting the ball. The clearest evidence was the two free throws Raymar Morgan missed that barely hit the front of the rim.
Meanwhile, BYU shot 5-10 on three-point attempts and 9-14 on two-points attempts in the first half. MSU was fortunate to be within 10. And they took full advantage by going on a 14-3 run to start the second half, grabbing a one-point lead. It was back and forth down the stretch, with MSU again finding multiple ways to score baskets when they needed them. MSU hit 3 out of 6 three-point attempts in the second half, while BYU lost their touch, making only 4 of 14 (28.6%).
Box score is here. A few more statistical notes:
- At 59 possessions, this was the slowest game MSU has played this season. Seemed like the pace was pretty fast early, but slowed down considerably in the second half. MSU forced last-second shots from BYU a number of times.
- The Spartans’ amazing offensive rebounding continued. They snatched 18 of 35 opportunites (51.4%) against a team that had only allowed its previous opponents to rebound at a 26.4% rate on the offensive end.
- Turnovers were a problem early, but MSU took good care of the ball down the stretch. They finished with 12 turnovers for the game–equating to a turnover percentage we can live with: 20.3%. BYU actually finished with more turnovers (15) that MSU did. The one big turnover concern for MSU was Raymar Morgan, who gave it up six times today.
- Neitzel and Suton spurred the comeback, scoring 25 of their 27 combined points in the second half.
- Morgan co-led the team in scoring with 15 points, but almost all of them were off his six offensive rebounds. He looked out of synch on his other offensive attempts.
- A quiet 13 rebounds for Suton.
- A very nice game for Walton. 12 points. 3-4 FG shooting, including a key pull-up jumper with the shot clock running down in the second half. He looked much more assertive on offense. Hit all six of his FT attempts to keep the game out of reach in the last two minutes.
- For BYU, Sam Burgess hit a bunch of key shots. He scored 15 points on 4-7 three-point shooting. Lee Cummard was also very good, scoring 9 points on just three FG attempts. The fact that fouls limited his playing time in the second half hurt BYU considerably.
And now for the Spartans Weblog players of the game:
For BYU, Trent Plaisted was everything he was billed to be. He hit a McHale-esque series of twisting low-post baskets in the first half. He finished with 19 points on 14 FG attempts to go with 8 rebounds. The chink in his armor was free-throw shooting; he hit only 3 of 8 attempts from the line.
For MSU, I’m going to go with a guy whose stat line wasn’t that impressive: 30 minutes, 4 points, 2 rebounds, 2 blocks, 1 steal. Drew Naymick’s efforts didn’t show up in the box score, but his contribution to MSU’s win was enormous: he played superb defense on Plaisted. Plaisted overcame that defense early to score some buckets. But you could tell he became frustrated down the stretch. Naymick played him physically and actively fronted him to deny the ball. BYU was forced to go to less efficient offensive options down the stretch, allowing MSU to pull away. Kudos to the Big Red Head. Absent his defensive efforts, Plaisted could have easily scored 30 points.
Another win the Spartan faithful can feel very good about. I worry that the players will get used to these second-half comebacks after mediocre starts–but it sure beats not coming back after a mediocre start.
No midweek game this week as the players hit the books for finals. The next game is next Saturday at home vs. Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW). 5:30 start time.
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No Responses to “BYU Game Recap (12/8/07)”
wifeofaspartanon 09 Dec 2007 at 7:58 am 1Agree with Naymick, absolutely!
was disappointed by b10tonight show, Tim Doyle saying the “Suton did a pretty nice job on Plaisted defensively but…” He probably was not able to see the streaming video but then don’t comment from a stat sheet. Very unlikely for Suton to be on Plaisted except when we are going with our small lineup with RayMo at the 4 and looking for offense.
Gray did not do badly on Plaisted however picked up fouls quickly being a physical defender. Naymick needs to work with Gray on lock down physical defense and being called for less fouls.
(Like Spartalytical, i too was surprised to see Naymick with only 2 fouls, I thought he had about 3 already when he got his second). Gray is starting to emerge on both ends of the court and really needs to not have his time limited by fouls.
Naymick’s defense as a sophmore/?redshirt freshman was huge in the big dance. I tend to take his defense for granted until you see him matched up against a Plaisted. His experience has to help too, though, Plaisted an older junior i think, definitely not a freshman. It is easier to frustrate a
freshman like a Love or JJ Hickson. The subtle benefit of that is the energy they waste being frustrated which has to take its toll in the last minutes of the game. With Love and Hickson, the help defense was huge, however, without the bigs standing strong, there is no time for help defense to arrive and/or swat the ball away when it comes down low.
What is exciting is for defense to be able to really clamp down in the second half, offensive boards led quietly tonight by Suton and second chance points. RayMo has been a steady eddie free throw shooter however was off tonight. Overall he has been quite good and i think had 11 of 12 attempts at Bradley. He must have had trouble with the sight lines and their rims or something because most of his shooting other than put backs was off.
To only be down by 10 in the first half despite shooting 29% and then to come back strong and win is amazing. I think we would have lost this game with Davis, Ager, Brown. This is really a team, we need to win this year with Neitzel and Naymick, not wait for Roe to arrive! A big ten conference title and final four are reachable goals with continued growth. This could be the start of a ‘99-2001 type run of 3 final fours and one nc.
The great thing is that unlike Hill, Anderson, Torbert, the freshmen are coming along with huge support around them. The difference in the defense stands out with 2 freshman in the game but they are all learning and all contributing. Another big game for Lucas being directly involved at crunch time. His speed apparently is helping his defense too and what a statement of support from Izzo as he would not be in at crunch time unless he earned it.
wow, it is great to be a spartan!
spartanbloggeron 09 Dec 2007 at 8:23 am 2You’re right about Naymick and Gray. Naymick has a future as an assistant coach specializing in big man defense. The best thing he does: not jump. He goes straight up and down when his man is going to take a shot and doesn’t bite on pump fakes. Seems like he gets about half his blocked shots this way. Ibok still hasn’t learned this.
Spartalyticalon 09 Dec 2007 at 8:29 am 3I absolutely agree with Naymick on defense yesterday. Plaisted was eating his lunch early, but after the break Dr. Naymick was preventing him from getting position, and getting the ball in general. When he did get the ball, Naymick was all over him and he was generally out near the arc. It’s great when he has efforts like this.
Spartalyticalon 09 Dec 2007 at 9:13 am 4Other results of note yesterday.
How about Louisville chalking up another loss to a non-ranked team? Sure, the first was to BYU in the midst of beating up on a bunch of patsies, but Dayton? I didn’t see any of that game so maybe Dayton’s decent (Pittsburgh and Xavier will additionally help us tell), but really, Louisville? I’ve never cared for Pitino, so I had to smirk.
Speaking of 12th-ranked Pittsburgh — they beat a mediocre Washington team by a single point. Ok. They have Duke soon, and hey, they will be playing at Dayton so that could be interesting as well.
Butler loses to Wright State by a point a shocker. This is the same team that field dressed Michigan (big surprise), handled VATech and Texas Tech, and dismantled Ohio State. I didn’t see any of this one either — was their entire starting line-up injured?
As a conference, the Big Ten went 5-5 yesterday. State fought back against BYU in another quality road win. Indiana beat up on Kentucky in Bloomington (and without freshman phenom Eric Gordon). Tubby Smith lead his team to 6-1 over Colorado State, Penn State won in overtime at home over Seton Hall, and Northwestern topped Western Michigan by a pair in Kalamazoo.
On the other side of the coin, I watched Illinois play well for about 25-30 minutes in Chicago, then weakly roll over to a not-that-great Arizona team, as well as Duke’s unabashed drubbing of the Wolverines at Cameron. I saw some of the Marquette at Wisconsin game, and though the Badgers hung close and never went away, they couldn’t get over Tom Creen’s hump. Purdue lost at Mizzou, and Lickliter’s Hawkeye’s lost in Ames to the Cyclones.
spartanproduceron 09 Dec 2007 at 1:54 pm 5this is the only place I’ve ever seen Naymick get the credit he’s due, our last two runs of greatness (2005 Final Four, last Feb.) were with him playing key roles. Admittedly there are teams he won’t match up well with, but in “tough” low-scoring games, he’s a key.
As for the rest of the Big Ten, there is clearly a big gap between IU and us and everyone else. I thought Wisky and Ill would be the 4th and 5th best teams but they’ve not impressed me yet, OSU may be the third best but they’re young and inconsistent. This could end up helping us, for if us and IU can rack up great records, a one or two seed is possible (not to get too far ahead but our schedule until mid February sets up very well) and we all know Izzo teams then peak in late Feb. early March.
For a team that’s taken some shots from ill-informed national media (who all want to focus on the GVSU and Oakland games) we’re already a very good team with even more room for improvement.
Tuxsteron 09 Dec 2007 at 3:19 pm 6Some great analysis here, not just the post itself but the comments as well. This place is turning out to be one of the best spots for Spartan basketball fans.
I want to focus on one thing wifeofaspartan said, that Ager, Davis, and Brown would have lost this game. That was exactly what I was thinking through the last two games. How many times in the past few years did we play close games that we let slip away in the last couple minutes? They just never seemed to be able to deal that one last blow to the opponent and let them get a chance to win it…
This team just feels different. They don’t allow other teams to fight back into the game easily. If they’ve fallen behind, they don’t let it get to them. That’s the psychology of a champion, and I’m ecstatic to see it in this year’s team! I think that’s the one sign that’s telling me we could be headed to a great year…
spartanbloggeron 09 Dec 2007 at 5:51 pm 7I’m glad people have been willing to chime in with their own thoughts here. More than this blog just being an outlet for my own commentary, I’m really hopeful this can be a place for Spartans hoops fans to gather and share insights with each other.
This team’s ability to play offense with composure down the stretch in these last two tight games really has been a pleasant surprise–and is more than likely the difference between being 9-1 and 7-3. Bodes well for the remainder of this season.
Around the Big Ten « Spartans Weblogon 09 Dec 2007 at 7:52 pm 8[...] Big Ten basketball bloggers had to say about their teams’ performances. Also, check out spartalytical’s run-down of some of yesterday’s college hoops [...]