Pregame Reading
Posted by kj on Saturday, December 8th, 2007
- Hoopraker has a run-down of today’s Big Ten action.
- The Central Utah Daily Herald dares to compare BYU coach Dave Rose with our man Izzo.
- And here’s an MSU-BYU preview from someone more up-to-speed on college basketball west of the Mississippi.
The guys in Vegas like BYU by 2.5 today, so this is far from a gimme. Go Green!
« « BYU Game Preview | BYU Game Recap (12/8/07) » »
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No Responses to “Pregame Reading”
Adamon 08 Dec 2007 at 2:00 pm 1Ha! Surprisingly smart – me acknowledging that I know very little about basketball, and that this blog is so much more than “So we won today. Here’s the score. Go GREEN!” So props to that.
Costelloon 08 Dec 2007 at 2:22 pm 2Can’t wait to see the look on the bartender’s face today when I ask, “Hey can you put on BYU TV?”
Spartalyticalon 08 Dec 2007 at 8:42 pm 3My gut feeling was that the Spartans wouldn’t quite have the resolve to pull it out in Salt Lake. I love it when that feeling proves wrong.
The first half of the game was awful. BYU was really looking awesome. Plaisted was unstoppable inside, while Burgess was filling it up from outside. The Spartans were making uncharacteristically stupid mistakes (which says a lot for a team that tends to have these types of lapses every now and then), and there were some absolutely awful, one-sided calls going against us through the first half.
After making major halftime adjustments, the Spartans came out looking like we’d expect them to look. Unfortunately, I saw more of the first half than the second via BYU’s free stream of the game. I did see the last seven minutes or so in their entirety, and although the Cougars played a little rattled, they wouldn’t quit.
Rebounding was huge, once again. I’m so thrilled that Izzo’s returned to this staple. We got better looks in the second half and began converting. I’m pretty sure our FG% was in the low/mid 20s in the first half, and ended at 45 — quite a turn-around. Free-throwing was back where it should be, and fouls weren’t that bad. That’s something that was frustrating watching the BYU TV stream — being a school-run telecast, they had virtually no stats through the game so I had no idea (coupled with the fact that I was watching on a laptop at my in-laws place, half-attempting to be sociable at the same time) how many fouls anyone had at a given time. I swear Naymick had 13 or so, but the stat sheet reads two, somehow.
Ah well, a great game indeed. This team’s got guts and plenty of the aforementioned resolved that I was doubting. At the risk of jinxing our Spartans, I believe they are for real. Two tough road wins against two tough opponents at two tough locations that likely wouldn’t have happened last year. The Texas match-up is all the more intriguing in a couple of weeks.
Great game, Spartans. Great week!