Comments on: Michigan Game Recap (1/27/08)

By: Spartans Weblog » Breaking down the lineup possibilities

Spartans Weblog » Breaking down the lineup possibilities — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 21:39:35 +0000

[...] That’s a versatile lineup with a good combination of quickness and toughness. The problem is that as soon as you go to your bench, you’re looking at a multiple point guard lineup with either Walton or Lucious playing next to Lucas (assuming Dahlman won’t be a major contributor). This past season, my feeling was the multiple-point-guard lineups often contributed to the offense bogging down. [...]

By: Spartalytical

Spartalytical — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 20:35:40 +0000

Big game by Travis in smothering Manny Harris. He was almost invisible in the first half. I love Walton’s emotion on the court and its affect on his team mates. And obviously great efforts by the other two guards. Neitzel seems much more comfortable shooting the ball and just looks quicker coming off his screens. Lucas has the ability to create plays and isn’t afraid to lower his shoulder and drive all the way to the basket, or stop and pop instead. With Neitzel graduating this year, I think our back court is in good hands with Kalin.

On the UM side, I was most impressed with Anthony Wright. He’s agile and has a great shot for a bigger guy. Beilein’s catching a lot of crap today in the Detroit papers (even more in the comments sections) for his unconventional offense and how it will never work in the BT. I think it can work, but it’s so different that it could take a little bit for a legitimate buy-in. All he needs are two or three sharp shooters and we could have been in trouble yesterday. He’ll have an uphill recruiting climb, but when he gets some players, this program could start to turn a wide corner.

By: bterp

bterp — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:17:22 +0000

And the dominance continues against the wolverines! Except for that 3pt barrage by uofm in the first half, the outcome of this game was never in question. I loved the chant by the Izzone at the end of the game “little sister”. That was classic. There’s nothing like an added stomach punch after beating them down for 40 minutes.

Neitzel is back! It was only a matter of time until he got his rhythm back. His ability to draw 2 defenders coming off screens leads to some of the easiest baskets I’ve ever seen. And our bigs do an excellent job of hitting the screener as he slips to the hoop. It’s a thing of beauty.

A quick note about Naymick: When he came to MSU, who ever thought in their right mind that he would become our glue guy? The guy that holds down the paint and (gulp) D’s up the oppositions best big man? I mean, are you kidding me? It just goes to show what Izzo can do with a guy when he stays for 4 years, or in Naymick’s case, 10 years. (No, really, doesn’t it seem like he’s been here for at least that long?)

Wait…What? Was that a Marquise Gray sighting (rubbing my eyes)? I think it was! His 8 pts and 4 rebs in 14 minutes is something that could really help us down the stretch. Ufortunately, the 3 to’s he had in the 14 minutes would have been much more noticable and detrimental if the game had been closer.

I again was pleased with Kalin’s performance. I am amazed at his speed and quickness everytime i watch him play. And as I’ve said before, if we can get Allen playing at a higher level more consistently, we will be much more dangerous come march. If we can just rid him of these nagging injuries, i think he’ll get there.

I’m very excited for Wednesday night’s contest vs Illinois as I will be attending my first game of the year in person. It will be great to watch a game and not have to listen to those horrid BTN announcers for once.

Go State!

By: TMadison25

TMadison25 — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 13:29:32 +0000

The Curse of the BTN! I’ve been able to see every single Spartan game this year going into yesterday’s game against U of M via Directv. As much as I wanted to watch the Wolverines get worked over, I could not get the game. I couldn’t get it at home so I went to three sports bars and none of them could get it. CBS must have played a regional game (I live in Raleigh, NC) instead. I was one extremely frustrated Spartan refreshing the ESPN Gamecast webpage.

I keep hoping that Izzo will get the team focused and more efficient as they get closer to tougher conference competition. After reading your analysis, it sounds like there is still work to do with the turnovers. Hopefully they won’t play as casual in closer games. It’s good to read the game analysis here.

By: kj

kj — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 13:24:09 +0000

Thanks. There can never be another Big Ten Wonk. I certainly don’t know how he had the time and energy to cover the entire conference with such intensity. But I think the blogs I’ve linked to under “Big Ten Hoops Blogs” are starting to fill the void. There’s just no one-stop shopping site anymore.

By: Fresh

Fresh — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 03:56:57 +0000

Great game analysis, and I love your blog. I am a Michigan fan (as painful as it is right now) and graduate, but I have some good friends on the MSU team, and love to read a great blog about basketball. I wish you would seriously consider taking over the void that John Gasaway left when he moved to basketball prospectus. We could use a new Big Ten Wonk. Once again great blog and analysis.