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A statistical look at Michigan State basketball, with a dash of football talk

Midnight quick hits

Posted by kj on Sunday, March 16th, 2008

Just back from Indy.

  • As has been projected for a couple weeks, MSU gets a 5 seed. They’re placed in the South regional, playing their first and (hopefully) second games in Denver. First game vs. Temple. According to the official bracket, they’ll play Thursday at 12:30 our time. Sounds like an extended lunch hour . . .
  • Second game would likely be against 4-seed Pittsburgh. Would advance to play in San Antonio Houston–likely vs. 1 seed Memphis.
  • Joe Rexrode has an early look at Temple. Anyone know if they still play the match-up zone, or did they scrap that when Cheney retired?
  • Wisconsin gets a 3 seed in the Midwest. Purdue’s (6 seed) and IU’s (8 seed) BTT losses appear to have hurt them.

BTT stuff:

  • The officiating of the MSU-Wisconsin game set off a firestorm in the last thread. Some of it was constructive; some of it was not. My comments on the comments are here. Bottom line: The officiating created an advantage for Wisconsin. There’s no doubt Wisconsin did well to take advantage. How big the advantage was and how much MSU did to create/allow it are debatable questions.
  • One thing I’ll say after watching Hightower work the final today: He doesn’t help the perception that he wants to be part of the show by overplaying every single call he makes on the court.
  • Official all-BTT team: Neitzel, McCamey, Pruitt, Flowers, Landry. After watching most of the final today before bolting with 12 minutes left, I commented to my Dad, “I have no idea who the tournament MVP for Wisconsin is.” They beat you, and you have no idea exactly which player did it to you. Today, they had 6 players with between 7 and 12 points. Landry was voted MVP. As good a pick as any.
  • Sickening stat: Wisconsin shot only 2 free throws today.
  • Neitzel’s line in the two tournament games: 51 points on 35 FG attempts. 10-22 three-point shooting. 10-10 free throw shooting.
  • Only 55 possessions in the game today. Joshua D. wins the t-shirt. In a way, the MSU 300 shirt is an appropriate prize, right? As in the movie, yesterday the Spartans battled a powerful foe with their forces depleted by the pronouncements of a group of old men. They fought valiantly, but couldn’t hold out indefinitely without their full contingent. (Note to Wisconsin fans that may still be lurking: This analogy is for entertainment purposes only; no need to get worked up in the comments section.) Congrats, Joshua. I’ll be in contact regarding sizing/shipping.

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2 Responses to “Midnight quick hits”

  1. Daveon 17 Mar 2008 at 10:40 am 1

    Is anyone else worried about the first round match-up with Temple? This strikes me as a game MSU could easily lose after the emotional finish to the Wisconsin game.

  2. Danon 17 Mar 2008 at 2:22 pm 2

    A little bit, yeah … but 5-12 matchups are always a little scary. I actually like the draw we got on the whole – Pitt is the latest “hey, they won their conference tourney, let’s give them a ludicrously high seed” team (although they certainly have a better case for it than Syracuse or Maryland did in 2006 and 2004, respectively), Memphis seems beatable (particularly since they’re less likely to benefit from a Hightower Game since they can’t make free throws), and we’ve already beaten Texas this year.