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

Coffee Talk: Taking the Clutch Shot

Posted by kj on Tuesday, July 29th, 2008

The match-ups and schedule for the Old Spice Classic have been released.  (Don’t the words “Old Spice” and “Classic” go together nicely?)  Michigan State will play Maryland in the opening round at 7:00 on Thursday, November 27 (Thanksgiving Day).  The game will be televised on ESPN2.

If they won that game, they’d play the winner of the Gonzaga-Oklahoma State game on Friday.  The match-ups on the other side of the bracket are Tennessee-Siena and Georgetown-Wichita State.  The final will be played on Sunday; Saturday is an off day.

Maryland went 19-15 last season, including 8-8 in the ACC, and ended up in the NIT.  With the series of recruiting defections and transfers Maryland has suffered in recent months, it doesn’t appear the program is on the upswing.

Update: Fox Sports’ Jeff Goodman runs down the state of the Maryland roster.  Summary: Good perimeter scoring potential, lack of interior players, likely NIT-bound.

Coffee Talk: You’ll note that some combination of (1) careful planning and (2) procrastination has resulted in my series on MSU’s historical tempo-free tendencies proceeding at a Iowa-basketball-offense-like-pace.  At this rate, we may not get through the full series by the start of the 2008-09 season.

The next post in the series will be on field goal shooting.  But before we get to the hard numbers, I thought we could chat about a more subjective shooting-related topic:

Which Spartan basketball player, past or present, would you want taking the last shot in a hypothetical national championship game, with the score tied?

I tend to focus on the Izzo era, but feel free to submit nominations from earlier decades, as well.  And feel free to conjure up memories of great last-second shots in MSU basketball history as evidence for your nominees.

« « Izzo planning on a smaller lineup | Sneak Preview: Historical field goal shooting tendencies » »

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Filed in coffee talk12 responses so far

12 Responses to “Coffee Talk: Taking the Clutch Shot”

  1. SpartanDanon 29 Jul 2008 at 5:55 pm 1

    My MSU basketball obsession only goes back to ‘03-’04 (although I know a little about the prior teams from being a general fan of the sport), so I’ll stick to players from that time frame.

    I’d have to go with either Ager (the shootout with Morrison in Maui, the buzzer-beater to force OT at Minnesota and avoid losing to a team that was 0-7 in the Big Ten at the time) or Neitzel (catching fire against Wisconsin and OSU in ‘07). Leaning toward Ager.

  2. GBBoundon 29 Jul 2008 at 6:16 pm 2

    No recollection of late game heroics, but I seem to think that Scott Skiles would be one I would want with the ball in the last minute.

  3. Ryan (collegefastbreak)on 29 Jul 2008 at 11:25 pm 3

    I’d have to go with Neitzel too

    But that answer may change asd Kalin Lucas becomes the team’s go to guy

  4. witless chumon 30 Jul 2008 at 8:41 am 4

    Mateen. I know it’s stupid, but I trust him to make it more than anybody else. He was the guy who’d do what was needed to win, whatever that was. Plus, he could use his strength to drive to the bucket.

  5. huberton 30 Jul 2008 at 9:44 am 5

    Easy: Tim Bograkos! he made the only last second shot to win a game he ever took.

    If he was not on the floor, Morris Peterson was a great clutch shooter.

  6. Spartans Weblog » What we know about the 2008-09 MSU basketball scheduleon 30 Jul 2008 at 10:02 am 6

    [...] Friday-Sunday, November 28 27-30 (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU): Old Spice Classic in Orlando  (Update: Tournament begins on November 27, not 28.  MSU will open against Maryland at 7:00 on ESPN2.) [...]

  7. kjon 30 Jul 2008 at 11:36 am 7

    I’d go with MoPete myself. I remember seeing him hit a 3-pointer to tie the home game against IU in 2000 and send it to OT. My seat in the student section was directly behind Peterson in line with the basket and, from that viewpoint, it appeared the IU defender’s hand was blocking Peterson’s view of the basket. But he still knocked it down.

    And, of course, he was the leading scorer in the two 2000 Final Four games.

  8. DP99on 30 Jul 2008 at 1:46 pm 8

    IF I need a 3 and IF I’ve got a decent PG to set him up, I would take Chris Hill. There has been no more natural long range bomber in the Izzo years than Chris Hill. I always thought he’d would have been a legend in the program if he had played with a real PG most of his years. How about the 10 3-pointers against Syracuse in ‘03 at the Bres?

    Mateen developed a magical knack for hitting the clutch 3’s his senior year. We need to get someone who used to watch the pre-Izzo teams, though, because it feels like the real answer is probably Scott Skiles or Shawn Respert or somewhere in there.

  9. kjon 30 Jul 2008 at 5:11 pm 9

    Respert had the purest three-point stroke I’ve ever seen (my recollections goes back to about 1990). I don’t recall any big-time clutch shots off the top of my head, though.

  10. TMadison25on 31 Jul 2008 at 8:30 am 10

    I agree with SpartanDan… Ager and Neitzel seem to be the go-to guys in my mind. Also in agreement that I am excited to see what Kalin Lucas is going to do this year.

  11. Mark in DCon 31 Jul 2008 at 10:54 am 11

    From the Izzo era, I’d go with MoPete, no question. He was an excellent shooter, hit many big shots for us- the IU game being the most notable, but he also performed at a high level in the NCAA tourney. That record of performance, plus the fact that he was tall enough to get a perimeter shot off against anyone but a center make him my choice. He could also score around the rim (the game winner doesn’t need to be a 3 pointer if the game is tied).

    Cleves didn’t have a very pretty shot, but he did seem able to will the ball into the basket when it mattered.

    In the pre Izzo era it would be either Skiles or Magic. I don’t remember the Magic era really but he outscored Bird in the NCAA final in 79. Anyone who can outscore Bird in a national championship game deserves to be mentioned.

  12. mblemieuxon 01 Aug 2008 at 2:04 am 12

    Interesting that the guy who actually made a big last second shot, Steve Smith vs. Wisconsin-Green Bay in the 1991 tourney, gets not play here. Possibly because he choked at the line the year before with six seconds left in regulation vs. Georgia Tech? Nevertheless, I’d throw Smith in with those already mentioned, but I’d take Magic or Skiles before anyone else.