" title="Spartans Weblog">Spartans Weblog

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

Give the guys in Bristol some credit

Posted by kj on Sunday, August 10th, 2008

In the midst of ESPN.com’s non-step preseason college football coverage (led by their new Big Ten blogger, Adam Rittenberg), they’ve found the time to compile a quality preseason round-up for the 2008-09 Big Ten basketball season.  Highlights:

  • Michigan State is picked to finish second behind Purdue.
  • MSU has the second highest returning scorer in the conference (Morgan) and two of the top five returning rebounders (Suton/Morgan) and assist leaders (Walton/Lucas).
  • Rittenberg conjures up an optimistic scenario under which the Big Ten finally tops the ACC in their annual challenge: Purdue and MSU win at home against Duke/UNC (counting Ford Field as a home game), Wisconsin and Ohio State win on the road against Va. Tech/Miami, and one of Minnesota/Illinois/Northwestern wins at home.

Speaking of football, I’ll give in to the preseason hype and post a few pigskin-related links:

Alas, we knew you hardly at all: Up With the Colors is no more.  (Update: I guess “is no more” was an exaggeration; he just won’t be posting with regular frequency.  See his amended post.)

So go ahead and check out Victory4MSU, a relatively new football-oriented Spartan blog.  He’s been doing a rundown of MSU’s nonconference opponents.

Big Ten Country previews the MSU season–predicting another seven-win season with a bowl trip.

Eleven Warriors puts the Spartans’ upside at a 7-0 start and their downside at around .500.  So we’re bigger than a breadbox but smaller than the universe.

The Rivalry, Esq. urges Mark Dantonio not to use Javon Ringer on kick-off returns.  I’d tend to agree.

Finally, I’m in fantasy football draft preparation mode.  Here are a few free fantasy football tips from a college basketball blogger (keep in mind you probably wouldn’t go to your butcher to get a good wine recommendation):

  • Avoid Larry Johnson like the plague.  The Chiefs’ offense has as little upside as any in the NFL.  (And did you know Johnson is already 29 years old?)
  • Stay away from the Lions receivers.  They’re extremely talented, but Mike Martz is gone and there aren’t going to be enough passes to go around.
  • Daren McFadden’s the big-name rookie running back, but pass on him and get Rashard Mendenhall (plenty of running plays in Pittsburgh) or Chris Johnson (blazing fast; Lendale White is fragile) a little later.
  • Moss and TO are tempting as the #1 overall wide receiver, but go with Reggie Wayne if you want a receiver in the second round.  Almost as much upside; none of the big-ego risk.
  • Late-round sleeper: our own T.J. Duckett.  The Seahawks offense should be solid, and Julius Jones and Maurice Morris don’t inspire a ton of confidence.

There you go.  When you win your league, be sure to come back and thank me.  And if you don’t win your league . . . What were you thinking listening to your butcher tell you which wine to buy?

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7 Responses to “Give the guys in Bristol some credit”

  1. huberton 11 Aug 2008 at 10:30 am 1

    Hmmm. There is a real disjuncture between all the final four talk around MSU (see ESPN Katz’s hopeful take) and this idea that they will come in second in the Big Ten. I’m not sure I’m on the Purdue band wagon quite yet. They had a great middle third of the season last year, but started poorly and ended in a slump. Hummel is fun to watch, particularly when his outside shot is falling. But… they are small, not very deep and lack an experienced point guard. And yet, they are in everyone’s top ten. I’m just not convinced yet.

    So who wins it? On paper, there is no doubt MSU has the most talent, and they have more experience than last year. If MSU finally wins a couple away games, they really should. Everyone has Wisconsin in the top 3, basically on the basis of Ryan’s sheer genius. Again, I’m not convinced, because I think he’s had more talent in the past than observers give him credit for. I think they’ll miss Flowers and Butch. Where are the points going to come from? Finally, Ohio State is really under the radar screen, but they have a lot of talent, again, and a bit more experience in the back court. My prediction?

    1. MSU
    2. Purdue
    3. Ohio State
    4. Wisconsin

  2. (AMENDED) Move right along, nothing to see here . . . « Up With The Colorson 11 Aug 2008 at 2:07 pm 2

    [...] . . Jump to Comments (UPDATED 8/11): I’m going to put this up top here, as a result of kj’s link to this page today.  As can be seen in my comments below, I’ve regretted this post from [...]

  3. Benon 11 Aug 2008 at 2:18 pm 3

    Hubert — I don’t see that same disjunction. Since 2002-ish, our NCAA tournament performance has far exceeded our success in the conference, nor do I think (off the top of my head) one has had any meaningful correlation with the other. (Probably because we have to play Wisconsin at least twice in B10 play, and we haven’t in the NCAA tournament — gah.)

    I guess what I’m saying is that I wouldn’t be surprised if we made the Final Four even if our conference performance is comparatively crappy. It certainly wouldn’t be without recent precedent (2005, and we’ve also made decent tournament runs — 2003, 2008 — in years when we’ve missed the mark in conference play).

  4. huberton 11 Aug 2008 at 4:39 pm 4

    Ben,

    Granted that Izzo’s teams peak late in the season, for whatever reason. Nonetheless, it is hard to see how the same team that could not win a pretty mediocre Big ten this coming year would also be in so many people’s final four list. Moreover, in 2005, they did not win the big ten because Illinois was the best team in the country. I just don’t think Purdue is that great a team, and if MSU can’t win the league in a down year, why expect them to make a run in march?

  5. DP99on 12 Aug 2008 at 12:14 pm 5

    “Moreover, in 2005, they did not win the big ten because Illinois was the best team in the country.”

    Not to be picky, but North Carolina showed itself much better that year. Still, point is there was a nice little gap between Illinois and the next team.

    As conference play goes, this year may MSU have an (more) experienced play-making true point-guard, a novelty since year 2000. So conference-foe familiarity issues they’ve since then may not be as much an issue this year. I think the conference performance should catch up to tourney performance this year.

  6. Ryan (collegefastbreak)on 12 Aug 2008 at 11:14 pm 6

    I think your off base with the Lion’s wide receiver tip– remember, we have the league’s smallest center and most overpaid tackle protecting the NFC’s best QB… quite a recipe for success.

  7. SpartanDanon 13 Aug 2008 at 2:02 pm 7

    >> Not to be picky, but North Carolina showed itself much better that year.

    Only because the NCAA apparently legalized the infamous Sean May “elbow, elbow, hey where’d those guys guarding me go, DUNK!” move.