Oklahoma State Game Recap (11/28/08)
Posted by kj on Saturday, November 29th, 2008
The Spartans run by the Cowboys 94-79 in a 76-possession game. Official box score.
Well, MSU certainly got that up-tempo thing to work last night. I listened to the game on the radio, and the play-by-play call by Will Tieman was pretty frantic. Oklahoma State apparently insisted on pressing MSU, to not much success. MSU turned it over 16 times, but in a 76-possession game, that translates to a respectable turnover percentage of 21.1%. (And, on the other end, we forced the Cowboys into 18 turnovers.)
Meanwhile, MSU converted a lot of easy baskets in transition, converting on 30 of 49 two-point FG attempts (61.2%). Kalin Lucas finished with 10 assists and just 1 turnover.
Oklahoma State scored over a point per possession, but it sounded to me like the Spartan defense was much more sound last night. The Cowboys’ offense was boosted by 11-28 three-point shooting (39.3%). The interior defense was more sound, though, holding Oklahoma State to 16-35 shooting on two-point attempts (45.7%).
I liked the move to start Raymar Morgan on the bench. Officials tend to call a few ticky-tack fouls early in a game on post players. With Morgan playing the 4 spot, he’s vulnerable to those calls. As it turns out, he still picked up two early fouls (the second one an offensive foul), but came back strong in the second half to finish with 29 points on just 11 FG attempts in 23 minutes of play.
Marquise Gray continues to give the team what it needs in the middle, putting up 12 points, 6 rebounds, 1 block, and 2 steals in 19 minutes. Draymond Green’s provided some strong rebounding, as well, pulling down 8 boards to go with the 6 he grabbed vs. Maryland.
And Travis Walton has been a revelation, scoring 16 points on 7-10 shooting last night to go with 5 assitsts. Let’s hope the magical shooting touch he’s found in Disney World comes back with him to Lansing Sunday night.
If anyone saw the game on TV, feel free to post your observations below. This game obviously helps offset some (but not all) of the angst from Thursday night’s loss. A 2-1 finish for the tournament is now within reach. We wouldn’t have beaten a ranked team in the process, but, not to worry, we’ve got a date with the mother of all ranked teams Wednesday night.
We play for 5th place on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. (on ESPNU again) against the Shockers of Wichita State, who slipped by Siena 72-70 yesterday. Here’s a reprint of my bullet-point preview of the Shockers:
- 2007-08 record: 11-20 (4-14 in the Missouri Valley Conference).
- 2007-08 tempo-free strength: Rebounding the ball; the Shockers ranked in the top 25 nationally in both offensive and defensive rebounding percentage.
- 2007-08 tempo-free weakness: Making three-pointers; Wichita State shot just 30.8% from beyond the arc (321st in the nation).
- 2007-08 tempo: 61.4 possessions/game.
- Returning players (based on minutes played): Only four of top ten players return, including just one starter.
- 2008-09 results to date: 2-1, with a loss to the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
- Key returning player: 6′6″ senior forward Ramon Clemente, who led the team with 7.9 rebounds per game and ranked in the top 100 nationally in both offensive and defensive rebounding percentage last season.
- Key newcomer: 6′4″ freshman guard Toure’ Murray, who is averaging 12.0 points/game on 6-13 three-point shooting through three games.
Filed in game recap8 responses so far
8 Responses to “Oklahoma State Game Recap (11/28/08)”
Spartalyticalon 29 Nov 2008 at 1:35 pm 1From all the post-game analysis, this doesn’t even look like the same team that bumbled through Thursday night. It figures that we got to see that awful performance but weren’t able to tune in last night. I’m real interested to see how things go Wednesday.
huberton 29 Nov 2008 at 2:09 pm 2I saw the game and offer the following:
Morgan’s points mostly came in the second half, after MSU had built up the big lead. On defense, he hand checked just as much as usual, but the refs were not calling it. He has really cut down on the turnovers, but his matador defense is the same as last year’s.
Walton is playing great. He basically took shots when he was open, and by the end of the game was confident enough to go to the basket. Of all the returning players, he seems the most changed.
Summers also seems to playing with a lot of confidence, and his athleticism on offense is impressive, as is his stroke from outside. On the other hand, his defense remains really suspect.
Allen on the other hand seems in a funk. Still a lousy defender, and I thought he showed little confidence on his shot. I do think outside shooting is an issue with this team in the long run.
Finally, Grey does seem quicker and lighter out there, and it shows on offense. His defense and general court sense is still sub par. I don’t see him getting more than 15 minutes a game by the end of the season, unless Roe or Suton get hurt. BTW, Roe but also Green show much more court savvy already.
How did the spartans win? Well, Ok. State just seemed gassed, from the two games in 24 hours and appeared a step slow all night, against the deeper spartans. MSU played better defense than against MD, but mostly Ok State missed more open shots, and allowed MSU way more transition points. They did manage 15 offensive boards which is preoccupying, and perhaps the area where MSU most missed Suton. Also preoccupying is how ragged MSU seemed on offense, with 16 TOs, and a much greater reliance on individual athleticism than crisp implementation of plays. By the way, Lucas has improved, notbaly with an outside shot that seems mroe confident, but he is still not much of a point guard, regularly missing Grey or Morgan wide open off the pick and roll.
Where is MSU right now? Well, I certainly don’t see this team beating Purdue. I hope I’m wrong.
Moothekowon 29 Nov 2008 at 3:46 pm 3I also watched the game. While MSU certainly looked much better last night than on Thursday – there were still a lot of weak areas. Draymond Green did provide some rebounding – but I thought he looked absolutely lost on defense much of the time. Several times OSU was able to launch a wide open uncontested 3 because Green went to cover the wrong man creating a double-team before he realized what was happening and tried to scurry back to cover the correct man.
Going to have go ahead and disagree with Hubert a little bit on Marquise Grey. I thought his defense was actually quite a bit improved at times. He did a really good job of playing D in the post and just keeping his hands straight up without fouling and causing the OSU player to try to shoot over him – which most of the time resulted in misses. I really thought he’s played about as well as he can play the last two games and has been a bright spot.
I was also underwhelmed by Chris Allen. He really hasn’t shown much of anything so far this season. Honestly I think that Thornton is actually looking like a better player at this point. He is taking/hitting open shots, playing pretty good defense – and best of all is absolutely playing his tail off (hustling after loose balls, etc.)
Also – I’m at a loss for words when it comes to Travis Walton. The combination of both taking *and* making shots is absolutely unreal. Just doesn’t fit him.. it’s great.. hope it keeps up. Definitely going to be a huge plus if he can remain a consistent offensive threat
witless chumon 29 Nov 2008 at 5:10 pm 4My wife and I just watched both games on DVR, after being out in the ESPNless woods for Thursday and Friday.
Kalin Lucas was much more of a factor, as you can tell from that stat line. He seemed to push the ball more, not only in transitiion, but in the half court.
His shot was falling a bit more, but still not hitting away from the basket. He looked more like himself driving, though.
Roe made a few nice plays with the ball and really is impressive passing the ball.
Thorton made the case for continued minutes.
OT:
Plax? What?
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/.....id=3733021
Bubbaon 29 Nov 2008 at 6:37 pm 5I watched the game also… If Marquise can stay this active thru the year, we’d have a monster season. And Travis Walton is like a demon out there.. on offense and defense. Those guys both looked good in both games.
Marquise is letting the game come to him and it looks good on him. He hasn’t lived up to his potential AT ALL at MSU..
Mark in DCon 01 Dec 2008 at 9:47 am 6It is looking more and more like perimeter D will be this team’s achilles heel. I did not see this game but looking at the box score and reading the comments it appears that we again gave up a lot of open looks from 3 point land. On the other hand, Oklahoma State’s two point percentage was pretty sub-standard, so our interior D has improved and we have help coming in that area once Suton is healthy.
It appears we shot OK from the perimeter and lights out from close in, so our offense looked pretty good. I’m a little concerned about Allen – I expected him to be a more athletic Neitzel this year but so far his perimeter shooting has been lackluster. If he doesn’t pick it up most of his minutes are going to Walton and Summers. Considering he and Lucas were the first freshmen off the bench last year (with Lucas starting regularly) he’s taken a step back.
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