" title="Spartans Weblog">Spartans Weblog

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

Pregame Listening

Posted by kj on Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008

Two experts, of disparate qualifications, pontificate about tonight’s game:

1) Yours truly was invited to talk about the game on Chadd Scott’s “Big Ten All-Access” show at bustersports.com, an on-line sports radio channel.  You can access the audio feed here.  My bit starts at about the 26-minute mark (wait for the feed to fully load).

2) A commentator with more intimate knowledge of the game, Tom Izzo, offers his thoughts in the video clip below.  The coach thinks the key to stopping UNC is containing Ty Lawson–another reason we have to hit our outside shots, to prevent long rebounds that would lead to fast break opportunities.  It’ll be interesting to see whether Kalin Lucas (quickness) or Travis Walton (strength) is the primary defender assigned to Lawson.

MSU head coach Tom Izzo’s weekly press conference

I’ll be returning from Detroit at a very late hour tonight, so I doubt the game recap will be up until some time later in the day tomorrow.  Until then, feel free to post your thoughts before, during, and/or after the game in the comments section below.

Anybody else going tonight?

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10 Responses to “Pregame Listening”

  1. Daveon 03 Dec 2008 at 3:28 pm 1

    Great job in the interview KJ. The blog is great, and the publicity is well deserved.

  2. Rewertson 03 Dec 2008 at 9:42 pm 2

    I’m sure Ed Hightower will be making his present felt sooner rather than later.

    I sure am happy he is working this game…..

  3. Moothekowon 03 Dec 2008 at 10:59 pm 3

    For once Hightower couldn’t even have an impact on this game… ouch… toooo many turnovers.

  4. spartanproduceron 03 Dec 2008 at 11:31 pm 4

    I know KJ likes to focus on stats, but this team’s problems aren’t stat based, they’re head based. We lack mental toughness, after a first half where we did a lot of things right but took a big punch from UNC we responded by. . . . . not showing up in the second.

    It starts with our point guard, who has been lousy the past week and has now apparently trying to out pout Raymar. If your leader is acting like that, he surely isn’t leading.

    Luckily it’s still early but this team needs to get some heart and some toughness.

  5. Moothekowon 03 Dec 2008 at 11:38 pm 5

    Agree with you spartanproducer. This team does not respond to adversity at all. As soon as things start to not go their way they fold like a house of cards. My wife has decided Kalin is sucking for the same reason Raymar must have sucked in the big ten last year – girl problems :-) .

    And tonight I thought the most obvious stat-based problem was turnovers. Hard to score on the shots you don’t take. Seem to remember them flashing the stat that UNC was shooting like 58% and MSU was shooting 51% or something in the first half – and MSU was down 14.

  6. MKon 03 Dec 2008 at 11:50 pm 6

    Can anyone explain what happened in the second half?

    Without a trustworthy point guard, MSU doesn’t seem find a way to score. I just hope Lucas and Lucious do better when the league play starts.

    In retrospect, why didn’t we play in the Breslin Center!!!! Didn’t we need every bit of advantage we can get?

    I don’t see how MSU will be playing at the Ford Field again in March.

  7. Moothekowon 04 Dec 2008 at 6:52 am 7

    Izzo blames the 2nd half on himself and his scheduling. He said that 4 games in 7 days with lots of travel just wore his team down and they were exhausted and had no legs in the second half.

    Agree with you about Lucas. Lucious has never played a top-notch team before so I’ll cut him some slack. He did a couple nice things – but is young/inexperienced. Lucas might as well have not even suited up last night… just looked out of it and almost indifferent to what was going on to me.

  8. Moothekowon 04 Dec 2008 at 6:53 am 8

    Also – anyone else really like what they see from Delvon Roe so far? Rough around the edges still and needs a lot of work on his free throws – but he looks like he plays really tough and does a lot of little things really well. Good blocks and rebounding.

  9. MKon 04 Dec 2008 at 10:49 am 9

    Would it be wonderful if Suton, Roe and Morgan can start at 5, 4, and 3, healthy and strong? But, the sad reality is that when Roe fully recovers, Suton will be gone next year.

    Roe’s shooting needs to (I think, will) be improved, but I loved his energy and movement (even with the ankle bracelet).

  10. DP99on 04 Dec 2008 at 12:28 pm 10

    Roe was making some really smart passes in the beginning of the game, tough on rebounds, and a couple of blocks. I can’t help but get the feeling that if recovers his knees, we would be looking at a Spartan great. So yeah, I liked what I saw, really my first time seeing it.

    Did it seem like Lucas was getting as pouty when his game goes south as Morgan was last year?

    Well, most teams won’t get within 15 points of UNC this year, I’m just a little upset MSU wasn’t one of those teams. The two-thirds empty Ford Field was more than a little awkward. It’s been a little depressing with my beloved Spartan sports teams since the start of the Penn State game…