Comments on: Ohio State Game Recap (1/25/09)

By: The Top Ten Performances of the 2008-09 Season | Spartans Weblog

The Top Ten Performances of the 2008-09 Season | Spartans Weblog — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 00:56:26 +0000

[...] Durrell Summers at Ohio State 26 points on 6-9 three-point shooting, 4 rebounds From the game recap: “The tale of the first half was Durrell Summers single-handedly keeping the team afloat, [...]

By: SpartanDan

SpartanDan — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 23:07:23 +0000

I’d agree we shouldn’t give up on Allen completely – but he definitely needs to see a serious reduction in minutes. I’m curious what the +/- was with Allen on the court vs. off yesterday, but I’d bet there’s a huge difference. We looked like a train wreck on both ends with him in the game and unstoppable without.

By: ryan

ryan — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 20:32:27 +0000

I’d like to see a starting lineup of Lucas, Summers, Morgan, Roe (if he’s ready for 25-28 minutes), and Suton. Seems like I’ve seen a lot of terribly slow starts this year that need to be come back from, and I think this lineup helps that. When the play gets too loose, bringing in Walton and Gray instantly slows the game down and turns it into a halfcourt, possession game. Lucious spells Lucas. Dahlman, Green, Ibok, Thornton, and Allen all play as needed.

As hard as it is for me to say, I also don’t think it’s time to give up on Allen.
I do think he needs to be a six to eight minute guy until he figures out what he’s going to do when his shot’s not hitting.

By: Mark in DC

Mark in DC — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 20:31:04 +0000

Our three point shooting has been pretty good all year, largely due to Lucas and Summers shooting a good percentage (both 40 percent or better). Allen is still in the mid 30s percentage-wise so I’m not ready to throw him under the bus yet but clearly he needs to improve over recent performances. Until that happens I’m happy starting Summers in his place.

Suton is shooting 61.5 percent from 3 point land. I know we need his presence down low but it would be nice to find some more depth down there (basically someone who can fill in for him on the glass and as a low post scorer) so he could spend a little more time floating around the perimeter a la Granger. Either that or we could switch him and Summers once in a while – I’d bet Summers can out-rebound most of the guys that guard him, and might be able to post them up too. If they switch then Suton is left outside shooting over a 6′3″ guard.

By: donaldo

donaldo — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 20:04:33 +0000

Agree with you Ryan on Summers and Allen. I see Allen as one-dimensional. This team needs solid three point shooting, but perhaps among Summers, Lucas, and Lucious we can get those buckets. Each of those three add value in some other way(s) – defense, quickness, ball handling, driving the lane, rebounding, hustle.I have had a good feeling about Summers because he is multi-dimensional. I believe he can be a strong contributor the rest of this season and by next season be a consistent and dangerous scorer.

By: ryan

ryan — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 19:36:45 +0000

For me, the problem with Allen isn’t so much the cold shooting. That happens. It’s that he doesn’t contribute anything else. Terrible on-the-ball defender, not active in getting into passing lanes, not a good help-side guy, no ability to rebound, not particularly active on offense, not a great passer or ball handler. Basically, he has to be scorching hot to have positive minutes. Summers isn’t great on the ball, but he is decent help-side, doesn’t mind diving for loose balls or wandering in among the trees for boards, and has a developing ability to drive and dish that this team needs. Even when he’s cold, he can still contribute. I’ve been far, far more impressed with Durrell than Allen from day one, and I think it’s high time he moves up in the rotation.

By: Monday Links | UM Hoops.com

Monday Links | UM Hoops.com — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 17:32:54 +0000

[...] Ohio State Game Recap (1/25/09) MSU wins a big one in Columbus thanks to dominating the offensive glass yet again. [...]

By: dan

dan — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 17:13:44 +0000

The StatSheet chart really showed the difference in the game. The rest of the numbers were in favor of OSU, but because State stayed close, and dominated the Offensive boards, they were able to deal with the minor “defeats” in other categories.

impressive breakdown!!!

By: donaldo

donaldo — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 15:20:08 +0000

Considering that our road record in the Big Ten was 6-19 over the previous three seasons, this is a magnificent start. I was thinking that 6-3 on the road would be enough for the Big ten title, but with the Northwestern loss, we may need to go 7-2.

I’d like to see Summers start in place of Morgan to see if he can provide some early energy. Morgan often doesn’t get into the flow of the game early and may be more productive coming off the bench where he may get some favorable matchups.

Excellent analysis of the game. The second half exemplified the way this team can and needs to execute offensively.

By: Mark in DC

Mark in DC — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 15:05:38 +0000

Agree that Neitzel would be great to have this year – he never seemed to suffer from a prolonged shooting slump so you could pretty much count on him coming through. Given the ups and downs of many of our other perimeter marksmen over the years, that’s a pretty valuable commodity to have.

Rebounding and winning the turnover battle won this game for us, and I can’t believe we won the turnover battle. That never happens, but I’ll take it. We’ve got at least two fairly solid road wins under our belts (OSU and Minnesota) which is better than we’ve done the last few years. Definitely an encouraging sign.