Illinois Game Recap (3/1/09)
Posted by kj on Sunday, March 1st, 2009
The Spartans vanquish the Illini 74-66 in a 71-possession game. StatSheet box score.
I don’t know what it is about this team, but I just can’t get as tense as I’m used to getting late in close games. Even when Illinois pulled back even seven minutes to go, I had a strange sense of calm about the whole thing. And, sure enough, MSU outscored the Illini 16-8 down the stretch, sparked by a Kalin Lucas layup created out of nothing to regain the lead at 60-58. This team simply knows how to win close games (absent the opponent knocking down HORSE-quality jumpshots,of course).
But I get ahead of myself. Let’s start at the beginning–or at least at the 9-3 lead MSU had when the feed of the game finally hit our TVs. Tom Izzo had this team as well prepared as it possibly could have been. Our Spartans came out using Illinois’ defensive pressure against them by scoring easy baskets off backdoor cuts. And they pushed the tempo to prevent Illinois from even setting up its lockdown halfcourt defense. Plus they were remarkably good at getting the ball into the post. Delvon Roe, Goran Suton, and Raymar Morgan combined to score 32 points on 23 FG attempts.
All those things meant that the players didn’t find itself passing the ball purposelessly around the perimeter, which is the situation that tends to cause our turnover issues. As a result, MSU turned the ball over just 11 times, for a sterling turnover percentage of 15.5%:
That, combined with the expected edge on the glass, led to MSU taking 10 more shots from the field than Illinois did. That’s an advantage we needed, as our poor perimeter shooting continued to be an obstacle (2-8 three-point shooting and very few long 2-point makes).
On the other end of the floor, Illinois made some great plays offensively to stay in the game and eventually tie it back up. Their two Mikes (Davis and Tisdale) were almost impossible to guard, combining to score 28 points on 17 FG attempts. (When was the last time Goran Suton was in foul trouble?) And Chester Frazier played a great all-around game: 10 points, 3 assists, 8 rebounds. In the end, though, they didn’t have a playmaker to match Kalin Lucas. From the point that Jeff Jordan’s layup tied the game with 7:19 to go, Illinois didn’t convert a single field goal until Frazier hit a 3-pointer with 33 seconds to go.
As good as Lucas was (18 points, 4 assists, 1 turnover), I’m going to say Travis Walton was the player of the game: 8 points on 4-5 FG shooting, 5 assists, zero turnovers, 3 steals. That’s a flawless Travis Walton game. He single-handedly created several fast break baskets–the steal followed by the pass downcourt while falling out of bounds being the highlight. And he helped force Demitri McCamey into another subpar performance: 3-9 FG shooting, 3 assists, 5 turnovers. Last, but not least, he knocked down a clutch jumper as the shot clock was winding down to push MSU’s lead to 5 with 1:09 to go and force Illinois into desperation mode.
Idong Ibok’s performance, meanwhile, was exactly what they had in mind when the invented the Unsung Hero award. With Suton had to go to the bench with the game tied, Ibok came in to guard Tisdale. Tisdale had scored 7 points over the previous 5 minutes, as Illinois was consciously trying to get him the ball on nearly every possession. Ibok blocked the next shot he took, and Tisdale didn’t score again. The 5 minutes Ibok played tonight were perhaps the most important minutes he has played (or will play) as a Spartan, and he came up huge.
This was clearly our best performance of the conference season and, arguably, the entire year. Raymar Morgan appears to be very close to being back at full strength: 14 points and 6 rebounds in 22 minutes. This team may finally have all its pieces in place–and just in the nick of time.
Soak this one in, my friends. Our seven years of famine have ended. A banner with the following words on it will be unfurled from the Breslin Center’s rafters later this year:
BIG TEN
CHAMPIONS
2009
Now to make sure that (1) a parenthetical “outright” can be included in the phrase above and (2) a win against every team in the league is included in the official record.
Next up: A trip to Bloomington Tuesday night (7:00, ESPN) to take care of #1.
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Filed in game recap11 responses so far
11 Responses to “Illinois Game Recap (3/1/09)”
Stukaon 01 Mar 2009 at 10:46 pm 1Great game all around – and incredibly entertaining to watch. There were many highlights, but Morgan’s dunk was my favorite. Man, is it good to have him back…
So, is Lucas is a lock for Big Ten POY? I was worried when he missed a few easy baskets early, but I think his overall performance in this game just closed the book on it.
Fantastic day to be a Spartan.
Jasonon 02 Mar 2009 at 8:45 am 2I agree, good to have a team like to Spartans to root for and also for some reason I too was not worried about the outcome.
Glad to see Morgan bouncing back, I just wish the Donger had come in a little earlier. I think his best use is to defend the other teams 7-footer and he needs some minutes before the NCAAs start. Tried to express this yesterday after Suton picked up his 3rd, but server problems….
Lucas for PoY certainly gets a lot of votes, but, I think Walton is the lock – for DPoY. For an offensively limited guy he is really turning it on after a lackluster Jr. year. To me he is approaching Cleaves territory with what he brings to the team.
Less than a week until the Wilson announcement! Please Oregon, make it clear that you will be going in a new direction (do hate to see anybody lose their job) and make it an easy decision.
witless chumon 02 Mar 2009 at 9:36 am 3Ibok was key, he just shut Tisdale down. I hope he’ll play more important minutes though, if we face a team in the tourney with a good big man.
Big 10 champs is sweet, it’s been too long and what a way to secure it, going into one of the other top teams’ house and taking it. If they can keep this streak of good play alive and finish off the year with two wins, that’s gotta be a good thing for the tourney.
“Less than a week until the Wilson announcement! Please Oregon, make it clear that you will be going in a new direction (do hate to see anybody lose their job) and make it an easy decision.”
I don’t think Wilson really wants be Phil Knight’s dress up doll, does he?
TMadison25on 02 Mar 2009 at 10:37 am 4From The Register Guard
http://www.registerguard.com/c...../story.csp
“With his announcement date approaching, Wilson couldn’t stress enough that he’s undecided. Whether it’s the Big 12, the Big Ten or the Pac-10, it’s still unclear where Wilson will be playing next season.
“People constantly ask me and, honestly, I don’t know,” Wilson said. “I try to hold off so I can actually watch these teams play and see where I can see myself fitting in on each one of them. The problem is the more I watch, the tougher it gets.”
Out of the three schools, Michigan State and Oregon appear most likely.”
Where do you fit best? What does that say if he picks a team that is 8-20? He has to be taking notice of our conference championship.
Mark in DCon 02 Mar 2009 at 11:13 am 5Definitely liked Ibok’s minutes – I thought he should have come in earlier because it was clear that Suton did not have the height to bother Tisdale’s shot. He’s limited offensively but is an asset on D and is a pretty good rebounder – not sure why he hasn’t gotten more playing time throughout the year. Walton appears to be one of our better outside shooters right now in addition to our best defender. Not sure how to get Allen going at this point, and Summers seems to be catching whatever he’s got in the shooting department unfortunately. We are going to have to find someone who can play the wing who can hit perimeter shots.
I’ve been to Assembly Hall in Chambana a couple of times and winning there against a quality Illini team is no mean feat – this is definitely a win to feel good about.
DP99on 02 Mar 2009 at 11:15 am 6TMad, four-star wide receiver Fred Smith committed to MSU a year and a half ago even though the 4-8 team was coming off an embarrassing season with a historic embarrassment played out on national TV, and breaking in a new coach of conservative philosophy and with only 3 years HC experience. I don’t have any reasons to assume Fred Smith is not smart or has questionable priorities. Why should it be different for Wilson?
TMadison25on 02 Mar 2009 at 12:08 pm 7My comment regarding Wilson came off the wrong way. When addressing what he sees in a school, numerous times proximity and a winning program have been mentioned by Wilson. If that is true, then Oregon shouldn’t really be in the discussion. If he was interested in helping a school reload or something, I would understand why he’d pick Oregon. All-in-all, I never meant disparage Wilson or his decision-making.
Bubble Notes 3/2 | UM Hoops.comon 02 Mar 2009 at 12:41 pm 8[...] Illinois Game Recap (3/1/09) MSU won at least a share of the Big Ten title last night [...]
danon 02 Mar 2009 at 2:23 pm 9Champions! and to clinch it at Illinois, the team that has been the biggest thorn in the side of Spartans in the 01-09 period.
now Tuesday is not a day to be too confident about. Assembly Hall is still Assembly Hall, and let’s not get too confident and call out the Ghosts of Hoosiers past.
Benon 02 Mar 2009 at 4:25 pm 10The most exciting thing about yesterday for me (besides the title, of course), was the real return of Raymar. (And alliterative, too!) If he stays well, we can be scary-good; that we’ve acquitted ourselves so well in conference play even in spite of his absence is really remarkable. There’s also no doubt in my mind that his absence has made the rest of the team better; Delvon Roe, for instance, has improved enormously over the course of the conference season. Some of that has to do with his knee gradually healing, but much of it can be attributed to the extra minutes which have been available during Morgan’s sickness. Raymar’s numbers from yesterday may be slightly deceiving, simply because he’s such a matchup problem for Illinois, but nonetheless, 15 points in 22 minutes at this stage in his recovery is a pretty fantastic performance. Adding that kind of production to an already-stacked lineup makes me tremendously excited to see what unfolds for us over the next few weeks.
Beat IU!
The Top Ten Performances of the 2008-09 Season | Spartans Weblogon 09 Apr 2009 at 9:02 pm 11[...] times as you wanted, but we’ll go with his extremely efficient performance in MSU’s best win of the Big Ten season. That performance included a layup Lucas created out of nothing to put MSU [...]