USC Game Recap (3/22/09)
Posted by kj on Sunday, March 22nd, 2009
The Spartans battle past the Trojans 74-69 in a 69-possession game. StatSheet box score.
It’s a cliche’ to say that a player “willed” his team to victory. But, if ever that cliche’ was true, it was today. Here’s a breakdown of the 74 points MSU scored today:
- 24 points on free throws.
- 18 points on 3-pointers.
- 16 points on Travis Walton 2-pointers.
- 16 points on 2-pointers scored by the other 10 Spartans who played in the game.
It looked to me like Tom Izzo had gone out of his way to tell Walton that he needed to shoot every open jumper he got–and shoot them with confidence. On the first possession of the game–when USC came out employing the box and one–Walton got the ball about 18 feet from the basket in an open spot in the zone. Usually, you’d expect him to hesitate at least briefly before shooting the ball so early in the game. But, instead, he immediately squared up and knocked down the shot. From their, his confidence ballooned; eventually he knocked down a couple shots where he had to adjust the arc of the shot due to an onrushing USC defender.
Beyond Walton’s career day, this win was a team performance. Seven players played between 17 and 26 minutes–with Kalin Lucas going 35 minutes. Those eight guys all contributed in different ways:
- Lucas wasn’t able to drive the lane consistently against the taller USC defenders, but he played a very efficient game running the offense: 10 points on 6 FGA, 7 assists, 1 turnover.
- On top of his 18 points, Walton contributed 2 key assists and stole the ball twice.
- Durrell Summers was a huge spark in the first half. For the game, he scored 11 points on 3-4 three-point shooting and pulled down 8 rebounds–4 of them on offense.
- Chris Allen had 8 points on 2-5 three-point shooting and pitched in 3 assists.
- It seems like Draymond Green becomes a more important player to this team every single game. He played 22 minutes tonight, putting up 7 points and 9 rebounds (8 of them defensive). More importantly, he played solid defense on Taj Gibson, eventually instigating Gibson’s 5th foul on a picture-perfect box out.
- Delvon Roe scored 10 points on 5 FGA and 7 FTA. During the stretch Suton was out of the game, he and Green both found ways to get open inside for dunks and/or free throw opportunities.
- Goran Suton struggled with his outside shot, converting only 1 of 10 FG attempts. But he contributed everywhere else: 10 rebounds, 3 assists, a steal, a block, and fantastic defense against Gibson.
- Raymar Morgan had a tough day. He failed to make a field goal, scoring 3 points at the free throw line. But he played hard throughout the game, helping to neutralize USC’s athletes some on defense.
In total, MSU recorded 20 assists on 22 made field goals. Against one of the very few teams in the nation that’s more athletic than they are, the MSU players relied on execution and passing to win the game. They turned the ball over a few too many times (TO% of 23.2%), but that was largely a function of playing aggressively against an athletic and long USC defense.
Defensively, the key was obviously making Taj Gibson a nonfactor. Gibson’s stat line: 3 points, zero FGs, zero rebounds, 5 blocked shots, 3 turnovers, 5 fouls. Gibson’s obviously a fantastic interior player, but MSU’s team of big men was too much for him. Suton played him perfectly early, moving his feet on defense to prevent Gibson from getting good position. On the other end of the court, the MSU players kept attacking the basket–despite Gibson’s 5 blocks–eventually forcing him to pick up his 3rd foul four minutes into the second half.
DeMar DeRozan, Daniel Hackett, and Dwight Lewis played well–scoring 50 points on 41 FG attempts by wearing down the MSU guards and forcing fouls in the lane. But once MSU built a small lead late in the game, they couldn’t respond. For the game, those three players combined to make just 1 of 9 three-point attempts.
The Trojans were every bit as athletic and physical as their statistical profile indicated; this was not your father’s #10 seed. But, in the end, MSU was just a bit tougher due to their depth. We won the rebounding battle and ended up forcing them to foul us 3 more times than we fouled them, leading to a 5-shot advantage from the line:
The early 3-point makes by Summers and Allen–along with Walton’s jumpshooting spree–were huge, as they forced the USC defenders to guard us aggressively on the perimeter, which eventually led to a few easy looks and a bunch of USC fouls on the inside.
Neither of our first two wins were big-time blowouts, but I feel like we’ve played about as well as we could have hoped to in both games. Izzo now has another four full days of practice with the full roster healthy to get the team ready to take its best shot at getting to Ford Field.
Up next: A return to Indianapolis and a rematch with the Jawyhawks. Friday night. Approximate game time is 9:37.
Filed in game recap15 responses so far
15 Responses to “USC Game Recap (3/22/09)”
Chrison 22 Mar 2009 at 10:00 pm 1With about 5 minutes to go, Izzo used a little 2-3 zone forcing USC to shoot some outside shots. They managed to score just 5 points in those final 5 minutes. Congrats to Walton on a career day. I’m very excited with Green’s improvement throughout the season. It was good to see Summers back to playing with some confidence. If you would have told me that Suton and Morgan would combine 1-14 and we would still win, I would’ve lost my house. Bring the silly turnovers down and hit a few outside shots and this team goes to Ford Field.
MooTheKowon 22 Mar 2009 at 10:38 pm 2Transcript of the post-game press conference (from both MSU and USC):
http://www.ncaa.com/sports/m-b.....09aag.html
Benon 22 Mar 2009 at 11:22 pm 3I can’t remember a 10 seed as good as USC. There are at least 3 NBA players on that roster; it’s a game I dreaded before tipoff and now am very thankful we played. A test like that can only help our preparation for the even more difficult challenges ahead.
Travis Walton IS a legend. I guess he’ll probably try to play in Europe (or Australia or Israel or wherever) next season, but I really hope he comes back as an assistant coach. (And from Izzo’s senior night comments, it seems that there’s a position waiting for him.) It _was_ a good team effort, but it wouldn’t have mattered a bit if Travis didn’t play the best game of his career in possibly the biggest game of his career. (Well, it’s either this one or the Illinois game, and he played pretty freaking well in that one too.) I’m also glad you specially mentioned Roe and Green; they were huge for us, especially given Raymar’s struggles.
So, KU again. Cole Aldrich played very, very well against us in January, and it appears that he’s become even better in the time since; this is the first game in a long time in which it seems, prospectively, that there’s a fair chance we’ll be outrebounded — especially if Aldrich plays like he did today. It’ll be very difficult to beat a very good (and very well-coached) team like Kansas twice in a season; time to step it up again. I know we can do it.
Until then . . . another fantastic victory to add to an already memorable season.
markon 23 Mar 2009 at 12:22 am 4Just want to let you know you do a fantastic job here. Great stuff, and i always look forward to checking out your previews/reviews
msufan23on 23 Mar 2009 at 12:37 am 5Ben, Walton has already said he wants to keep playing afer this season so dont expect to see him on the bench for at least 2-3. I wouldnt worry though because ill bet money he will be back at some point
Sparty Basketballon 23 Mar 2009 at 7:42 am 6Walton’s performance was very David Thomas-esque. Remember how in the 2001 Elite Eight Temple chose to leave him open to double team other Spartan players. He went 8-10 in that game with 19 points.
MooTheKowon 23 Mar 2009 at 8:47 am 7Some good game-related links.. lots of MSU love.
http://www.cbssports.com/colle.....y/11537767
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn.....rchmadness
http://www.latimes.com/sports/.....8432.story
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/b.....;type=lgns
Mark in DCon 23 Mar 2009 at 10:05 am 8Walton was definitely the player of the game. He shot fearlessly when they left him open, which was often, and played great D as usual. I’m not sure why we keep floating Suton out on the perimeter on offense all the time. He is a good passer, but he is a rebounding machine and those perimeter shots have not been falling for him this year. He’s shown the ability to hit those shots in the past, but this year when he misses, our chance of getting the rebound is diminished considerably because he’s not down low to clean up on the glass. I never see us run the pick and roll with him when he’s out there on the perimeter – I think that might be more effective.
I’m a little concerned that our post players are getting so many shots blocked, but they did draw fouls on the USC post players yesterday which eventually payed dividends. Our depth and the ability to get production from our bench players was the difference in the game. Green, Allen, and Summers all played well on D and gave us some timely points. When they had to go to their bench due to foul trouble their offense stagnated. Kansas is a challenge but we managed to beat them fairly handily once this year so hopefully we can do it again.
We won 3 of the 4 factors pretty handily, and shot pretty well at least compared to them. The reffing in the second half was atrocious on both sides – way too many ticky tack fouls and then no calls when guys were getting mauled. It went both ways so I don’t think it affected the outcome, but it was a little disrupting and the tournament deserves better. I’m laying in a case of Victory tonight – Victory Brewing Company Prima Pils that is.
A little disappointed that none of the underdogs made it through (other than Arizona and Purdue, and I just can’t think of either team as a traditional underdog). Sienna and Western Kentucky definitely gave it a good shot but came up just short. I was really pulling for the Flyers but they just weren’t big enough to slow down Kansas. I’m disappointed in Wisconsin. Xavier is good this year but I thought the Badgers would be able to take them.
kjon 23 Mar 2009 at 10:53 am 9I think Suton floating out to the perimeter was part of the game plan–to try to get Gibson out of the lane and/or take advantage of the zone schemes. Unfortunately, Suton seemed to lose his shooting rhythm when he got a shot blocked early on.
Chrison 23 Mar 2009 at 11:18 am 10I wonder if Izzo is trying to show off Suton’s outside game in front of scouts. He needs to hit the outside shot to play in Europe.
Mark in DCon 23 Mar 2009 at 1:01 pm 11Getting Taj out of the paint is a good tactic but Suton’s been floating out there in a lot of other games recently. If he doesn’t start knocking down some of those shots they’ll just sag off of him (they actually did that yesterday – he was wide open on a lot of those shots but wasn’t hitting them).
I don’t mean this to sound like a criticism of Suton – he’s one of my favorite Spartans. I just think we’d be better off using his back to the basket game more and his perimeter shooting less. But I’ve never coached a team to a national title so I guess I should just shut up and let Izzo make these decisions.
I have to say it’s great rooting for a program where you have a 75% chance of still having a vested interest in the tournament going into the second weekend. Not many programs can depend on a 3 in 4 chance of playing in the sweet 16.
Seeron 23 Mar 2009 at 2:16 pm 12So, I have a question. Do we have any data on rematches in the NCAA tournament? When the brackets came out, I was pretty annoyed that we’d get matched up for Kansas again in the sweet 16.
Mark in DCon 23 Mar 2009 at 2:45 pm 13OK, Izzo knows more than I do. I was just on Kenpom.com and Suton is shooting over 39 percent from three point land. If he shoots that well he should be out there taking a few. Walton is shooting 60 percent from 3 – maybe we want him to bomb away a little more often.
SpartanDanon 23 Mar 2009 at 7:15 pm 14Seer: Regular-season rematches of non-conference games are allowed in the Sweet 16. Only conference matchups are forbidden until the Elite Eight.
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