The end of the beginning
kj on Apr 20th 2009
Barring future developments of an unforeseen nature, this is the final post of the Spartans Weblog. Commenting will be shut down in a few days; the site will remain up for archival purposes as long as Mrs. SW lets me continue to pay the server costs (or I figure out how to upload the contents [...]
Tom Izzo: A Numerical Summary
kj on Apr 19th 2009
14 seasons as head coach
14 .500-or-better Big Ten regular season finishes
12 NCAA Tournament appearances
12 first-team all-Big Ten player selections
10 20-win seasons
8 Sweet Sixteens
6 Elite Eights
5 Final Fours
5 Big Ten regular season championships
5 former assistants currently coaching Division 1 teams
4 Big Ten player-of-the-year selections
3 30-win seasons
2 Big Ten Tournament championships
2 national championship game appearances
1 national championship
.738 [...]
Friday Morning Links
kj on Apr 17th 2009
Anatomy of a Basketball Possession
Super sweet flowchart. (Hat tip: UMHoops.)
A Tough Decision
Why Mike Kebler didn’t get to play in the national championship game.
Big Ten in 2010
Beware Purdue.
It’s never too early to predict the 2009-2010 Big Ten basketball standings
The Daily Gopher agrees re: Purdue.
KANSAS DUO RETURNING TO SCHOOL; JAYHAWKS PRESEASON NO. 1
How many other teams [...]
Breaking down the defense
kj on Apr 14th 2009
A couple months ago, KenPom added something called “defensive fingerprint” on each team page. Mr. Pomeroy’s explanation:
Defensive Fingerprint attempts to objectively identify the style of a team’s defense. Inputs into the system are the departure from the D-1 norm of the following defensive characteristics…
- assist percentage (triple weight, higher means a more likely zone team)
- [...]
Just how good was MSU’s rebounding this season?
kj on Apr 12th 2009
From a four factors perspective, rebounding was clearly the dominant strength of this year’s MSU basketball team. The team ranked 6th nationally in offensive rebounding percentage and 11th nationally in defensive rebounding percentage. In none of the other six offensive/defensive four factor components did MSU rank higher than 50th nationally.
It seems clear that, given the [...]
The Top Ten Performances of the 2008-09 Season
kj on Apr 9th 2009
I’ve decided not to post any commentary of a forward-looking nature until we get over to the new site. For now, let’s revel in the season that has been.
One of the things that made this season so special was the number of guys who stepped up at various times during the season to get [...]
Post-Tournament Links
kj on Apr 9th 2009
Lucious, Allen break bones
Talk about a game going as badly as it possibly could have. On a positive note, my sense is that a broken bone doesn’t involve major rehab. (Hat tip: MooTheKow.)
Spartans can find motivation in loss to Tar Heels
Draymond Green: Leader. (Hat tip: Jason.)
2009-10 Insanely Too Early Rankings
Consensus: MSU is #3, behind Kansas [...]