Comments on: National Championship Game Recap (4/6/09)

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 01:03:30 +0000

[...] North Carolina 17 points on 3-4 three-point shooting, 11 rebounds, 2 blocks While the outcome of the game was a disappointment, let’s not forget Suton went toe to toe with one of the most celebrated [...]

By: Mark in DC

Mark in DC — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 13:42:14 +0000

Not sure a broken foot is better news than an ACL injury. They’re pretty good at repairing ACLs these days, and feet can be tricky. Not that I’m a medical expert or anything, but I have been dealing with foot issues for the better part of a year with only marginal improvement.

Two broken feet in one game is pretty bad luck, and a broken foot could certainly throw your shot off. I didn’t see Allen helped off the court so its hard to tell when the injury occurred. I’m still a little steamed that the refs called a foul on Lucious on the play he broke his foot on – if anything it was a combination of the pick plus Lawson running him over (which should have been a foul on Lawson) that lead to the injury. I’m not blaming Lawson for the injury by any means, but if anyone was guilty of a foul it was him. I would have been happy with a no call. The foul call literally added insult to injury.

By: Ground Zero East Lansing

Ground Zero East Lansing — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 13:13:40 +0000

Well Moo, I had no idea about Allen, but considering I was almost certain Lucious snapped an ACL during the game (one doesn’t drop to the floor in pain like that for a lot of things), that’s good news to me about Korie.

By: MooTheKow

MooTheKow — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 22:12:19 +0000

Man… Korie Lucious _and_ Chris Allen both broke their right foot during the UNC game. Both undergoing surgury friday and will be out for 8 weeks.

http://noise.typepad.com/hey_j.....bones.html

Wonder if that has anything to do with Chris Allen’s poor shooting night? Maybe he’s just a tough kid who didn’t know when to sit out…

By: SpartanDan

SpartanDan — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 22:07:05 +0000

Almost forgot, but final standings in the bracket picks contest:

1. Seer 151
2. DP99 137
3. Alex 122
4. Mark in Chicago 113
5. Chris 112 (tiebreaker: 74 possessions)
6. rook34 112 (68)
7. SpartanDan 110
8. gbbound 107
9. Jackson22 106
10. TMadison25 104
11. dougieb 103
12. spartanproducer 102
13. Tommy 99 (70)
14. Ground Zero East Lansing 99 (68)
15. kj 92
16. EB 91
17. wife of a spartan 89
18. Mark in DC 88
19. Sparty in Badgerland 87
20. Kurt 86
21. Otto 82
22. msufan23 78

Best possible score: MSU (14), Siena (9), USC (10), Dayton (11), Arizona (24), Cleveland St. (13), Missouri (9), Purdue (10), Texas A&M (9), Maryland (10), Villanova (13), Wisconsin (12), UNC (15), Michigan (10), WKU (12) plus any one of Xavier, Oklahoma State, Gonzaga, or LSU (8 each) for a total of 189.

By: hubert

hubert — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 21:13:45 +0000

Great job KJ! I too have made regular visits all year, for your keen insights and the intelligent posts of the little community you attracted. Just make sure your successors are worthy of what you started, and keep posting.

A couple comments on what has been said:

I was not so much annoyed that Allen kept shooting (and Morgan and Lucas, for that matter), as that Suton did not shoot more, since his stroke seemed great all game long. Why didn’t Izzo have a couple plays for him?

I agree Green seems like a real gamer — as does the entire freshman class this year. Roe I think could lead the big ten in rebounding next year. but also, it is hard to see how Izzo will keep both Green and Lucious off the floor next year. Two very good classes in a row. I hope the incoming freshmen can contribute, which they will need to do for the spartans to repeat as Big Ten champs, and or have a long run in March. Otherwise, big teams will just overpower the Spartans, between the absence of a real 5, two relatively small 4s, and two really short 1s.

Ultimately, I think Suton will prove harder to replace than Walton. Not only his rebounding and defense, but all the little things he did to make the offense run better. I just don’t see Herzog ever being more than a marginal player, so Nix or Sherman will basically have to deliver pretty quickly. At this time last year, everyone seemed to say Green would redshirt, so I don’t think anyone has a clue about the incoming freshmen right now.

Right now, finally, I am really curious about who improves the most. Will Dahlman finally realize the potential many of us saw in him? Does Herzog finally put on some weight? Does Allen regain his stroke and confidence? How much does Roe improve (I read somewhere, it can take two full years to recover from his surgery)? Does Summers become a star, the kind of player every night he was two, three times this year (as in the second Minnesota game). How good an outside shooter can Lucas become? And so on. Man, I can’t wait for november!

By: Jason

Jason — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 18:40:28 +0000

This is from Steve Grinczel at Mlive.com –
http://www.mlive.com/spartans/.....ion_i.html

——Will getting drubbed by North Carolina 89-72 in front of 72,922 mostly adoring fans at Ford Field galvanize MSU (31-7) the way getting crushed by eventual 2008 national champ Kansas girded the Tar Heels?

That’s what Green pointed out to the underclassmen after getting permission to address the team in the locker room after the final loss.

“It was pretty frustrating, but I think it will give us the edge to work that much harder,” Green said.——-

I’m thinking we might have found our next Smith/Cleaves/Walton type guy. Man does he excite me for next year!

By: donaldo

donaldo — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 18:34:52 +0000

I suppose when it comes to crunch time, keeping the family and the job take precedence over the blog, but it will be missed. I have appreciated the detailed, reasoned analysis and the thoughtful posts from the weblog family. Good luck in your future endeavors.

By: Seer

Seer — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:08:55 +0000

On rant number two, I don’t know if the timeout would have changed the outcome, but you’re right that it needed to be taken. I love Izzo’s attitude about timeouts in general though, as I think letting your team be forced into taking one generally doesn’t stop momentum so much as admit that the opponent has it. The things is, against UNfC there’s no reason not to let them realize they had the mo, they were up 21-7. Take the time out, get the team settled.

By: Otto

Otto — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 13:57:00 +0000

I too worry about losing Walton and Suton, as I wouldn’t want to see a return to the Ager-Brown-Davis year’s squad: lots of firepower, but struggling to get key stops when it mattered. My hope is that Roe continues to develop into an excellent interior defender, and that either Summers or Allen becomes the kind of perimeter defender we can reliably put on the other team’s best wing. But that glorious run was certainly fueled by the job Suton and Walton did on Gibson, Samuels, Thabeet, Collins, Williams, Price, etc., especially in the second halves of those games.

As many before me have noted, this website has been a beacon of common sense and shrewd analysis in a sea of bluster. I’m pretty sure I checked in here 3-4 times a day during the season, and compulsively during the tourney: that the basketball season is over is bad enough…to have it compounded by the passing of Spartan Weblog is bordering on cruelty. But all good things must come to an end, and I look forward to seeing the new site. Outstanding job, KJ! The time, effort and thoughtfulness you put into the site were greatly appreciated.