" title="Spartans Weblog">Spartans Weblog

Minnesota Game Recap
MSU advances past Minnesota 64-56 in a 64-possession game.  StatSheet box score.
Having digested 5 full hours of basketball since the game ended (we bolted at halftime of the last game), all I can give you is a graph:
NCAA Basketball Stats

And some bullets:

Disappointingly small rebounding advantage and a negative turnover differential.  Three-point shooting (41.7% [...]

Sunday is Senior Day.  Here’s your discussion question: What the first word that pops into your head when you hear the name of each of four seniors?
My (alliterative) answers are below.
Goran Suton
Improvement.
Suton’s key tempo-free numbers for the four years he was an active player:

Stat
2005-06
2006-07
2007-08
2008-09

OffRtg
95.0
98.2
113.8
119.2

eFG%
47.0
50.9
55.4
56.6

TO%
25.2
26.1
20.4
19.6

OffReb%
10.0
11.6
13.6
13.8

DefReb%
13.4
19.7
22.3
21.0

While most four-year players show improved efficiency over their careers, you’re not [...]

Michigan State pushes past Illinois 63-57 in a 66-possession game.  Statsheet box score.

First things first: It was great to be there for the Morris Peterson jersey retirement ceremony.  Nine years ago, my wife and I sat/stood in the second row of the student section and watched that man do amazing things en route to a [...]

The Spartans grind out a 70-58 victory against the Gophers in a 61-possession game.  Unofficial box score.
MSU’s performance today deserves that oft-used moniker of “workmanlike.”  Outside of a brief Gopher spurt to close MSU’s lead to one point going into halftime, the Spartans played with intensity for 40 minutes, slowly building a lead that eventually [...]

Going into this weekend, I said a 2-1 record in the Old Spice Classic would be a “solid outcome.”  But that was contingent on winning the opening game against Maryland–which we didn’t.
Nevertheless, I don’t think we should get too despondent about MSU’s Old Spice Classic results (although yours truly was pretty despondent late Thursday night).  [...]

The Spartans run by the Cowboys 94-79 in a 76-possession game.  Official box score.
Well, MSU certainly got that up-tempo thing to work last night.  I listened to the game on the radio, and the play-by-play call by Will Tieman was pretty frantic.  Oklahoma State apparently insisted on pressing MSU, to not much success.  MSU turned it over 16 [...]

MSU falls hard to Maryland, 80-62, in roughly a 66-possession game.  Unofficial box score.
Angst-ridden bullets:

I once called Goran Suton “MSU’s most indispensable player.”  I’m disappointed to now have a data point that backs up that claim.
Raymar Morgan’s proclivity to pick up cheap fouls is apparently a chronic problem.  Which gives me a sense of enormous dread about [...]