340 and Counting: Michigan State 90 Valparaiso 60

by KJ@theonlycolors on Nov 22, 2009 9:46 PM CST in Michigan State Spartans Basketball Comment 6 comments

[Note: Another disjointed viewing experience: Listened to first half on the radio live (Matt Steigenga's becoming a really good color guy, BTW), watched second half live, went back and watched first half on DVR.]

Michigan State puts together a complete 40 minutes: 18-point halftime lead, stretched to 30 at the final buzzer. Straight to the player bullets (official box score is here):

Chris Allen is playing with as much confidence as he's ever had: 22 points on 10 FG attempts.
Delvon Roe is good to go: 10 points, 17 rebounds (7 on offense), 4 blocks.
Korie Lucious: 9 assists, giving him 23 for the season vs. just 3 turnovers. Man, did he drop some dimes today. Best pure passer of the Tom Izzo era?

Raymar Morgan: 9 points, 6 rebounds, 3 blocks, and most importantly 28 minutes played. With four more days to get healthy, he should be pretty close to 100% for the Gators on Friday.

Kalin Lucas is Kalin Lucas: 15 points on 8 FG attempts, 3 assists, 2 steals.

Durrell Summers: 10 points, 1 scary moment.

Even when Draymond Green has a quiet game, he stuffs the stat sheet: 8 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 turnover, 1 block, 1 sheet. He's the anti-Mark Titus: he tries to fill every column in the box score.

We won't hit all of the other 7 guys to play in this game (none in double-digit minutes, as Izzo stayed pretty small throughout the game vs. the undersized Crusaders). It does look like Tom Izzo is making a conscious effort to give Austin Thornton a chance to earn a spot at the bottom of the playing rotation. 8 minutes and 4 FG attempts (only 1 made) today. They ran a set play for him off the timeout with a minute left in the first half, but he missed the open 15-footer.

This was a 68-possession game, so the offense was more spectacular than the defense--particularly when you consider that the Crusaders hit only 4 of 23 three-point attempts, missing some pretty good looks off bad MSU defensive switches/hedges along the way. Four factors graph:

NCAA Basketball Stats

MSU beat Valparaiso handily in all three of the factors besides turnover percentage. The execution against the Crusader zone was particularly good, resulting in a 2pt FG% of 61.0% and a 3pt FG% of 41.2%.

And the Spartan TO% of 19.1% was acceptable. No MSU player turned it over more than twice. Generally, it's encouraging that a higher percentage of our turnovers seem to be of the trying-to-create-something variety (as opposed to the no-purpose-brain-freeze variety) this season.

Minor gripe: The defense on in-bounds plays under the basket could use some work. Valparaiso got easy looks going down the lane several times today. Does having the defender guarding the in-bounds passer turn his back to try double team cutters really work better than just having him pressure the ball so the passer can't get a good passing angle to a player in the lane?

Next up: The actual whether-you-win-makes-a-difference-in-who-you-play-next phase of the Legends Classic. Atlantic City. The Florida Gators. Friday at 8:00. HDNet (check here to figure out if you get it or to find a sports bar that does).

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61.2% eFG

I like.

"Do not cheat your team or your teammates. Know your plays. Block. Protect. Add to what we are trying to do."
The Only Colors

by LVS on Nov 22, 2009 10:25 PM CST reply actions

I've been waiting

since the second half started to see how high the eFG would end up. They shot lights out.

Light a man a fire, he'll stay warm for a day.
Light a man afire, he'll be warm for the rest of his life.

by Seer on Nov 23, 2009 1:29 AM CST reply actions

also...the anti-Draymond Green

Thanks for the Mark Titus comment…but let’s keep it green. Mark Titus is the anti-Draymond Green. Now all we need is Dray to start blogging…

by DanfromCarsonCity on Nov 23, 2009 7:06 AM CST reply actions

I wouldn't want to play them

I think this team’s intimidation factor goes up a significant notch if Allen plays anything like that consistently. If Roe also plays that well then I think they’re living up to their ranking.

by intrpdtrvlr on Nov 23, 2009 7:06 AM CST reply actions

Athleticism

The athleticism of this team is enjoyable to watch. The way we push the ball is going to wear teams out, and we have enough depth to keep up the pace. In addition to improving his free throw percentage, Nix is going to have to drop some more pounds to get up and down the court, at least until things slow in Big Ten play.

A considerably better effort yesterday, though we did have a lapse at the end of the first half and in the first few minutes of the second half. I see this team only getting better providing we can keep everyone healthy.

by donaldo on Nov 23, 2009 7:33 AM CST reply actions

The one thing I'd like to see improved

Not much to nit pick in this game except:

Roe’s free throw shooting does not appear to have improved as he was only 50% from the line yesterday. Hopefully that’s a product of the limited minutes he’s been playing since being concussed, and will impove.

Ideally Lucas would have a higher assist to turnover ratio as a point guard but he is giving us consistent scoring. I’m OK with him looking to score more as he is our most consistent scoring threat (with the possible exception of Morgan), given Summers’s and Allen’s mercurial nature and our lack of proven scorers up front. If we get more consistency from others I expect his assists to TO ratio will improve.

I was surprised to see Morgan play more than 20 minutes in this game given how much we were ahead by. Hopefully that’s a sign that his ankle is continuing to get better.

The Good:

It looks like Lucious’s turnover problems were a function of being a freshman. He’s much improved this year and should be able to spell Lucas effectively so he’s still fresh at the end of the year.

Allen had his shooting stroke back. Now lets see him do it again against Florida.

Draymond Green is turning into quite a player. For a big man he’s got good ball handling skills and he’s doing a lot of little things that help us win. He really runs the floor well.

We played good FG D and rebounded well. A very complete game.

That effective FG percentage is very impressive. If we can approach that level on a regular basis it should be a very good year.

by TheCrestedHelm on Nov 23, 2009 8:57 AM CST reply actions