Linking Laconically has something to say about Red Raiders, Sooners, Minutemen, AND Tarheels

by KJ@theonlycolors on Nov 29, 2009 10:24 PM CST in Michigan State Spartans News Roundup Comment 4 comments

The Endgame - Black Shoe Diaries
Odds of Penn State or Iowa getting the final BCS at-large spot looking pretty good at this point.
NCAA College Football BCS Bowl Projections Week 13 - ESPN
. . . making a trip to San Antonio for MSU an even more likely scenario. ESPN predicts Texas Tech (8-4) will be the Big 12 representative.
2009 Bowl Projections - Post Week 13 - The Rivalry, Esq.
TRE still likes Oklahoma, who stands at 7-5 after their upset win over Oklahoma State. Missouri (8-4) would appear to be the final potential Big 12 foe.
Staudt on Sunday: Immaturity leads to bad choices for ex-MSU players | lansingstatejournal.com | Lansing State Journal
Pat Narduzzi and/or Don Treadwell candidates for the Youngstown State head coaching job?
Top MSU recruit William Gholston likely will visit other schools | detnews.com | The Detroit News
I don't think we hit this last week. Concerned?
Attorney: Many MSU football players in altercation | freep.com | Detroit Free Press
I guess we're obligated to follow all the sordid details on this.
Nevada Wolf Pack vs North Carolina Tar Heels - November 29, 2009 - College Basketball - StatSheet.com
UNC beats Nevada by 7 today; 23 and 8 for Thompson, 16 and 15 for Davis; both teams will be playing on one full day's rest Tuesday night.
Michigan State players make sure coach Tom Izzo's milestone doesn't go unrecognized | MSU Spartans - - MLive.com
That's a decent-sized footprint you're leaving, sir.

Bonus, non-laconical MSU sports coverage after the jump.

On the bowl game thing: I say bring on one one of those high-powered Big 12 passing attacks. A win vs. Oklahoma--and, to a lesser extent, Texas Tech--would help salvage this otherwise multitude-of-opportunities-foregone season. And if the MSU defense gets shredded for a ton of yards through the air--even with 3+ weeks preparation time--at least it would make it absolutely crystal clear that something has to change in the Dantonio/Narduzzi defensive approach for next season.

Catching up on the UMass game: I just watched the game on DVR. Tough to beat a game with a four-factors graph like this one:

NCAA Basketball Stats

The one big negative was the number of times they let UMass get to the free throw line. Too many reach-ins on drives toward the lane as part of UMass's dribble drive offense, a continuation of a problem in the Florida loss. Gotta play defense with your feet, not your hands, boys.

Offensively, things went pretty well, of course. I was a little disappointed that the team came out and struggled to score against the 2-3 zone in the first 3 minutes (falling behind 8-2). With the number of shooters and passers this MSU team has, I just think beating the 2-3 should come more easily. Eventually they found the rhythm, though, knocking down 14 of 22 three-pointers and posting 27 assists on 41 made field goals.

Speaking of assists, Draymond Green had 6 last night and is off to a great start passing the ball this season, with 19 assists in 6 games (just 3 behind Kalin Lucas). But eventually he's going to have to start knocking down the 15-foot jumper from the free throw line area, as teams adjust to the fact he's looking to dump the ball down to a post player near the basket when he gets the ball in that position.

That about all I have to say about this one (beyond what LVS already said). Perhaps the biggest positive from the box score is that no one played more than 24 minutes. Unlike last year, the team should be relatively fresh for the Tuesday night grudge match with the Tarheels (9:00, ESPN). Preview tomorrow night.

Last but not least, another super important Twitter update: We previously announced the new TOC Twitter feed (@theonlycolors). I think I'm actually getting the hang of this tweeting thing now, beyond just the automatically-generated tweets for new blog posts. So, if you've ever said to yourself, "Man, that KJ has some fascinating opinions about sports. I wish I had access to more of his thoughts regarding assorted athletic events.", then you should definitely follow the TOC feed.

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One other view on facing an air-raid attack

I’ve been on record as saying I do not want to face Tech, but one of my friends pointed out that maybe that wouldn’t be as much of a disaster as I think. After all, look at it this way: Tech shreds everyone through the air. That neutralizes our weakness against the pass to an extent, as Tech won’t do much better than they normally do (after all, they can’t score two TDs on each possession). So maybe that would be better than facing a team that does not normally move the ball through the air.

by SpartanDan on Nov 29, 2009 11:07 PM CST reply actions

I really wish...

…the Big 10 would only get one BCS spot for once.

But whatever, got to win some bowl games. I wonder who needs the bowl win more for their rep, OSU or MSU.

I really hope 15 players that stupid is too high a number to exist on one team.

Gholston seems like a great prospect, but he’s just one guy of 85. It’ll hurt to lose him, but more in terms of prestige than in practical terms. So long as we don’t lose him to U of M. I"m not that concerned, though. If you believe the chatter on the recruiting boards on Spartan Tailgate, Gholston’s been doing a lot to bring other guys to MSU. That doesn’t sound like someone who’s going to decommit for sunnier climes to me.

by witless chum on Nov 30, 2009 5:55 AM CST reply actions

For the record

Kalin Lucas made the Legends Classic all-tournament team.

Fight for The Only Colors: Green and White!

by KJ@theonlycolors on Nov 30, 2009 8:20 AM CST reply actions

The fouls are a concern

Looking at the Statsheet game-by-game stats, we’ve allowed 30.0 or higher free throw rate in all but one game. I’m not sure what an “acceptable” opponent free throw rate is but clearly we have exceeded what is acceptable too often this year as we’ve been north of 40 in three games.

I’m starting to get worried about our ability to deny the post and prevent dribble penetration. Gonzaga had a pretty easy time getting points in the paint off us and so did Florida. Our block percentages are up this year, but I’m a little worried that we’re blocking more shots out of desperation because we’re out of position on D. One stat that corroborates this theory is that our defensive rebounding percentage is sub par at 111th in the nation.

Those are the two chinks in our armour on D – we’re defending the 3 pointer very well (allowing opponents to shoot only 25 percent from 3 point land) and we’re 18th in the nation in opponent’s effective field goal percentage. We don’t force all that many turnovers but we never have – the Izzo defensive system has never relied on a high opponent turnover rate. We really need to get the defensive rebounding rates back up to par though as that is typically a strength of our defense.

Offensively we look great other than sporadic issues with turnovers. We’re ranked 12th in the nation in offensive efficiency. We’ve shown the ability to hang onto the ball against lesser competition, but we tend to see our turnover problems spike when we’re playing BCS calibre competition (we had issues against Florida and Gonzaga, but not against anyone else we’ve played so far). I won’t feel comfortable that our turnover problems are behind us until we stop coughing it up in our bigger games. We don’t need to be excellent in that respect but we need to be decent, and given our experienced back court we should be better in that area. Strangely our assist to turnover rate is still very good, but we cough the ball up too much against top competition.

by TheCrestedHelm on Nov 30, 2009 9:20 AM CST reply actions