Preview: Michigan State Spartans vs. Grand Valley State Lakers

by KJ@theonlycolors on Nov 8, 2009 9:14 PM CST in Basketball Comment 43 comments

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"Calm down, folks. It's another exhibition game."

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Your MICHIGAN STATE SPARTANS vs. the GRAND VALLEY STATE LAKERS

THE BRESLIN CENTER, EAST LANSING, MICHIGAN

7:00 P.M. (ET), MONDAY

BTN streaming video ($)

RADIO: SPARTAN SPORTS NETWORK (follow link for list of stations)

The rundown on the Lakers:

21-10 record last season, including 14-8 in the GLIAC (good for a 3rd-place tie in the overall league standings).
They're a paradox: A young team (no seniors; 8 freshmen) with quite a bit of experience. They return 6 of the 8 players who started at least 9 games last season. Exceptions: Leading scorer Pete Trammel and one-time Wolverine Jerret Smith.
Another guy who's missing is newly-minted Spartan Anthony Ianni, who averaged 8.9 minutes per game in 27 apperances for Grand Valley last season.
Picked to win the GLIAC North Division this season.
And, oh yeah, they beat us two years ago.

The Lakers' top three players this season look to be:

6'4" junior swingman Justin Ringler: 12.2 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 2.5 assists per game last season. (Also of note: He scored 16 points in the 2007 win vs. MSU.)
6'5" junior guard Toreau Brown: 10.2 points and 5.3 rebounds per game last season.
6'5" junior swingman (and another one-time Wolverine) K'Len Morris: 8.5 points per game in 12 games last season before suffering a season-ending injury.

Also, look out for sophomore guard Wes Trammel (brother of Pete), who hit 61.1% of his 3-point attempts in limited playing time last season.

Grand Valley should give MSU a little tougher test than Northwood did. They played solid defense (43.2 opp 2-pt%, 33.8 opp 3-pt%) and were a very good rebounding team last season (36.7 OffReb%, 73.5 DefReb%). They forced a large number of 3-point shots, indicating they may play some zone.

Still, it's hard to see an upset happening again. The 2007 MSU team was in search of its offensive identity (a search that continued through the season). This team shouldn't have that issue: They want to push the ball in transition, attack the basket, and crash the boards. The one factor that reduces MSU's margin for error is injuries, as Raymar Morgan and Delvon Roe will likely both miss the game and Chris Allen and Korie Lucious are both nursing injuries.

For those of us willing to up our investment with bigtennetwork.com to $5.98, this post will also serve as the open thread for the game. (CLARIFICATION: It's $2.99 for this game. $5.98 total if you ponied up for the last game, too.)

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radio

any radio websites that will broadcast the game for people in chicago?

by zachjuett on Nov 8, 2009 9:34 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

I don't think so

Generally, I don’t think radio stations are allowed to stream the game broadcasts on their websites.

Fight for The Only Colors: Green and White!

by KJ@theonlycolors on Nov 9, 2009 8:45 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

www.wjimam.com

I’ve used that to follow hockey occasionally, and they do have the hoops game on right now.

by SpartanDan on Nov 9, 2009 7:15 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

TV replay

For those who just want to see the game, I believe the Big Ten Network will be replaying the it on Tuesday at 11am.

by intrpdtrvlr on Nov 8, 2009 10:16 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Need to beat them

GVSU is full of Wal-verines. Also, losing to them is particularly intolerable for me as I live 15 minutes from GVSU.

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 8, 2009 10:27 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Game costs $2.99 on BTN site

Your $5.98 comment might be confusing to some. (Northwood was $2.99, GVSU is $2.99.)

by red_cedar on Nov 9, 2009 8:34 AM CST via mobile reply actions 0 recs

Thanks

I’ll edit to clarify, in case there’s any confusion.

Fight for The Only Colors: Green and White!

by KJ@theonlycolors on Nov 9, 2009 8:42 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Game streaming

Thanks intrpdtrvlr for the replay tip. I’ll probably pass on the game streaming – the quality of the broadcast against Northwood was marginal, though Tim Bograkos was good for a couple of chuckles with his color commentary – “Michigan State is forcing a lot of unforced turnovers.”

I say that lightly. I loved the energy Bograkos brought to the court. This team would do well to emulate his hustle.

by donaldo on Nov 9, 2009 10:05 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

Bograkos' shot to beat Kentucky

is one of my favorite MSU bball moments ever.

by Stones1981 on Nov 9, 2009 10:08 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Izzo's comment...

about bograkos being the 6th option out of the five guys on the court was my favorite Izzo comment ever :-).

by MooTheKow on Nov 9, 2009 10:25 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Big Ten Tech Department FAIL

Video is super choppy.

A couple nice passes from Green so far, from what I’ve actually been able to see.

Fight for The Only Colors: Green and White!

by KJ@theonlycolors on Nov 9, 2009 6:10 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Nix showing nice moves down low again

Fight for The Only Colors: Green and White!

by KJ@theonlycolors on Nov 9, 2009 6:26 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Durrell Summers

Hit in face, bleeding, going to locker room.

Fight for The Only Colors: Green and White!

by KJ@theonlycolors on Nov 9, 2009 6:30 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Anybody else here?

(Only asking because my therapist says I should stop talking to myself.)

Fight for The Only Colors: Green and White!

by KJ@theonlycolors on Nov 9, 2009 6:33 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Nope, nobody here

What’s the score? I’m not willing to pay for streaming video of an exhibition game

by wbrianr on Nov 9, 2009 6:42 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

23-13 with 4 minutes left in the first half

Offense looking pretty ragged.

Fight for The Only Colors: Green and White!

by KJ@theonlycolors on Nov 9, 2009 6:45 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Lots of Dahlman/Thornton/Kebler

Fight for The Only Colors: Green and White!

by KJ@theonlycolors on Nov 9, 2009 6:46 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Weird line-ups...

Funny that this is basically MSU’s practice squad…

by MooTheKow on Nov 9, 2009 6:49 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Nix...

Anyone else really liking Nix so far? He is looking like the second coming of Draymond Green (and not just because he lost a lot of weight). Good hands, and seems to have good basketball smarts.

by MooTheKow on Nov 9, 2009 6:50 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Certainly looks like the leader

among the three new big men (including Herzog).

Had a nice steal on a pass into the post, too.

Fight for The Only Colors: Green and White!

by KJ@theonlycolors on Nov 9, 2009 6:56 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

31-21 at the half

GVSU hits a 3-pointer as the clock expires.

Fight for The Only Colors: Green and White!

by KJ@theonlycolors on Nov 9, 2009 6:55 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Halftime reading/browsing

Fight for The Only Colors: Green and White!

by KJ@theonlycolors on Nov 9, 2009 7:01 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Evan Turner...

Anyone notice his first-half stat-line?
12 points, 12 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 blocks, 2 steals.

by MooTheKow on Nov 9, 2009 7:05 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Yikes

Fight for The Only Colors: Green and White!

by KJ@theonlycolors on Nov 9, 2009 7:07 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

No kiddin...

I’m thinking Turner really wants player of the year honors this year…. probably going to deserve it to.

by MooTheKow on Nov 9, 2009 7:08 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

He probably deserved it last year.

But remember that they were playing Alcorn State, who were 6-25 last year.

"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 9, 2009 8:15 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

DS shooting around. looks fine

by Chris in Kzoo on Nov 9, 2009 7:10 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Audio...

Anyone else not getting any audio with their feed right now?

by MooTheKow on Nov 9, 2009 7:10 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Worse: My video is all jumbled

No audio either.

Fight for The Only Colors: Green and White!

by KJ@theonlycolors on Nov 9, 2009 7:12 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Before I fire off my angry e-mail to BTN requesitng a refund of my hard-earned $2.99,

am I safe in assuming that everyone’s getting a choppy video feed?

Fight for The Only Colors: Green and White!

by KJ@theonlycolors on Nov 9, 2009 7:20 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

You are safe to assume that.

I got audio back.. but as soon as I did my video quality went way downhill.

by MooTheKow on Nov 9, 2009 7:21 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

It's clear they don't have the bandwith to keep the HD feed going

But they keep going back to it after dropping the video resolution down for short stretches.

Fight for The Only Colors: Green and White!

by KJ@theonlycolors on Nov 9, 2009 7:26 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Ooops...

Made the mistake of trying to reload the webpage to see if the feed improved… now I can’t get the video or audio to start.. just get a little blue arrow guy that spins around in a circle incessantly…

by MooTheKow on Nov 9, 2009 7:29 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs