First off, as a Texas fan, great game. I was lucky enough to attend and although it was sloppy with all the turnovers, the game was exciting and the atmosphere was great. The atmosphere is more a credit to you than us. Our fans only show up for the other team, so to have a packed house on a Tuesday is a great compliment to you and your program. Also, as a high school coach, I LOVE Izzo. I think he’s a fantastic coach and as soon as our schedule came out I circled MSU while everyone was talking about KU, UNC, UConn, etc. simply because I love to watch you guys play.

To me I was more impressed with us winning this game that the UNC game simply because MSU always does a great job of not letting teams run and not letting teams control the boards and that was true tonight. I don’t follow the Spartans nearly as close as you, but I wouldn’t worry. It seems to me that every year Izzo loads up the non-conference schedule, MSU suffers a few set-back and people write them off. Then about half-way through Big 10 play they turn it on and become the “team no one wants to play” come tourney time. I’m not sure how well this team fits that pattern, but I do know that I wouldn’t want to face Sparty come March, but if we do hopefully it will be in Indy.

Again, good game. Good luck the rest of the season.

The thing I love most about college basketball is the defensive intensity. The thing I hate most about college basketball is the defensive intensity. Texas exploited a well-known tendency that I have complained about on several occasions, including last year’s game at Purdue, also officiated by Hightower. A team, especially a home team, that ratchets up the defensive intensity to a point where they are in a state of constant fouling is going to reap dividends. Texas “turned up” the defensive intensity with an unstinting ball pressure that involved constant body contact, chest bumping, shoving, reach-ins and moving blocks. Every possession, all possession. I don’t fault them for it, because it will never be punished. To properly officiate a game like this the refs would have to be willing to blow the whistle many times in succession on a single possession in front of a vocal home crowd. I’ve never seen it happen and it didn’t happen tonight. The onus is on the coaches to expect this and have a plan for it. If the officials are going to let 6’6" Gary Johnson enshroud and consume 5’11" Korie Lucious then you shouldn’t have him bringing the ball up – multiple times.

Various irritations resulting from this game: the assertion that they beat us “at our own game” or the general idea that we tried to slow the game down to contain them. What a load of crap. Going into this game Texas averaged 76 possessions per game and MSU 71. This was a 74 possession game. Any slowdown in this game was due to Texas trying to protect or increase their lead. Texas was a train wreck (8-19) from the free throw line and their numbers going in suggested as much. We didn’t match their defensive intensity to take advantage of this. State lost this game because of turnovers and rebounds, which is especially galling since we have two supposedly adept point guards and they are not taller than us, especially with Pittman only playing 12 (!) minutes.

3 losses, 3 very winnable games. Needless to say, I’d like to get these guys in the tournament.

If you’re saying we’re a 4, that means there are at least 12 teams better than us. Not the case.

We’ve lost two true road games to teams with decided advantages they that utilized against us. The only alarming loss to me was to Florida. Neutral court, I would bet we get either UNC or Texas.

This is a team that’s going through a bit of adversity right now. That’s fine. But there aren’t 12 teams better than MSU in America.

Last year, I said if they continued past the Walton era, I would chalk it up to Izzo’s offensive system. Walton had many great attributes but his turnover rate was sub-par for a point guard. The TO issues have now been a constant problem through multiple player groups, and have to be considered a function of the coaching or offensive system.

The other explanation is that Lucas, Lucious, Summers, Allen, etc. were highly regarded recruits that happened to be prone to turning the ball over. I can only surmise that our guards dribble into, instead of away from, overplays is because that is where the play that has been called demands that they go, and they are going to try to go there damn the consequences or hedging by the defense. It’s the same thing with passes that go where the player should be but isn’t, or despite where the defender happens to be – they make the pass even if a defender is overplaying the passing lanes.

Against a defense like this Lucas should have a field day driving to the hoop and either laying it in, finding a cutting post player for an easy shot, or kicking it out to an open player on the wing. Instead, we seem to hover out on the perimeter passing it from one wing to the other against this type of pressure, which is a recipe for disaster. We need to start attacking the heart of the defense when they overplay, but we seem to lack either the confidence or game plan to do so. Yes, Texas was bumping us on the perimeter and it wasn’t being called, but that happens a lot and we need to find a way to deal with and exploit it rather than wish the refs would call a tight game on the perimeter.

It’s frustrating because when this offense is clicking it is a thing of beauty. We just seem to go into spells once or twice a game where nothing goes right, we can’t hang onto the ball, and the other team opens up a lead with turnovers for easy points. I have to surmise that giving up easy transition points is one of the reasons our defensive efficiency is not quite up to par this year, and that is a function of turning the ball over out on the perimeter. James was a beast tonight, but we could have overcome his production if we had limited the turnovers.

As it is, I am not looking forward to the Purdue games. If things do not improve, with their defense, they will eat us alive. There were some positives in last night’s game – we scored efficiently in the first half and played pretty good defense when they weren’t running down the court for another turnover-induced break. Nix looked comfortable out there against Pittman. We did not look like the preseason #2 though, and it is our perimeter players that let us down tonight. Given the talent and experience we have out there, that should be a strength, not a weakness.

We are not the second best team in the country. We ost two starters, one of them all league. Izzo said as much.

What is disappointing to me is that this is a relatively veteran team—by today’s college standards—many of whom have played together for a few years now, and made it through the gauntlet of the tourney last year. This is not to downplay the leadership and contributions of Suton and Walton (and Walton did to Abrams last year what their guards did to Lucas last night), but I would expect more composure on the road. As Crested mentions, I worry about the Purdue games, as they have been the most fundamentally sound defensive team I’ve seen this year: they can both pressure the ball and play smart team defense.

But the play of our frontline was a positive development: while Raymar disappeared a bit after his behind-the-back-debacle, I thought Nix and Roe seemed as confident and offensively minded as I have seen them against a quality opponent, and I thought we did a good job keeping a great offensive rebounding team off the glass (esp. considering what they did to UNC). We didn’t seem overwhelmed down low. And while I wouldn’t want him to fall in love with the idea, it was great to see Green hit a three and take open jumpers. If the bigs keep developing and gaining confidence, I like our chances a lot more.

was how MSU fans invaded Texas like that. I could hear a pretty good Go Green! Go White! chant during every Texas free-throw and it was pretty loud when they had the ball on offense as well.

definitely not “best-case scenario”. 1 seed is still out there for us. Granted, it would take a very impressive big ten championship and maybe the tourney as well. There are a lot of high quality opponents in the big ten that will equate to impressive wins (if we win). Although a lot of the media seems to hate on our conference with regularity, that is not always the case with the selection committee. That said, I could see us dropping to 5-6 range if we can’t figure some things out.
Here’s my “whats with all these mathmatics I want to talk about feelings!” take on our loses: it’s unfortunate we did not get an impressive road win in the non-conference, but I’m not all that worried about it. I have a completely different outlook on Izzo’s coaching style and season long strategy after last year. Basically it is blind faith. Whatever he does results in suprising success at the end of the year and I have a feeling that it may also result in ugly play at the begining of the year. And I have no idea why or anyway to back that up. All said, in college basketball, the end of the year is all that matters, and Izzo knows that better than most, and so do we.

is that we start three juniors and a senior that have gotten significant playing time over the course of their careers in the backcourt, pluse one sophmore who has played meaningful minutes. Texas has Balby, a junior, one sophomore, and three freshmen playing meaningfull minutes in their backcourt. We had more experience on the court by far but looked like the inexperienced backcourt.

Does this sound familiar? Talented, highly ranked, deep (but not too deep) MSU team loses some key players from the previous season and struggles due to a line-up hole, suspect chemistry, and leadership problems. I’m having 2005-2006 heeby-jeebies after the Texas game.
I hope I’m wrong and the ship turns around quickly during the Big Ten season.
But am I convinced that this year’s squad isn’t headed for the middle of the pack in a competitive conference and 5 seed? No.

Been away from the internet with family obligations, but had a couple of late thoughts. A big difference to me was the contrast between James and Morgan. Over four years, James has developed into a force, at times an unstoppable force. The same can’t be said for Morgan, and we need that type of player, particularly with the inexperience at center.
We need much more leadership from the guard position, particularly Lucas, to be a Final Four caliber team. A weakness has been that he doesn’t get his teammates involved enough in the flow of the game. Instead, he has a tendency to try to take over. If he is hot, it works out well. If he is not, the team suffers.
I commented recently about what I perceived to be a surprising lack of cohesiveness and consistencey at this point in the season. On a veteran team, I expected more, even with the loss of key players and injuries. Roe and Green have been our most consistent players. The rest will need to find a consistent positive presence for us to be successful in the Big Ten campaign.