2:00-in-the-A.M. MSU Midnight Madness Recap

It didn’t look too bad and he limped off on his own power but that’s never something you want to see. I’m hoping to hear it’s nothing that won’t be 100% in a week.

He made a reference to Green “changing position a little bit.” I don’t remember the exact wording. I’ve been a resolute skeptic but maybe this is going to happen with Day Day on the wing.

Also, I don’t know how much stock you put in MM scrimmage line-ups but there was definitely a three big man set with Payne (I think) on the wing. Maybe he’s quick enough to make that an option in a jam as well.

I’m guessing based on the first picture that it was Ghostbusters, and that Izzo was the Sta-Puft Marshmallow Man.

First, I made a play for autographs for the first time this year and got signatures of nine of the 14 players, which was cool. I handed Kalin Lucas a copy of the Spartan Tip-Off, and his reponse was “Oh man, I haven’t even seen this yet.” Maybe he’ll order a copy!

On the floor, Lucas has some good moves but he was definitely unable to put it into high gear, or at least hesitant to do so. The Robbie Hummel news is terrible for his own sake, but it makes me all the more uneasy about Kalin’s return. Lucas seems to be visibly larger up top, and seemed to be making better decisions given the fact that he can’t rely on himself creating.

Lucious did hit some long shots during both the game and warmups.

No real impressions of Appling (got his autograph!).

Summers looked cold during warmups, but then went on a tear during the game and seemed to get more comfortable when the action picked up.

Kebler seems more quick and athletic. Don’t know if I’m noticing something that’s always been there but now it registers because he’s not just some garbage-time white guy any longer.

Ianni needs to shave his shoulders.

Roe still looks like he’s shot-putting the ball, but he made some very very quick moves that I’ve not seen before. I’m excited to see him put that in play this season. Another thing I noticed was that both during warmups and the game, he was looking more for an outside shot. It never really looked good, and I don’t recall anything dropping, but it makes me wonder if he’s been working on adding that to his game if he was taking them in the first place. I’d like to see more accurate shot-putting first.

Green looks friggin’ fabulous. He’s only down, what, 10 pounds from last year? But I think that’s a net -10 where he’s lost more than that and added muscle. He’s downright lean. His outside shot looked much less awkward than it has in the past, and he connected on some things as well. And as was eluded to before, it wouldn’t be a game/scrimmage/whatever without his falling to the ground grabbing his ankle. Hopefully that was no big deal, like we’re assuming.

I’m excited about Nix this year, too. He’s slimmed down as well, but his conditioning looks great and he could have actually been described as quick more than once last night. Spinning, rebounding, soft-touching, all with a new element of agility – that was awesome. He seemed to me, for whatever reason, to hesitate at actually exploiting it to his fullest. He’d get around a defender (Sherman), but then kick back out insde of finishing. If he puts those two together, this year is a HUGE progression from last year.

Sherman, nothing noteworthy other than his country music entrance.

Gauna is definitely beefier than Sherman, and seems more comfortable out there. Mewonders if he should play while Sherman redshirts, instead of the other which way around.

Payne looks raw, but man is he athletic. He elevates to/above the rim so effortlessly. Other guys can get that high but only after an explosion of sorts. It’s like he floats or something. Add that to his size and refine him a bit and he’s going to be a fun player to watch.

Thornton, nothing.

Bird, DNP.