A change in complexion

by KJ@theonlycolors on Feb 24, 2010 10:07 PM CST in Michigan State Spartans Basketball

Robbie Hummel left tonight's game against Minnesota with a right knee injury. The way his knee bent on the play was pretty gruesome, and signs are pointing toward a season-ending injury.

First off, it's unfortunate that a Big Ten team may once again be losing a star player to a serious injury. (Turner/Creek/Coble/Hummel/Leuer is one heck of an all-injury team; Kalin Lucas' ankle sprain doesn't even get him on the first team.) Robbie Hummel's brand of 99.44% fundamentally-pure basketball is a joy to watch (if your team isn't playing against him), and Purdue has been looking like a legitimate Final Four contender over the last month. All things being equal (i.e., assuming it doesn't hurt MSU), other teams in the league making deep NCAA Tournament runs is a good thing.

Of course, there's a pretty significant impact for Michigan State here. If Hummel can't, in fact, play on Sunday, the game in West Lafayette starts to look plausibly winnable for the Spartans. Hummel is the glue that holds Purdue together, particularly on offense. He's a stabilizing force handling the ball in the half-court offense and creates a mismatch at the 4 spot with his ability to knock down the three.

But:

Purdue was still good enough to gut out the win vs. Minnesota, with Keaton Grant stepping up to knock down two key jumpers late.
The Boilermakers still have two legitimate big-time scorers who can put up 20+ points on any given night in JaJuan Johnson and E'Twaun Moore.
MSU hasn't beaten a Big Ten team with a (current) winning conference record in five and a half weeks now--and Mackey Arena will be a tough place to end that drought.

Further updates as events warrant . . .

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Comments

First of all, Myron Medcalf (gophersbbguy) has no idea what he's talking about.

That was pure speculation by him, he said as much during halftime.

That said, he’s probably right. And no matter what, I can’t see Hummel playing on Sunday. I have a feeling this one is heading for a three-way-tie…

Sigh.

by rcpratt on Feb 24, 2010 10:12 PM CST reply actions

That's a shame

The loss of Hummel is a loss for the conference. Beyond ooting for State, I’d love to see Purdue make a big run and represent the conference. I hope it isn’t as bad as it looks.

by intrpdtrvlr on Feb 24, 2010 10:27 PM CST reply actions

Agreed

I want State to win the conference without a doubt. However, it will really hurt the credibility of the conference is the top teams don’t advance in the tournament. I, for one, am so sick of the national pundits dumping on the big ten. I sincerely hope Robbie Hummel is ready come tournament time. We need a good showing collectively to prove the ESPN analysts wrong. In the long run though, it probably won’t matter either way. Last year they kept talking about all the reasons why we weren’t good enough to beat USC, Kansas, Louisville, etc. When we did, they still gave us no respect for it.

the bottom line, however, is we need to come out against Purdue like a team on a mission. Summers and Lucas need to forget about the NBA (unless they plan on playing in Europe) and give this team all they have. The talent is there, and now that Hummel is out we have an opportunity to win the league title. If this team can go out and get it done, I think that March will be a good month for us, regardless of the bad losses this conference season.

by Milton58 on Feb 24, 2010 11:06 PM CST reply actions

I would have much rather had a Minnesota win

Than the injury to Hummel. Regardless of the implications for MSU or Purdue, you have to hope Hummel’s OK. He just plays with so much skill and respect for the game that you want to see him out there.

by Con-T on Feb 24, 2010 11:33 PM CST reply actions

Wow That Sucks...

….For Pudue…We have to take advantage though.

by BennieBladesFan on Feb 25, 2010 1:04 AM CST reply actions

Terrible misfortune

Purdue had a great chance to make the Final Four this year. They still could, but with Hummel out they go from favorites to moderate long-shots.

by SpartanDan on Feb 25, 2010 1:20 AM CST reply actions

Anything more than Sweet 16 would be a huge surprise to me without Hummel.

He’s the glue. His stats are impressive, but his presence is worth far more than his stats alone.

by rcpratt on Feb 25, 2010 1:23 AM CST up reply actions

Update

Most of the Paint Crew went to the Purdue Airport to welcome the team back about an hour ago, talked to the players and said that Robbie looked “happy and upbeat”. Hopefully he knows something we don’t.

by rcpratt on Feb 25, 2010 1:27 AM CST reply actions

Good

Sure hope he’s okay. As everyone has already said, you gotta enjoy watching Hummel play (unless he’s dominating your team). I hope he’s back in playing well by tournament time.

by TMadison25 on Feb 25, 2010 5:16 AM CST up reply actions

That's welcome news

Hummel is actually one of my favorite players to watch play, and on the whole, I really like this Purdue team (save when they are putting a sleeper hold on us at home). Like many have said here, I fly the Big Ten flag once the tourney begins and MSU is guaranteed of avoiding any conference foes before the regional finals. It would be great to see him return to form by the NCAAs.

by RobbingGormanThomas on Feb 25, 2010 7:24 AM CST up reply actions

You're right

He’s the glue. I have been thinking about this pretty much for 12 hours and if you were to pick one player to be the absolute worst to lose right now, it is Robbie. We’ve had to live without JJ at times and done alright. If we lose Moore we can find some scoring with Grant/Hart/Barlow. No one does all the little things like Robbie does.

A futile crusade to prevent mass ignorance

HammerAndRails, SBNation's Boilermaker Blog

by BoilerTMill on Feb 25, 2010 7:30 AM CST reply actions

Let's hope he's alright

I have to say that I’d like to see at least on Big 10 team make a deep tournament run, and preferably a couple of teams. Ideally one of those teams would be us, but given our long drought against teams with winning records, that the fact that that drought includes two home games, I’m not sure a deep tourney runs is in the cards for us this year.

Purdue, OTOH, looks like a legitimate threat to get to the final four, assuming they are at full strength. OSU and Wisconsin are also candidates, but Wisconsin never seems to play up to their potential in the tournament, and OSU has no bench, which could become an issue when you are playing two games in three days, as teams normally do in the tournament. Purdue therefore is the best hope for tournament success this year, but without Hummel that becomes a much more difficult task.

Plus, he’s a great player and fun to watch. It totally sucks if he can’t return to action this year.

by TheCrestedHelm on Feb 25, 2010 8:44 AM CST reply actions

With or Without Hummel....

I’d expect to see some zone looks from State, even if just for a few possessions. Minnesota’s zone bothered Purdue considerably and Izzo will have had a week to practice it and add some wrinkles. Going to need to steal some possessions as we will turn the ball over some down there.

by rook34 on Feb 25, 2010 9:04 AM CST reply actions

Izzo? Zone? What?

Can someone fill me in here?

"...there'll be some woman, maybe 45 or 50, she'll come up and give me a hug, and I'll give my wife a wink: See? I'm not that old." - Joe Paterno

by ReadingRambler on Feb 25, 2010 9:18 AM CST up reply actions

Zone

Izzo didn’t employ the zone against UNC, which would’ve been the perfect opportunity to (poor perimeter shooting team that lost against a zone-heavy Syracuse). I’d imagine he’d stick with man-to-man.

Came across this looking at Big Ten defensive fingerprints… Why does Kenpom define MSU’s defensive fingerprint as “Some Zone?” Years past it has been “Mostly Man” or “Inconclusive.”

by TMadison25 on Feb 25, 2010 9:30 AM CST up reply actions

Because the emphasis on help defense

(1) forces a lot of 3-pointers and (2) doesn’t create lot of turnovers—both traditional features of zone defense.

http://www.spartansweblog.com/2009/04/14/breaking-down-the-defense/

I agree that it’s extremely unlikely Izzo would roll out a zone at this point in the season.

Fight for The Only Colors: Green and White!

by KJ@theonlycolors on Feb 25, 2010 10:44 AM CST up reply actions

I wish we would add more forcing of turnovers to our defensive profile

I think we have the quickness and athleticism to do it, and it’s not clear that we would suffer any dramatic dropoff in other areas. Take Purdue – they are good at defensive rebounding and eFG defense and still manage to turn teams over at a pretty good clip. Forcing more turnovers would allow us to get the break going more often and I don’t think we necessarily have to give up much in terms of rebounding and field goal defense.

by TheCrestedHelm on Feb 25, 2010 10:58 AM CST up reply actions