Two More Mike Kebler-Related Thoughts
by KJ@theonlycolors on Mar 15, 2010 9:59 PM CDT
in Michigan State Spartans Basketball
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Print[Expanding on the MSU section of my previous post.]
1. I just looked at the box score of the MSU-Minnesota game for the first time. You know what? The Mike Kebler thing nearly worked. From the time Kebler entered the game with 9:22 left in the second half through the end of regulation, MSU outscored Minnesota 16-9 over 12-13 possessions. And 4 of those 9 Gopher points came on the first two possessions Kebler was in for, on two offensive put backs by big men. As has been his custom, Kebler played very good defense, helping to force Minnesota into some tough looks down the stretch and allowing Morgan, Lucas, and Green to work their magic on the other end. (A Korie Lucious 3-pointer helped, too.)
I do wonder about not putting in a player who's more of an offensive threat (even Delvon Roe for offensive rebounding) on that final offensive play in regulation, though. I haven't seen the replay, but my sense watching it live was that Kebler's man hedged off him to collapse on the play in the lane with Lucas coming around the screen.
2. Please don't interpret anything I've said as a knock on Mike Kebler. (The photo caption on the last post was too snarky in retrospect.) The fact that Tom Izzo would play Kebler over six different players on the bench who came into the program on scholarship (and weren't wearing a necktie) speaks volumes of what the he's proved about himself in a very short period of time.
It's easy to point out the negatives from Kebler's performance. But I don't blame for him for missing the two free throws. How many shots do you think he's taken in his life with that much adrenaline rushing through his body? (Both misses were too long, as I recall.) And stepping on the out-of-bounds line after grabbing that defensive rebound was a function of how hard he had to work to pull down the rebound in the first place.
The problem with the Michigan State basketball team on Friday night was definitely not Mike Kebler. It was the guys sitting on the bench instead of Kebler.
Alright, on to the Big Dance. Had to get the game recapping compulsion out of the way.
P.S. The other problem was, of course, a bunch of missed free throws. Based on this four-factors graph, you'd sure think the team with the green bars was the winner.
OK, I'm done now. Really.
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exactly but not really
the problem wasnt just keblers. it wasnt just the people that were on the bench.
in my opinion, id rather have a player like summers out there who can shoot, or is supposed to be able to shoot, someone who represents an offensive threat. and it would be marvelous if summers would play some d, but i dont think hes as qucik as he as explosive if that makes any sense (he can jump out the gym but cant guard a guard on the perimeter-slow to react). however, as mentioned earlier in a game recap on here, we were playing 4 v 5 on offense when kebler was in the game, and you wont beat any 12 seed playing with that. so was it keblers fault, no. was it summers fault, no. was it both their faults, yes. itd be nice if we could get a player with summers offense and keblers willingness to play D. because we arent going to win with summers on the bench. ..that player might be chris allen. it will certainly be nice to have him back. and hopefully summers gets some practice playing d after the ncca tournament, and kebler works on those layup drills.
At one point in the game both Kebler and AT were in. Both had open looks and both passed them up. That’s a problem. If two players pass up open looks, it is like playing 3 on 5. As for the shooting, there seemed to be some merit to the complaints that the rims were “tight” Watching warmups for most games it seemed that all teams had trouble with jump shots. If the shot hit the rim it wasn’t going in.
The rebound
I share your thoughts on the rebound, KJ. I’ve read people ripping Kebler over that – “We need players in the game who don’t step out of bounds getting a rebound” as though it was some kind of “bonehead” play. Ridiculous. It was a side-effect of the effort he put into snaring the board. If those are the types of mistakes your team is making you’re in a good position.
And as you address, he was far from the only player to miss big, consecutive free throws. People wanting to use Kebler (or Izzo’s decision to play him) as a scapegoat for the loss are out to lunch.
Kebler
Izzo (and myself) could not watch Summers blow another Hoffbarger (?) assignment. Hoffbarger is no threat off the dribble so you have to play him very tight but Summers was too casual with his close outs – right in front of the MSU bench no less.
Regarding Kebler, the only play he had that was awkward was the fast break where he fumbled the pass. You could tell he was hoping to not receive the pass. The stepping out of bounds on the rebound was unavoidalbe and was a great effort just to get the rebound. As you said, Kebler was not the only one to miss free throws either.
I suspect that we would have seen more of the Lucas, Lucious, Morgan, Roe and Green lineup if Roe was healthy but he is clearly bothered by his knee injury.
by mikegostate on Mar 15, 2010 11:11 PM CDT up reply actions
"the fast break where he fumbled the pass."
That was the only cringe-worthy moment I think he had. The rebound play was unfortunate but completely understandable.
PP-TPW.
The Only Colors
the rebound
his play on that board was great. his stepping out looked more of a function of being pushed by hoffbrauer(sp) who was also going after the rebound. however, he did have a poor play on a fast break from a lucas pass. but what can you say from a guy whose a walk on and has averaged about 3 mpg so far.
theres gotta be some medium, he needs to rain a 15 foot jumper, get some offensive confidence going.
The fast break
Yeah, totally a representation of Kebler’s lake of experience in big moments. If that’s Summers or Morgan it’s an alley-oop dunk. Unfortunate, sure, but you pick your poison.
by intrpdtrvlr on Mar 15, 2010 11:15 PM CDT up reply actions
I know I made a comment about that (something like “gotta be aware of where you are”), but that wasn’t intended to be a major slam on him. I totally agree, I’d rather him go for it and fail than to let the other team have it without a fight.
Missed free throws are the main reason for the loss, but Kebler’s by no means the only culprit there (nor even the biggest one).
Yeah
Sorry, still catching up. I’ll get the details up tonight.
Fight for The Only Colors: Green and White!
by KJ@theonlycolors on Mar 16, 2010 6:27 AM CDT via mobile up reply actions
Kebler
Since I expressed some frustration the other day with Izzo’s ‘sending a message’ to starters during the second week of March, I should make clear that it wasn’t a critique of Kebler, who, while obviously limited in what he can do, plays his heart out (and generally provides better perimeter defense than Summers). KJ’s point about the impact Kebler’s minutes had on the game notwithstanding, I think we miss Summers’ rebounding and the fact that he is at least long-range and athletic threat on offense. Hard to know the risk-reward on all of this, but I think we know that Izzo will always choose to value defense, which is hard to argue with.
by RobbingGormanThomas on Mar 16, 2010 8:40 AM CDT reply actions
Well said
On the defense thing, I think it’s worth noting that Lucious had two really bad defensive lapses that led to open shots for Hoffarber but stayed in the game. There are bigger issues with Summers, I think, that I won’t even try to speculate on.
Fight for The Only Colors: Green and White!
by KJ@theonlycolors on Mar 16, 2010 9:59 AM CDT up reply actions
It's amazing
Everyone of the relevant juniors and senior is a mild head case in some way. I mean that in a nice way. No big issues as human beings, but as far as basketball, none of them seem to know what they need to be doing day in and day out to succeed consistently. How much of this do we pin on Izzo? Are we back to the argument of Izzo putting too much pressure on his players?
Eh...
Izzo has a tendency to recruit ‘nice’ kids. Think the head-case issue comes with that. The cocky/shmucky kids recruited by programs like Kentucky don’t deal with this sort of things because the kids are too full of themselves to start over-thinking things and lose confidence.
Well I think expecting any college player to be completely consistent is asking too much
Morgan, IMO, has had a fine year. Yes, there have been some games that he hasn’t played terribly well in, but that can be said about a lot of top players on a lot of top teams. Even Evan Turner had a couple of games where he was merely mortal. Lucas is not scoring like he was earlier in the year, but I would not chalk it up to being a head case. He doesn’t ever seem to lack for confidence. Were it not for the suspension I would tout Allen as having had a pretty consistent and good year without any head-case issues.
I’m with KJ on Summers – I’m suspicious that something other than his play is an issue, but I have no idea what. Not that I’m excusing his play, which has been well below what he should be capable of.
I’m mostly worried about Roe’s health status going forward – without him playing effective defense and rebounding we are very vertically challenged, or inexperienced. Allen can absorb most of Summers’ minutes if Izzo is looking to send Summers a message, but we don’t have any good option other than a couple of freshmen to play the 5/4 without being completely undersized.
Maryland does not have a lot of size so it may not bother us so much in that game. We will have to guard the perimeter though as they have multiple 3 point shooting threats. Aldrich will absolutely kill us if Roe is hampered by injury. Actually he’d probably absolutely kill us anyway as I don’t really think Roe has the size to bang with him all game long.
by TheCrestedHelm on Mar 16, 2010 11:56 AM CDT up reply actions
Kebler vs Summers
If I had said at the beginning of the year that MSU fans would be having a real debate over who provides more on-court value to the MSU basketball team between Summers and Kebler, you all would have committed me.
Must be something else with Summers
Like KJ said(typed), it must be something else. If not, this is really unfair to Summers everybody that plays has defensive issues but Summers gets punished. He’s a natural offensive player and very vital to the team offense. Perhaps if you back off hf his defensive lapses and let him experience success offensively, he’ll play with more energy on defense. By punishing his defensive effort, you get nothing offensively and the team suffers. Nobody wins. The 90’s was 2 decades ago. There’s going to be more Summers’ coming to play than Antonio Smith’s, time to adapt. Some hotshot high school soph or junior just watched Summers get embarrassed twice in the span of a month and will think twice about signing up for that.
Of course that’s just my reckless speculation with no inside info whatsoever about Summers’ role in Benchgate2.
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