Real, Non-Wonkish Honors Garnered by Lucas, Green, and Morgan
by KJ@theonlycolors on Mar 8, 2010 8:20 PM CST
in Michigan State Spartans Basketball
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Print- Kalin Lucas is a first-teamer in both the coaches' and media's books.
- Draymond Green is a third-teamer and the Sixth Man of the Year in both sets of voting. (Update: Unanimous on the sixth-man pick.)
- Raymar Morgan was given third-team status by the coaches (whom I trust less in matters of national polling but more in matters of all-conference picks). Honorable mention in the media voting.
- Isaiah Dahlman is the Michigan State sportsmanship award winner.
Kudos.
Evan Turner is Player of the Year. Obviously. McCamey/Lucas/Turner/Hummel/Moore is the consensus first team. Matt Painter and Thad Matta split the Coach-of-the-Year honors; no obvious winner there (except that you could give it to Bo Ryan every year if you wanted to). Tom Izzo probably equally deserving. Crawford and Richardson split Freshman-of-the-Year honors.
I don't have any major beefs with any of the selections. Lucas obviously gets a boost relative to his numbers based on reputation, along with some big late-game shots this season. John Shurna suffered a little bit due to Northwestern's lower profile (and win total).
One gripe: What does Damian Johnson have to do to get some love? He was excluded from coaches' all-defensive team (Nash/Lauderdale/J. Johnson/Kramer/Hughes), despite ranking in the top 3 in the league in both steals and blocks per game.
Linking Laconically is appending itself to this post
- MSU's Izzo doesn't believe Lucas plans to turn pro | detnews.com | The Detroit News
All signs point to "No." - LSJ Blogs: Hey, Joe: Lucas, Green, Morgan get Big Ten honors
Rexrode notes: Lucas dealing with foot infection, Izzo talked to Tom Herzog about Senior Day but Herzog opted to wait on the decision. - Yahoo! Sports All-American Team - College Basketball - Rivals.com
Yahoo gives Day Day national Sixth-Man-of-the-Year honor. - The Bracket Matrix
Creeping up toward 3-seed territory. - Around the Big Ten: Postscript | UM Hoops.com
Predicted 14-4 record for MSU. Of course, had no idea about the path we'd take to get there. (I'd also like it noted I picked Evan Turner as the most feared Big Ten player.)
- Afternoon Linkage: Let the madness begin - College Basketball Nation Blog - ESPN
"Obsessive second-chancing." I like it. - Forbes says Matta's contract is fourth-richest (Hoops & Scoops: an OSU basketball blog)
Izzo not in top 10. (?) - Gophers' Tubby Smith: Oregon has not contacted me - TwinCities.com
I like having Tubby in the Big Ten (as long as he doesn't start making runs at league titles, at least). - Meet this year's Mr. Basketball finalists | freep.com | Detroit Free Press
Keith Appling in the mix. Averaging 28 points/game on 62% FG shooting. - MSU players get 18 months probation in assault case | detnews.com | The Detroit News
Cunningham and Dell. Attorney says it's unclear whether Dantonio will let them return to team. Seems very likely they'll be back, but complete radio silence from football program is getting strange. - Ranking the Big Ten: Greg Jones, No. 5 - Big Ten Blog - ESPN
Not in football mode; can't think of 4 players left who would be ahead of him. - Revisiting Big Ten Bowls in 2009-10: Turmoil in Texas as MSU gets dropped in the Alamo Bowl - The Rivalry, Esq.
Did not enjoy. - IgniteA2 #3 - 03/04/10 - Part 2 - Slide View, Ignite Ann Arbor #3 - 03/04/10 - Part 2 - Slide View Part of Global Ignite Week (GIW) igniteannarbor.com ht...
How to build an MGoBlog. I think I've been doing it wrong.
Bonus! Quote from the second link above:
Izzo made it clear he really wants to win the Big Ten Tournament this year. Really. Really really. Offense is going to be a focal point this week, striking a balance. MSU has been going inside with great success lately, but Chris Allen has 10 shots in three games. The Spartans will need both working in the postseason.
I like the sound of that. With the three-way tie for the regular season crown, the BTT serves as sort of a tie-breaker for king-of-the-hill bragging rights (although Wisconsin may have something to say about that). It hasn't felt like the conference tournament has been a high priority for MSU in the last several years, serving as more of a warm-up for the Big Dance. As a fan with a seat reserved at Conseco Fieldhouse this weekend, I say let's go all-in this time around.
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Adam Rittenberg's list
I think the remaining four have to be Adrian Clayborn, Brandon Graham, Jared Odrick, and Bryan Bulaga, in no particular order. I also think “top 30 returning players” would have been a much more interesting list.
PP-TPW.
The Only Colors
I think he tweeted that such a list will be forthcoming closer to fall
Fight for The Only Colors: Green and White!
by KJ@theonlycolors on Mar 8, 2010 9:54 PM CST via mobile up reply actions
The Big Ten Tournament Title
Sounds like another attractive feather in the cap; another drought that stands to be broken. So, I can see why it means a lot to Izzo. I think it means a lot for fans, too. Any chance it would push us to a 2 seed?
I don't think so
since they generally ignore the results of the BTT final due to the late tip.
Fight for The Only Colors: Green and White!
by KJ@theonlycolors on Mar 8, 2010 9:57 PM CST via mobile up reply actions
Usage
Poster’s note: Apparently I clicked the save button in my text editor seconds before the news broke about Chris Allen’s suspension. Sigh. I decided to go ahead and cast this into the vortex of likely disinterest in items of a purely statistical nature. I hope the last paragraph will have some relevance beyond the Allen-less game scheduled for Friday.
For POY I think I have to go along with the crowd on Evan Turner rather than PORPAG champion Shurna, though Shurna had a remarkable season – better, in fact, than Kevin Coble has had – and he perhaps deserved a first-team nod over Lucas or Moore. One of the amazing things about Turner is his usage, which propels him into superstar status, I think. There was an article in Basketball Prospectus from a few years back called Effective Usage that details how unusual it is for a player to significantly change his role in the offense from one year to the next and from one to three years. Turner went from a usage (in all games) of 21.0% as a freshman to 34.2% this year. If you look at the 1-3 year graph in that article, that puts him well outside the 95% interval. That is, it’s extremely rare for a player to go from solid contributor to bona fide superstar in two years, as Turner did – or even from 21.0% to the 29.8% of his sophomore year. And it’s not like a bunch of stars were hogging all the possessions in Turner’s first year. The top usage guys on that team were Kosta Koufos and Jamar Butler.
Slightly OT, several folks commented on the amazingly valuable zero-point performance of Chris Allen guarding Manny Harris on Sunday (and you’ve got to check out the photo I posted to that thread of a frustrated Harris jawing with Allen). Though not as dramatic as Turner’s evolution, Allen’s transformation in a different direction is very much an outlier. Allen went from a usage rate of 23.6% as a freshman (23.7% last year) to 17.8% this year. Pomeroy doesn’t provide the raw numbers in the article, but that looks like it’s just at or outside the 95% line on the other end of the range. Allen has completely transformed himself from primary offensive option to 3-point/defensive specialist. He’s now David Lighty ‘Lite’ (or Jeremy Nash with a much better jumper). If anyone else (Durrell?) had stepped up his offensive role, that would probably have been an even more valuable transformation than it has turned out to be.
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