Is MSU's Backcourt Actually Better than Last Year's?

I agree and like this years backcourt better, however, let us not forget Lucas was still rehabbing from a major injury. Most players would have taken a year off.

With that said, Kalin’s selfishness on the court (and most likely off the court too), Durrell’s head games, and Lucious’s street ball mentality all contributed to the demise of last years team.

I wish there was more experience at the PG on this team but I would definately choose this backcourt over last years EXCEPT when Durrell is on fire (sans 2010 NCAA run).

I’ve been defending Lucas on other posts. This certainly makes me rethink that a little bit.

However, I do think it’s important to remember that the gaurds do not play in a vacuum. I would argue that the vast improvement of Nix and Payne has helped the efficiency of the current guys by getting them more open looks in the halfcourt.

Likewise, improved defense. Something Appling, Wood, and Trice deserve additional credit for contributing to has helped us get a lot more buckets in transition.

Still, thanks for putting this together. At the very least it helps me appreciate exactly how effective these guys have been for a backcourt that had never played together going into the season.

Lucas is still the most talented but our back court this year plays together.

Not to mention these guards are way better defensively. Lucas was not a great defender and Summers couldn’t check his shadow!

thanks for going to the trouble.

I remember going into last year I thought we would be every bit as good as we were rated IF Durrell Summers could develop a handle… he was always a great shooter off the catch in space, and a good dunker when no one was near him, but his junior year he was exposed a bit as a guy who could not beat a statue off the bounce. Going into that summer if he had spent the entire time just working on his handle the entire season would have been different.

That seems like quite a claim but think about last year’s offense vs. this year’s offense and the real difference is that this year we have a bunch of guys who could beat a man off the dribble/ competently create offense from the perimeter (Appling, Trice, Wood, Green, and even occasionally Kearney and Branden Dawson—although he is in a similar situation to Durrell, in terms of needing to develop his handle). Last year we had…Kalin Lucas and…….. that was it (after Luscious got kicked off) having one person who is a threat off the bounce is never going to end well: any time summers got the ball on the wing he was tightly covered (think about how so many of his threes last year were better contested than they were his junior/sophomore year) because his defenders had read a scouting report that said: get in this guy’s grill he cannot dribble. When he tried to dribble he was awkward, did not have a tight handle, could not attack with his head up, and couldn’t cross over or go with his left… he was a 1-dimensional offensive player.

That meant that when things broke down people could shut the wings and force a not-100% Kalin to attack— because the wings were shut more frequently Kalin was doing more shooting than he did his junior and sophomore years (he also wasn’t passing because our bigs were not efficient in the post last year) people forget his sophomore year and even his junior year when he got a ton of assists because opposing teams had more multi-dimensional threats to worry about. If Summers had a handle that would’ve opened up so much more and would have allowed him to be more involved in the games—remember how everyone was wondering why he would disappear offensively? It was because all he could do was run around screens or stand in the corner…whereas this year how many times have we seen whoever is playing on the wing attack and either hit a runner, a layup, a pull up, dish it out, or dump it down (look at all the wing penetration we get after keith drives and hits either wood or dawson cutting from the wing…) it is just a more dynamic and flexible attack this year… that spells good guard play.

Last year’s team was no fun to watch… too much underachieving! this year’s team is fun!

Obviously its only a piece of the picture for many of the reasons already stated here by commenters, but it still provides a glimpse of what happened last year and what is happening this year.

I suppose I’ve been one of the main Kalin “detractors” on this board and I’d like to restate my thoughts here and clarify them a bit.

1. Kalin Lucas was a great Spartan. He lead us to 2 B1G titles, 1 Final Four (Not two as many claim), and won a Con POY. He was a great scorer and nearly single-handedly carried a massively dysfunctional team to the tournament last year. You don’t build that kind of resume at any school in the nation and not get remembered fondly.

2. Kalin Lucas’ legacy currently far outstripes Keith Appling’s. Keith has a high ceiling and is going to have a great deal of talent around him, but his current achievements are obviously far beneath those of Kalin. He is however, a Sophomore, so he has time.

3. Kalin Lucas’ best season at MSU was his incredible sophomore season and due to injuries, chemistry problems and lack of development in the other MSU players, his junior and senior seasons were not as accomplished as most expected heading in.

4. While Kalin’s on court play (when he wasn’t injured) was mostly stellar, he mostly failed as the team’s emotional leader (in an admittedly awful situation), which is a role senior PG stars are often expected to play.

5. Kalin Lucas does not deserve all, or even the majority of the blame for last year’s unpleasantness. He was however, a key cog on that team (see point 4) and should shoulder at least part of said blame.

6. Kalin often receives credit for the 2009-10 Final Four run. Since he was injured well before the Maryland game was decided and did not return for MSU’s ensuing 3 games I find this hard to fathom. Many of those giving Kalin credit claim it is for his role as a leader. Well if he gets the credit for leading that team to a Final Four while on the bench, he should certainly receive some blame for leading the 10-11 team so poorly while he was on the court.

Unless I missed it in re-reading this post, I don’t see any mention of Keith Appling’s play last year as a member of the backcourt. KA played 780 minutes and started 18 games last season. He essentially slid into the role Korie Lucious vacated when he was dismissed/left the team. By the end of the season the backcourt consisted of Kalin and Keith with Kebler spelling them for rests and foul trouble, Summers had moved to the 3 spot. I realize that this post centers on the first 17 games of the season, but Keith was a major contributor then as well. Keith has developed greatly over the last calendar year, reflected by his increase in scoring and A/T ratio.