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MSU starting five vs. Basket Fiorentina: Tum Tum Nairn Jr., Denzel Valentine, Marvin Clark Jr., and Matt Costello.
— Spartan Basketball (@MSU_Basketball) August 25, 2015
Starting with four players? I guess Izzo likes to challenge his players?
Starters for @MSU_Basketball: Nairn, Forbes, Valentine, Clark, Costello.
— Kevin Pauga (@KevinPauga) August 25, 2015
Clark first basket of game
— Jim Gibson (@JimGibson7) August 25, 2015
2d dunk by Clark, Forbes 3. MSU 11 - 2
— Jim Gibson (@JimGibson7) August 25, 2015
Up 11-4. 6:06 left in 1st.
— Kevin Pauga (@KevinPauga) August 25, 2015
Spartans lead 11-4. Marvin Clark Jr. with six early points.
— Spartan Basketball (@MSU_Basketball) August 25, 2015
— The Only Colors (@TheOnlyColors) August 25, 2015
The #FreeMarvinClark bandwagon might be gaining some new members
New 5 - Davis, Bess, Mcquade, Schilling, Ahrens
— Jim Gibson (@JimGibson7) August 25, 2015
McQuaid but tomato potato. Interesting who's playing PG in this lineup and the guess is currently McQuaid. Per Mike Wilson he's been taking reps at PG in practice.
Wollenman in. Mcquade running point
— Jim Gibson (@JimGibson7) August 25, 2015
PG McQuaid confirmed
Starters return with 1:30 in 1st qtr.
— Jim Gibson (@JimGibson7) August 25, 2015
Quick 6-0 run by starters makes it 25 - 14 end of 1st.
— Jim Gibson (@JimGibson7) August 25, 2015
After one quarter MSU leads 25-14, closing the quarter on an 8-0 run. Bess, Clark and Valentine with six points each.
— Spartan Basketball (@MSU_Basketball) August 25, 2015
End of first quarter. MSU leads 25-14. pic.twitter.com/vPgh8uTL0Z
— Kevin Pauga (@KevinPauga) August 25, 2015
Schilling starts 2d instead of Costello.
— Jim Gibson (@JimGibson7) August 25, 2015
Goins checks in with Bess.
— Jim Gibson (@JimGibson7) August 25, 2015
Good to see Kenny Goins getting some run over there
Davis with slam off Nairn pop
— Jim Gibson (@JimGibson7) August 25, 2015
2d clearly looking to get ball to Bess
— Jim Gibson (@JimGibson7) August 25, 2015
Remember he was slated to be the starter ahead of Ellis and Forbes before he got injured
42 - 24 MSU: 3:41 left in half
— Jim Gibson (@JimGibson7) August 25, 2015
*Thumbs up emoji*
Lots of minutes for 2d team. Van Dyke in.
— Jim Gibson (@JimGibson7) August 25, 2015
Matt Van Dyk is a walk-on originally from Imlay City and played at Hope College, St. Clair County Community college before transferring to MSU last year. Read more about him here
Schilling makes 2 at the line. Did not look bad.
— Jim Gibson (@JimGibson7) August 25, 2015
MSU 47 - 33 at half.
— Jim Gibson (@JimGibson7) August 25, 2015
At the half, @MSU_Basketball leads the team from Florence 47-33.
— Kevin Pauga (@KevinPauga) August 25, 2015
At the half, MSU leads Basket Fiorentina 47-33. Clark has nine points to lead MSU and Forbes has seven.
— Spartan Basketball (@MSU_Basketball) August 25, 2015
Unofficial stats (I'm live tracking on the bench):
— Kevin Pauga (@KevinPauga) August 25, 2015
Points: Clark 9, Forbes 7, Valentine 6, Bess 6, Schilling 4, Costello 4, McQuaid 4, Davis 4, Ahrens 2, Van Dyk 1
— Kevin Pauga (@KevinPauga) August 25, 2015
Nairn leads with 5 assists. 11/12 from the FT line as a team. 14 players saw first half action.
— Kevin Pauga (@KevinPauga) August 25, 2015
MSU first-half stats: FG 17-31 (.548), 3FG 2-3 (.667), FT 11-12 (.917)
— Spartan Basketball (@MSU_Basketball) August 25, 2015
Cue free throws jokes
I know everyone is curious, so we picked up 3/4 court once off of a free throw make.
— Jim Gibson (@JimGibson7) August 25, 2015
Wolleman starts 2d instead of Clark
— Jim Gibson (@JimGibson7) August 25, 2015
I'm guessing this has more to do with getting others involved than it does anything negative against Clark
Timeout Florence. @MSU_Basketball leads 60-37.
— Kevin Pauga (@KevinPauga) August 25, 2015
At the end of three quarters, MSU leads 70-47. Valentine with 10 points in the quarter and 16 for the game.
— Spartan Basketball (@MSU_Basketball) August 25, 2015
MSU 70 - 47 at end of 3d. Valentine came in for last 2:30 of quarter and ended the other team's run.
— Jim Gibson (@JimGibson7) August 25, 2015
6:02 left to go. MSU 84 - 49. Might have seen last of starters.
— Jim Gibson (@JimGibson7) August 25, 2015
With 6:02 left in the contest MSU leads 84-49. Forbes and Schilling each have six points in the 4th quarter. Forbes has 18 for the game.
— Spartan Basketball (@MSU_Basketball) August 25, 2015
With 6:02 left in the contest MSU leads 84-49. Forbes and Schilling each have six points in the 4th quarter. Forbes has 18 for the game.
— Spartan Basketball (@MSU_Basketball) August 25, 2015
#SWollenman
Final score: MSU 98-Basket Fiorentina 54. Forbes leads the Spartans with 18.
— Spartan Basketball (@MSU_Basketball) August 25, 2015
PTS Forbes 18, Valentine 16, Clark 14, Schilling 12, Davis 10, Bess 9, Costello 4, Colby 4, McQuaid 4, Ahrens 2, Nairn 2, Goins 2, Van Dyk 1
— Kevin Pauga (@KevinPauga) August 25, 2015
Unofficially. Leading rebounders: Davis 8, Clark 7. Leading assists: Nairn 8, Valentine 7.
— Kevin Pauga (@KevinPauga) August 25, 2015
MSU Stats: FG 38-66 (.576), 3FG 8-17 (.471), FT 14-18 (.778)
— Spartan Basketball (@MSU_Basketball) August 25, 2015
Due to the scoreline not being close, it appears as though MSU's first opponents on this trip was a step below them. Hopefully we'll have the box score come in so we can get into more detail about how their first game went.
A special thanks to Jim Gibson (@JimGibson7 on Twitter) for live tweeting the game. This will be updated as more info comes in.
Update:
Game recap from the great Matt Larson and @MSU_Basketball after tonight's 98-54 win in Florence, Italy. http://t.co/BXyB0YNIGl
— Kevin Pauga (@KevinPauga) August 25, 2015
Some Izzo quotes:
"All in all, I thought we shot it really well," said head coach Tom Izzo. "(Denzel) Valentine and (Bryn) Forbes were great. I thought (Gavin) Schilling played better the second half. We got something out of a lot of different guys. There were a lot of positives, but we have to keep in mind that was a club team, and now we will play three national teams. It’s going to be a lot, lot, lot, lot, lot different."
"They ran some good stuff early and gave us a few problems," Izzo said. "It’s hard to play 14 guys, and yet we tried to do that. I think we got a lot out of it. I think we played better the second half. We played four freshmen and new guys at one time. That wasn’t healthy, but I think they got some experience."
"I thought we were locked in," said Izzo. "The only thing we did wrong was when we made some turnovers. We made a lot of free throws tonight, which is encouraging. We shot the ball well from three. Defensively I thought we were pretty good. We took some chances. Some things we haven’t covered yet, that you forget to cover and all of a sudden there were a couple plays that they ran that created some problems for us. We made some adjustments at halftime. I was really pleased but I’m trying to keep it in perspective."
"We tried to go in with about four different lineups, that we wanted to make sure who played well together," Izzo explained. "We did that – some were positive, some were negative. You put Matt McQuaid in a tough position and play him at the point most of the game, and he’s never played there in his life. I thought he was adequate. Kyle (Ahrens) struggled a little bit at times. DD (Deyonta Davis) was pretty good at times. But all three of them, for freshmen, being in a foreign country for their first game, I was pretty pleased with it."