The men's basketball team showed a lot this week, both good and bad, but overall I'm left encouraged. Our semifinal matchup against Missouri was ugly at times, but ended with a win. The final against UCLA was mostly dominated by MSU, but ended in a loss. Neither is terribly upsetting (other than losing the ability to say we beat #1 in the country).
Missouri's coach was an understudy to Nolan Richardson (former Arkansas head coach) in the 1990's. Arkansas played the "40 Minutes of Hell" pressing, trapping, running game that was very effective for a stretch of about 8 years in the 1990's. Missouri doesn't have the athletes that Arkansas of old did, but the system is in place and with time the recruiting will start to pan out. Missouri is a good, athletic team and will be a VERY tough draw for a team come March.
That said, college basketball has some problems. Guards are allowed to hack and handcheck 30 ft from the basket without consequence. That has hurt MSU for years, going back to games against teams like Duke and Kentucky with physical guards. When you have to run your offense from 35 feet, with your back to the basket, and every other possession turns into an uncontested layup the other way, things aren't going to go well.
MSU pulled off the win over Missouri mostly due to, gulp, Goran the Moron. I do not support his game fully. This is not an awards ceremony for eastern european basketball goran suton style (and while we're on the topic, could announcers stop calling him a "typical, skilled, eastern european player?" Cause he's not. His footwork is terrible on both offense and defense) Mr. Suton is frustrating because he does great things. Then he does terrible things. In essence, he's a wash. Against Missouri he gave up baskets and rebounds, but in the clutch nailed a few shots and set a nice moving screen for Neitzel to hit a late 3. Neitzel was on FIRE early in the game, hitting 5 of 6 shots in the first half, and having scored 10 points within the first 6 minutes. Then he was blanketed until the late 3, followed by 2 free throws. The team was up as much as 16, gave up the lead, but held on hitting big shots down the stretch and doing just enough to win. Considering the style of play, the hostile crowd, and how early it is in the season, I'm fairly happy with the result. The reffing needs help, but the team did well.
UCLA was much the same. MSU came out strong on both ends and lead early by as much as 15. At half the lead was 10, and in the second half the lead fluctuated from 2-14, but was mostly dominated by MSU. The story line that stands out to me is the freshman for UCLA, Kevin Love, who apparently took time off from walking on water and healing leppers to grace us all with his basketball performance. Love gets more calls than Jordan. That's a crime. He's a baby fat clod with good hands. He has great touch around the basket and is huge, but he's not the second coming. In fact, when players were struggling for post position Love got the call every time. In my book, when two guys go at it hard and one flops around (despite being about 50-75 lbs heavier than the defender) he doesn't just get the call. These refs had never heard of a double foul, offensive foul (unless your name is Morgan, in which case it's the ONLY foul they know to call) or flopping. So as the "big, physical, bruising" MSU big men "pounded" Love and made him work hard for every point (see: go over the back, throw your fat ass around in the paint for 6 seconds, they go to the foul line) the MSU guards were getting mugged once again on the perimeter.
I don't quite get it. Apparently playing defense is only physical in the interior. When it happens on the perimeter (leading to uncontested layups because of where it occured on the floor) it's not "physical" but "aggressive" and "pressure MSU can't seem to handle." Too bad we don't have a 300 lb point guard that Dicky V is in love with (see: Kevin Jesus Love), then we could get every call and score 19 points at the free throw line.
That was the difference in the game. Free throws. MSU made 14 of 15 on the night. UCLA made 19 of 31. The makes weren't the difference, but the attempts. Foul trouble is putting it mildly. The pace of the game, the effece the fouls had on lineups and rebounding, and the kick out threes that came as a result of having to double team took their toll. UCLA took it's first lead with 30 seconds left. They won in the end by a deceiving 5 point margin.
Down 4 with under 20 seconds Neitzel fired up a LONG 3 that went wide left, getting no rim. Izzo started to give drew a hard time, but I was ok with it. Who else were we going to? What would we have said had he hit it? It was a tough shot, but I'm ok with it. Win some, lose some--that shot didn't "lose" the game. At the end of the day Neitzel was sick, Walton was hurt, and the freshman played ok, but Lucas was subpar (by his own lofty standards). I was impressed overall and am even more confident that as these freshmen continue to get minutes and experience we are going to be a VERY bad draw for most anyone in March.
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