The Spartans advance to round two against Memphis
After watching a thrilling over time game between Memphis and UConn, the stage was set for MSU and Colorado. Fun stat that was shared with me, UConn/Memphis combined in that game for 26 3pt baskets and after the Colorado game, MSU has 25. Besides the continued behind the arc woes, MSU played some mostly sound basketball. Let’s take a look at my 3 likes and 3 dislikes.
3 Things I Liked:
1. The Paint Play. When the shots aren’t hitting from outside you need to score inside and the Spartans did just that. 50 points in the paint to Colorado’s 28, and when watching, it felt even more dominant. Fears was doing an excellent job of breaking through defenders and getting inside to find someone to dump it to or score himself. He had a nice move around the baseline to find the open hands of Cooper. Fears’ 6 assists led everyone on the floor.
2. Defense. The defense was pretty smothering in this one. Really smart rotations, not over committing to moves, great defensive rebounding and some solid blocks. MSU had 33 defensive rebounds to Colorado’s combined total of 29. What made the defense even better is how it opened up the fast break game which brought in 22 points. The team was hustling down after every rebound and really trying to push the tempo.
3. Richardson being the spark. The game was really going back and forth in the beginning with both teams shooting well out of the gate but as things slowed down Izzo took a page out of coach Nightingale’s playbook and did a full line change. He brought in 5 substitutes at one time, including Richardson. Richardson came in hot and really helped MSU start to break away. Once they did that, the game never really felt close even though it was down to 8 points at one point. Richardson is really playing to get in that starting lineup and this will be something interesting to keep an eye on throughout the season. He looks great running the point.
Honorable mentions:
1. Carr and his hustle. It’s a lot of fun when you see him sprinting down the side and that lob comes in. Those dunks really get the crowd hyped and create a whole new energy in a game.
2. Izzo’s line changes. I, personally, loved this. Three games in three days and Izzo has a deep bench. He’s keeping guys fresh and looks like he’s wanting to win this tournament this year, especially with UConn going down. Memphis may be a bit sluggish tomorrow, but State should be relatively fresh legged.
3 Things I Disliked:
1. Arc shooting continues to struggle. You have to assume at some point these shots are going to fall, right? What’s even a bit more bizarre is they don’t even look like poor attempts. They are looking good, set, and just coming down bricks. Normand’s two attempts looked awful like there were no legs in those shots, but otherwise, decent opportunities. You could see it starting to wear on Izzo and he’s likely seeing something entirely different in practice. 2-21 is not going to work. You know it, I know it, Izzo knows it. We have to hope for the side of probability to take effect soon.
2. Kohler losing some magic. He started off this season as quite a gem and after a couple of games now may be coming into reality. I hope that is not the case. Izzo had him starting at the 4. Even with the strong paint game tonight he only had four attempts and two were behind the arc. I know Colorado is very long, but it would have been nice to see him work some post game .
3. Not stepping on the gas to start the second half. MSU started the second half cold and sloppy and allowed Colorado to get within eight. That is not a good look coming out of the locker room and you don’t want to give any opponent a taste of thinking they have a chance. Come out stronger and put an end to it earlier.
Dishonorable mentions:
1. Steals. The Spartans were stripped 7 times in this game. They have to be more careful with the ball. Turnovers have always been an Achilles in big games throughout Izzo’s tenure. I’ve never really been able to grasp how they get so sloppy.
2. The Normand foul. I may be being a bit picky here, but he was forearmed to the floor. the ref’s claim he had two hands on Kossaras but it looked to me like a bad call.
Overall this was a pretty solid performance by MSU basketball and here’s to hoping that Memphis comes out a bit emotionally hungover for game two and perhaps MSU can start hitting behind the arc. Go Green!