...and so, if Roy had told the guys, "OK, tonight I'm gonna test y'all by putting you up against a big, physical, experienced team... with the worst, most one-sided officiating imaginable"... well, he couldn't have drawn it up any better.
- Let's go ahead and get this out front: This was a horrifically officiated game --- sometimes almost comically bad --- and the way it was done was right in MSU's wheelhouse. Our guys were getting hit, and hit hard, on every possession... and on any given possession you could call out your choice among illegal screens, hooks, undercuts, blatant travels --- hell, just open the rule book to a random page and pick one. JB got hit more than once by shots that would have been Personal Fouls on a football field with no call. Early on I kept trying to get a look at just who these clowns-in-stripes were, and when they finally showed a close-up, wouldn't ya know, it's Michael mf-ing Stephens. Imagine that...
- Once I saw what was transpiring I put aside my stat sheet because this one was gonna be all about eyes, as in watching closely. If you're gonna get one of these, it's best to get it early in the season --- and in a way it had a positive side-affect in that it was gonna be a test to see how our guys would hold up and react. Suffice to say, in the first half especially, not well. MSU was able to take us out of our game. Just one example was when Kenny over-cooked a simple fast break lay-up. It was maybe the first time he didn't hafta finish thru contact and so he goes too strong in anticipation.
- My biggest game-specific concern going in was dealing with their bulk and length inside. Garrison, Sterling and Huff were just overwhelmed. The constant hard contact knocked them off their spots, but truth is they were playing timid on simple post moves. Brooks was just serving up easy shot-blocks at one point. This game also showed we're gonna have a hard time playing Small against some teams. That's the one thing that didn't go well at all on the defensive end.
- The good news is we actually played pretty good defense in our normal Hybrid lineup. Considering how many extra possessions we gave them on the other end, holding them to 60 (before garbage time) was pretty impressive. That being said I really wish Roy would have had our guys attacking with 30 and 40 in the first half like we did in the second at times. Bullies don't like to be bullied, and MSU didn't handle pressure well. On the other hand, if you can't get a zebra to recognize a simple and obvious travel in a trap, what can ya do? But again, holding them to 60 when we were as bad as we were offensively, and forcing 24 TOs is pretty stout.
- And speaking of bad... the really bad news was on the offensive end. I was disappointed in our inability to finish thru contact. Luke in particular was not his normal self. Granted, he was being undercut on most of his inside moves, but he wasn't attacking with purpose tonight... and his 3-ball once again looked steer-y. But then, pretty much the whole team couldn't hit the broad side of a barn from the inside.
- Speaking of which, that was particularly disappointing in the second half when we forced them into bad shots, clock violations or other turnovers, but just couldn't cash in. We missed open look after open look, especially just when it looked like we might make a second-half run. As I'm writing this I just glanced at the box score. Yep...it was as bad as my eyes told me. 1/18 from 3 and shoot under 25% for the game? Yikes! And hell, when we DID actually get to the line, we left multiple points there as well. We shoot the ball worth HALF a damn and we at least have a shot to pull this thing out.
- Got to throw a shout-out to "Thor". Our boy Rohlman gave a good account of himself being thrust into the fray early. Wasn't nobody gonna bully him, at least.
Welp, we all knew there would be bumps... and here was the first (literally). Good to find some things out in the early season --- that's one reason you want to play games like this. Now we gotta hope the lesson(s) were learned. 5-1 going into the ACC-Big 10 ain't too bad --- but lessee how the guys respond Wednesday.
- Let's go ahead and get this out front: This was a horrifically officiated game --- sometimes almost comically bad --- and the way it was done was right in MSU's wheelhouse. Our guys were getting hit, and hit hard, on every possession... and on any given possession you could call out your choice among illegal screens, hooks, undercuts, blatant travels --- hell, just open the rule book to a random page and pick one. JB got hit more than once by shots that would have been Personal Fouls on a football field with no call. Early on I kept trying to get a look at just who these clowns-in-stripes were, and when they finally showed a close-up, wouldn't ya know, it's Michael mf-ing Stephens. Imagine that...
- Once I saw what was transpiring I put aside my stat sheet because this one was gonna be all about eyes, as in watching closely. If you're gonna get one of these, it's best to get it early in the season --- and in a way it had a positive side-affect in that it was gonna be a test to see how our guys would hold up and react. Suffice to say, in the first half especially, not well. MSU was able to take us out of our game. Just one example was when Kenny over-cooked a simple fast break lay-up. It was maybe the first time he didn't hafta finish thru contact and so he goes too strong in anticipation.
- My biggest game-specific concern going in was dealing with their bulk and length inside. Garrison, Sterling and Huff were just overwhelmed. The constant hard contact knocked them off their spots, but truth is they were playing timid on simple post moves. Brooks was just serving up easy shot-blocks at one point. This game also showed we're gonna have a hard time playing Small against some teams. That's the one thing that didn't go well at all on the defensive end.
- The good news is we actually played pretty good defense in our normal Hybrid lineup. Considering how many extra possessions we gave them on the other end, holding them to 60 (before garbage time) was pretty impressive. That being said I really wish Roy would have had our guys attacking with 30 and 40 in the first half like we did in the second at times. Bullies don't like to be bullied, and MSU didn't handle pressure well. On the other hand, if you can't get a zebra to recognize a simple and obvious travel in a trap, what can ya do? But again, holding them to 60 when we were as bad as we were offensively, and forcing 24 TOs is pretty stout.
- And speaking of bad... the really bad news was on the offensive end. I was disappointed in our inability to finish thru contact. Luke in particular was not his normal self. Granted, he was being undercut on most of his inside moves, but he wasn't attacking with purpose tonight... and his 3-ball once again looked steer-y. But then, pretty much the whole team couldn't hit the broad side of a barn from the inside.
- Speaking of which, that was particularly disappointing in the second half when we forced them into bad shots, clock violations or other turnovers, but just couldn't cash in. We missed open look after open look, especially just when it looked like we might make a second-half run. As I'm writing this I just glanced at the box score. Yep...it was as bad as my eyes told me. 1/18 from 3 and shoot under 25% for the game? Yikes! And hell, when we DID actually get to the line, we left multiple points there as well. We shoot the ball worth HALF a damn and we at least have a shot to pull this thing out.
- Got to throw a shout-out to "Thor". Our boy Rohlman gave a good account of himself being thrust into the fray early. Wasn't nobody gonna bully him, at least.
Welp, we all knew there would be bumps... and here was the first (literally). Good to find some things out in the early season --- that's one reason you want to play games like this. Now we gotta hope the lesson(s) were learned. 5-1 going into the ACC-Big 10 ain't too bad --- but lessee how the guys respond Wednesday.
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