The Indiana game forced me to make up my mind about this MSU team. Besides Kalin Lucas, they have not developed one bit from the first game of the season. If anything, some players (Goran Suton, Travis Walton, and Raymar Morgan) are starting to regress.
I celebrated my mother's birthday on Saturday night and watched the game on TiVo when we were done. A few minutes into the second half, I turned the game off because I knew they lost. Even though Indiana was only up 13, with their best player out of the game, and Drew Neitzel playing decently well, how did I know they lost? They stink at road games (lost 9 of last 11 Big 10 road games - including Penn State and the stinker at Purdue) and because this team doesn't respond when it gets down. Granted, they pulled to within 1 against Purdue after a horrendous first half, but they didn't close it out.
Things I am sure we're all sick of seeing: horrible alley-oops, our centers outmuscled near the boards, Raymar Morgan's weak fouls, getting out hustled down the floor, bad shot selection early in the play clock, Marquise Gray not showing up, and the nights Drew Neitzel decides not to lead. I agree with Mike that this team on paper should be able to accomplish more. The last two games have made my mind up; they're not going to accomplish anything better than a Sweet 16 appearance. Their record is a product of their schedule. Before this week, they hadn't played at Purdue or at Ohio State and they hadn't played Wisconsin or Indiana. After this week, they will lose to Wisconsin, Indiana, and Ohio State. The Illinois game is a toss up. Why am I so aggravated and pessimistic? Because this team should be so much better. It's Neitzel's senior year, Raymar Morgan was starting to make a name for himself in the national spotlight, and our freshman were supposed to bring us great depth to compliment the depth we were supposed to have at center/forward.
One last thing I wanted to add about basketball. Dwight Howard should've won the Slam Dunk competition, BUT his "Superman" dunk was highly overrated. Jamario Moon did the same dunk first, except he made the mistake of setting the bar too high with his tape mark. Less showmanship, same dunk (except Moon didn't have to throw the ball in, he DUNKED his ball). Best dunk of the night: Howard's behind the backboard dunk or Green's birthday cupcake dunk.
Weirdest phrase actually heard last night: "The Atlanta Hawks keep their playoff drive alive by trading for Mike Bibby". They are in a playoff drive?! I checked on that today to see what that was about and realized, even though they are 7 games under .500, they still play in the Eastern Conference.
5 comments:
I loved the dunk contest! Dwight Howard's Superman "dunk" was not overrated. The fact that was was literally able to "throw it down" was what made it for me. Moon never got up that high, and Moon's dunk was done many a time before. Howard was HIGH.
I loved Green's birthday cake dunk. Probably my second favorite. I also liked Howard's toss off the back board to himself MIDAIR to dunk. But that got no love. I can't remember anyone ever doing that. I've seen the toss off the backboard, then jump, then dunk, but never the jump first. The man is impressive to say the least.
I agree with everything you said about MSU, except them losing to OSU. Did you see that OSU just lost to U of M? We are not a good team, but not that bad.
My only hope is that MSU will pull it together like the Torbert/Hill/Anderson team of a few years ago, where after they got smashed by Iowa in the Big Ten Tourny made a run to the final four.
I am so sad this season is turning out this way. Sigh.
The MSU team as a whole is currently less than the sum of its parts.
I am convinced that we have the talent to be top-10 team, we just don't have the mentality.
It's not that we can't rebound, defend, take care of the ball, or whatever; it's that we aren't.
Our problems are at least correctible. Whether or not we can correct them by tourney time will determine how deep we can go, but the situation is not as hopeless as our recent performances have indicated.
I completely agree. They are talented enough. Drew Neitzel does have it in him to knock down big shots. Raymar does have the skill to play well. Marquise Gray can play with passion and be a force in the post. But I am convinced they won't actualize that talent into production this season.
Couldn't you say that stuff about most teams though? Outside the top-5, don't the next twenty-five teams have the same sort of "talent" that needs to be put together to make a run?
To me, there are just so many 'ifs'. If Raymar does this, if Suton does this, If Neitzel does this...the list doesn't end.
Yes, the talent is there. No, we are not mentally strong. But I think you could say the same about many other teams. Could they put it together? Sure (hopefully), but it's awfully hard to correct mental toughness in my opinion.
But I like I said, we've seen it from MSU in recent history, so who knows.
You would know more than I would, so I will defer to you, but I was under the impression that our team did have more raw talent than the rest of the top-25.
But my larger point was that we don't have a chronic weakness. Take Purdue for example. They don't have any big men who can bang down low. Or us a few years ago when we didn't have a point guard.
This year's team doesn't (or at least I thought that they didn't) have those type of un-fixable problems.
Post a Comment