I think that was the most exciting, perfect game of basketball I have ever seen from MSU. They played stellar defense, avoided the press with good ballhandling skills and deep passes, drained 3 point shots they had no business making, and uncharacteristically kept the game locked up in the last 10 minutes. I am a little ashamed to say it because it is just a game, but I almost cried I was so happy. And I was watching it on tape delay! Before, I was convinced Louisville's easy game against Arizona would leave them well rested, but it actually weakened them. I don't think they came ready to play their ass off the whole game and our tough defense visibly frustrated them. Suton was great in the post, from deep, on defense, and I think he even sang the national anthem. Let's look a little deeper into what went wrong, though.
2 Pts, 2 Reb, 1 Ast, 6 Fouls
6 Pts, 10 Reb, 3 Ast, 3 Fouls
The first numbers are the combined stats for STARTERS Delvon Roe and Raymar Morgan. The second are Draymond Green's, who played the same amount of time as Roe and Morgan combined, 24 minutes. What in the heck are we going to do with Raymar? I know he's gotta be out of playing shape after dealing with being sick for a few weeks. Also, where was Idong Ibok? He only played 1 minute, which had to have been in junk time. Were Green and Suton so good we didn't need to use him? Luckily, we have great depth, which Louisville was also supposed to boast. However, they only had points from 6 players, 2 of which scored in double digits. (We had 9 and 3 in comparison). McGee and Samuels both played more than half of the game without recording a single point.
So now onto the Final Four. This season, the two things that would leave me happily satisfied with the season were a regular season championship (something we have been without for too long) and a Final Four berth to keep Izzo's streak alive. And now we have both. Did someone tell UNC, UConn, and Nova that the fairytale ending belonged to us? Thirty years after our first national championship, the most watched college basketball game ever, we get to play in our home state, which has been reeling from the worst unemployment rate in the country. Oh, and if we make it to the finals, we have a very good chance of playing a revenge game against the team that beat us by more than 30 points in that very building earlier this year. If the lack of Cinderellas in the first few rounds made finding a story difficult for sportswriters, we will make their jobs a piece of cake.
Do I think we will beat UConn? Possibly, even though they have NEVER LOST A FINAL FOUR OR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME EVER. Thabeet will have to step out on Suton, leaving us open to drive into the paint. On the other end, I think Suton will be able to contain Thabeet. He hasn't been committing a lot of fouls, so that isn't an issue. We will have to have a fantastic shooting performance like we did tonight. If we shoot like we did against Kansas, we'll lose. We were able to win before because we were good, and as they say, if you want to win beginning in the Elite 8, you need to be good and lucky.
1 comment:
I'm done expecting anything from Raymar. Something is going on with him...whether it's the walking pneumonia, or the broken nose he suffered against Kansas, or a mental thing, he's just not the same Raymar. I just hope next year he comes back healthy and ready to play like the big-time player he can be.
Izzo in his post-game press conference said that Roe needed to "get through the wall he has hit". Agreed! He's looked a tad nervous on the offensive side of the ball, perhaps he's just psyching himself out when he gets it in his hands. As long as he can still contribute defensively, I'll be happy.
I think what you're seeing with Izzo is that he's finally found his guys that he's ready to roll with. It took him all season, but now his rotation and subs make sense. Starting five of Walton, Lucas, Morgan, Roe, and Suton. Green (who is the real deal; after Suton he's the most active big man we have. He's not huge, but he's smart and confident. I enjoy watching him) comes in for one of the big guys, and Allen and Summers come in for Morgan and one of the other bigs a little while after the first is taken out. Finally Lucious gets his time to spell Lucas halfway through.
Ibok isn't a big minute guy. He'll only appear when we are facing the big men on another team (see Cole Aldrich...and Hasheen Thabeet). Did you see that Gray got the playing time, though? It's because he's more athletic...which is what Louisville's bigs were. Gray didn't play a single minute against Kansas, though! I will bet that you will see more Ibok than Gray against UConn though, and if we can make it as far, probably more Gray against Hansborough and UNC.
I am ridiculously happy for these guys right now. This is going to be fun.
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