Stock Dropping: Michigan State on the Road is not something you want to buy into
2/17/08
Well, I guess we know now that MSU was very overrated at #9. Sure, they beat a winless-in-conference Northwestern team at home by double digits, but they’ve dropped the other three games of their last four. Unless a lot of things drastically change immediately, you can kiss their conference title hopes goodbye.
Cat Power…Outage
The one bright spot during the past couple weeks was the large margin win over lowly Northwestern at Breslin. Not exactly the most impressive achievement. The highlight of the win was the play of the bigs. Goran Suton played better than he has lately, certainly much better than he did in the first meeting between the two teams. And Drew Naymick was the star. The low point was the 10-15 minute stretch in the first half where Michigan State had no answer for the Princeton Offense. The scheme relies on getting the defenders to focus on the ball instead of the man, than using back-door cuts and slip-screens (or in some system variations weak-side cuts) and finally interior bounce passes to a teammate opportunistically positioned for an easy lay-up. There were about four or five Northwestern possessions in the first half where this system worked beautifully. Sure, the Cats have no true scoring threat in the post (they take after their hometown NBA team!), but when the system works in a textbook fashion like it did for a few minutes on this night, you’ll get all the “points in the paint†that you need. Moving on to the “Crossroads of America†road trip…
Just Purdue It.
As much as I hate the Colts, Hoosiers and Notre Dame, Purdue is one team in the Hoosier state that I kind of like. Maybe it’s the old gold and black, an awesome but underutilized color scheme in sports, (other than the New Orleans Saints, I can’t think of many others) maybe it’s the great perimeter defense they play. No one expected them to be THIS GOOD, especially not THIS season. Robbie Hummel, not Eric Gordon, may be the true MVP of the Big Ten, or at least the freshman of the year.
Despite being absolutely throttled in the first half and playing the first ten minutes creating more turnovers than points, Michigan State closed to within one down the stretch. But then Moore, Grant and Hummel took over. The Boilers perimeter game had been struggling in the second half, but the Spartans 3 point game was non-existent. Sure, the Boilers have excellent perimeter defense, but having 5 total three point attempts and making zero is just inexcusable. When the d gets in your face behind the arc, follow the advice of Rihanna, “shut up and drive.â€
Hoosier Probation Officer?
Ick! Do I really need to write about this game? When Clown Pants U. spotted State a 16-4 lead before going on to rout them by 19? During the day of this game, I watched my 7 and 8 year old nephews lead their youth league team to a riveting 26-20 victory. My godson Ben led his team in scoring with 8 points. He had a much better Saturday on the court than Raymar Morgan. This game filled with grade-schoolers featured ball-handling abilities that would make the Spartans jealous. Sparty brought their “turnover machine†offense with them from the first half in West Lafayette. Great job guys, way to really step up when Indiana was right there for the taking. Hoosiers star D.J. White got injured in the first half and didn’t return for the second. Instead, the Spartans got schooled by the big, fat guy. Yes, I know his name is DeAndre Thomas, and I am aware that he is from the same high school conference as I, but I’d rather just call him “the fat guy.†As for Head coach “Sleazeson,†TSB contributor Peter Christian, who made the statement to a friend of his when Indiana hired Sampson that he “reminded him of what Manfred Mann’s Earth Band was singing about in the song “Blinded By the Light” … wrapped up like a douche another runner in the night”… Sampson is a self absorbed prick that looks and acts like a major douchecock and now he is going to leave Indiana in even worse shape than he left Oklahoma and in the same fashion, running without looking back (maniacally laughing as he counts his money)…Hopefully, he carries that hex with him forever.â€
Thanks Peter, pretty much sums it up. You may have won this round Sampson, but you and the program you’ve just sent into the toilet have some very dark times ahead in the immediate future.
