Michigan St., Wed. Nov. 23, 7pm, AXS/970AM-B4A

Our play is typical of a young team with guys who haven't played together long. The team has talent and we aren't getting blown out of games. We shot horribly tonight and if our defense was better we still could have won.
 
There was a song "Who'll stop the rain"it kept coming back to me. Must have been who'll stop the ball.Close to a replay of the last game
 
The good thing is that for our next game VCU really doesn't have strong prototypical big men. No one like that guy Ward.
 
Owens, Yakwe, and Sima combined for 9 boards. Damn those guys are soft.
Lovett got 7boards by him self.

We only had 8 assists to 16 by MSU, but only turned it over 6 times. MSU turned it over 14.

Owens, Sima and Yakwe 3 of 15 for 11pnts, what do they give us besides the block shots?
All 3 have college experience too, so can't say they're just lea the college game.

Oh well, on the VCU tomorrow. Hopefully we get that game
 
My criticisms:

I'm not a big fan of Ahmed so far. Not because he's missing shots. I just don't like his game. He clearly can get some buckets but the offense just stops dead when he gets the ball. How can we utilize him without destroying offensive rhythm? Doesn't seem like he cuts without the ball and isn't a catch and shoot guy. Needs to iso. He doesn't really seem to fit. Only 4 games so maybe a bit harsh but that's my early impression.

The bigs still need to develop obviously and will limit how good this team can be. Yakwe & Sima just have to be able to finish once in awhile down low. Not sure what else to say there. Putting the ball in their hands has become a major liability. I'd also trade blocked shots for rebounds from them at this point. Someone has to decide that rebounding is going to be part of their identity as a player. I thought Owens was our best big tonight which isn't saying much.

The whole team needs to learn to defend without fouling.

Excited about some of our pieces but this was a bad loss against a very beatable Spartan team that played poorly for most of the night. I left the Minny game encouraged, this one left a bad taste in my mouth.
 
our passing and ball movement has been non existent the last 70 minutes. Holding onto the ball way to long and down low has become a black hole of missed opportunities
 
bad call on Bashir hurt but he better get that crap together. Can't be behaving like that I think he was holding a grudge on that third foul that took him out. overall the obvious front court offense is really anemic and clearly Mullin had zero interest in listening to me that Amar needs to give us some bulk as he is now behind Williams in the lineup. That said, Williams comes in and hurts us. Defense was better in first half but broke down and then we had no answer for Ward who could could do what he wanted. I honestly think we made some progress despite how bad the 2nd half was with both the offense and defense falling apart. Ponds has a better game and I think we could have held a lead. Mussini played the best defense of his career to date and probably should have gotten some more shots.
 
Was Mullin asleep at the wheel, holding out Ahmed until five minutes remaining in the game?

It's obvious both Sima and Yakwe are not going to provide any offense and so far have shown zero improvement from their freshmen season. So we will depend on only our three starters for offense. I was so desperate that I was hoping Alibegovich would substitute for Yakwe.

Ellison can't stop getting into foul trouble each game.

Ward destroyed us on the boards even though we were much bigger.
 
My criticisms:

I'm not a big fan of Ahmed so far. Not because he's missing shots. I just don't like his game. He clearly can get some buckets but the offense just stops dead when he gets the ball. How can we utilize him without destroying offensive rhythm? Doesn't seem like he cuts without the ball and isn't a catch and shoot guy. Needs to iso. He doesn't really seem to fit. Only 4 games so maybe a bit harsh but that's my early impression.

The bigs still need to develop obviously and will limit how good this team can be. Yakwe & Sima just have to be able to finish once in awhile down low. Not sure what else to say there. Putting the ball in their hands has become a major liability. I'd also trade blocked shots for rebounds from them at this point. Someone has to decide that rebounding is going to be part of their identity as a player. I thought Owens was our best big tonight which isn't saying much.

The whole team needs to learn to defend without fouling.

Excited about some of our pieces but this was a bad loss against a very beatable Spartan team that played poorly for most of the night. I left the Minny game encouraged, this one left a bad taste in my mouth.
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Sima and Yakwe can't make close up shots. Perhaps Mullin should follow Louie's program with Leroy Ellis. I can remember seeing Ellis working on taking hundreds of layups and putbacks on the outside courts.
 
Maybe it's not just a luxury if Brown is eligible next year? :)

Sima and Yawke have thus far gone backwards from their Freshman years. Need to get creative because right now it's tough to play 2 of Sima/Yawke/Owens at the same time.

Thought Ellison was better tonight. Not much on offense but much more composed, better defensively and on the backboard.

The good news in my view is that we didn't put together anything resembling a full 40 in the last two games and we're still in it against two pretty good teams. Defense was much better for stretches tonight (hard doubles very effective in second half), and thought staff navigated foul trouble and offensive ineptness well via sub patterns. But offense, clearly, took gigantic step back and it wasn't just missing shots. Need to keep progressing and put it all together at right time.
 
I am not too discouraged. Izzo's Michigan State teams are always very very tough. They play great defense and rebound like demons. I saw both Amir Coffey (ranked 32nd nationally) and Miles Bridges (ranked eighth nationally) in the Jordan Brand Classic last April and was much more impressed with Bridges. On Friday Coffey really dominated us and I knew Bridges would be really problematic for us to deal with too.

That being said we were down only two with under 8 minutes left before MSU went on a 12-0 run and put the game away. They took over at the end and we just ran out of gas. Not a disaster against one of the very top premier programs in college basketball today coached by a hall of fame Coach.

Think back a year ago when we had our tournament debut against Vanderbilt in Maui. We are light years better than we were back then and while our front court has not been stellar yet I am not ready to write them off at this early date. I think our back court is terrific and will keep us relatively competitive all year. Much to feel good about as we move onward and upward from the bottom of the league in 2015/2016.
 
Really bad last 10 minutes of basketball. A lot of rushed shots no ball movement, poor rebounding. These front court players just can't finish at the basket or at least draw some contact to get to the line.

Once again Mussini was wide open numerous times and Lovett didn't even sniff him. And why is Lovett posting up? (By the way I love his game) Ahmed needs to lose the attitude and play ball.
30% fg and 8 assists won't get it done.

Good thing is we play tomorrow!!
 
It seems everyone is hammering our bigs but remember that big men take longer to develop. If you look at these guys, Yakwe didn't play a full season last year because of his eligibility issue, Sima was hurt for half the season and Owens didn't play at all as he was a transfer. These guys really don't have a ton of experience. At this point I want to see incremental improvement every game with us playing very well going into February with everyone settling in.
 
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