MSU Red Cedar Message Board

That was bad Oman indeed. :(

The 7-0 run after we cut it to a 4-pt game sealed the deal. Heartbreaking.

Some of those rebounds they got were just luck. They put the wrong guy on the line and were awarded an extra free throw for it. We were reaching on defense and couldn't move our legs. We were a tired team tonite. Our entire game looked bad. We went as far as we could, this was a very good but not great team.
Green wore down bringing the ball up. No one else stepped up although Wood had 14 and played well.
We will be more athletic next year. The fresman will have to contribute and I would like to see Bird become a matchup nightmare for the Big Ten.
Remember the shooters and athletes on the team that beat Louisville a few years ago. Morgan, Summers, Lucious, Lucas Suton and Allen. We had Ibok and MarquiseGray too. This years team was very good but not as athletic or as big especially w/o Dawson.

The real "bad omen" moment for me was the final 30 seconds or so of the first half. If DayDay had been able to hit that 3 at the top of the key, and MSU gets the stop on the other end, we go in the locker room with a little momentum. Instead, DayDay misses badly and Louisville hits a 3 from the corner with just a couple seconds left--worst possible scenario.

Not trying to rag on DayDay (why would I?), but he never should have taken that shot with so much time left on the clock. We should have gotten the last shot of the half. That was an unnecessary swing.

We played down to their level. What game did we look good in against a zone? In Ann Arbor, maybe Evanston? How about Minnesota? We looked stymied the whole game against the Gophers until Wood came on late. To beat a zone you either have to have ball and player movement. We did not have that. Have to be able to score at the rim. Payne was not strong enough and Nix could not score over their big. You need shooters to knock down outside shots. Thornton and Wood have struggled scoring against athletic players and Appling has been in a funk since January. So explain to me how we played down to their level? They took our strength away scoring in the paint and we had no answer. This game reminded me of the Illinois game except Louisville played zone.

There were about ten different, "Oh shit, when that happens you lose 90% of the time" things.

A bit like when Kalin banked in a 3 vs Louisville in 09'.

Big fella's 3 was brutal, as were the wild stepback variety from 15% shooters.

Meanwhile, we have 40%+ guys throwing up airballs and bricks against warmup shoot around pressure on D.

Just that kind of night.

For sure.
Considering the guys making some of those shots, it was more like the degree of difficulty on the Kevin Coble up and under 3 off the glass.

I saw this whole thing happen in my head before it actually happened. Seems like it played out like that a few times this season. Blown play out of the timeout leads to three at the other end. The fact that it was only the guy's fourth 3-pointer of the entire season made it all the more deflating.