In Reply to: your thoughts on our matchup against MSU? posted by SMBruin on February 01, 2025 at 20:45:32
Agree, they didn't look great today nor did they look as good in the USC game as they did in the other two I saw. But their style of play was about the same. They certainly haven't been dominating BIG 10 teams as a high percentage of their wins have been by just a few points. Example, beat Illinois 80 to 78, beat Rutgers 81 to 74, beat Penn State 90 to 85, beat Ohio State 69 to 62, beat Northwestern 78 to 68. The only blowouts have been against Nebraska, Minnesota twice and Washington.
They average 81 ppg although they can go cold at times and that keeps their games against decent teams fairly close. Not a great three point shooting team (5 for 15 against USC) and they primarily try to run and score in the paint as they only shoot abound 28% from beyond the arc and average less than 20 three attempts a game. Excellent free throw shooting team though at 81% team average(but not today as they only made 11 of 19 against USC). I doubt that they have played against a defense like the Bruins will throw at them although USC did a good job on them today holding them to 64 points.
They have a bigger front line than the Bruins (7', two 6'11, and one 6'9 and a couple at 6'7 who play a lot of minutes)and crash the boards in a more physical manner than do the Bruins, particularly the Offensive boards.
All this being said, I believe if the Bruins can rebound with them and take care of the ball while shooting a decent percentage, particularly from the three and ft line, the Bruins should win. However, I believe it will be a very physical and relative close game. All that being said, I believe MSU is better than they showed today against USC. After this loss today, they will have fire in their eyes when they face the Bruins. Izzo will see to that. The Bruins will need to match that fire and physicality.