In Reply to: Last night's game, according to the rankings, posted by ej on February 05, 2025 at 13:47:27
we each see with different eyes, vision focused and directed by what we know and what we expect. That said, I respect your opinion - and like it - but my own interpretation was I saw a team (ours I mean) that is so much improved and another that's going through what we went through during our four game losing streak (theirs) and doing so on a road trip as we did for three of our four losses.
I thought the first half was a glimpse of what we can be by March if we continue to improve, heal up Bilodeau's ankle and if Mara continues to improve his endurance and conditioning.
But I thought the second half showed we a work very much still in progress.
When we ran into that wall, our offense devolved. As Tracy Murray said at the time we went from an offense based on passing, on moving the ball around the perimeter forcing the defenders to have to continually adjust and creating really good looks for our shooters all over the place, to an offense in which the players took turn trying to take their team on their shoulders and do it for the other guys - known as Hero ball. With us not getting the looks and MSU playing tough half court defense), we were reduced to rushed shots and most of them from 'way outside - low percentage on top of low percentage.
But the defense held strong. For both teams, really, in that second half.
Perry played like a much more mature and seasoned player. Bilo will move a lot better as his ankle continues to heal (and I thought he played his heart out last night).
We beat them by 2 on our home court. What's home court advantage rated as - 3 points? A bit more?
Remains to be seen how a rematch would go. At MSU, I expect they win. On a neutral court, it depends - whose shots fall? Can we improve on countering their utter dominance on the boards in that second half? Can they take better care of the ball? Can we hold our turnovers so incredibly low against them again?
We entered the game as a 2 point favorite on our home court. I expect they would be favored against us on a neutral court by a point or two. Game we could certainly win. But I would agree we are playing now like a top 15 team and that's terrific far as I'm concerned. Good for Mick and his players.
Now hoping we can reach a point where last night's first half is our base play.
(Comment: watching our women's team play - including some really outstanding opponents - it's one thing to study film and prepare in practice; when they actually get onto the court against us so often they go into a sort of shock about how good and how TALL our players really are. I think facing one of Mick's teams that is actually functioning as a Mick Cronin team can have a similar effect at first. I wonder if MSU would struggle as much on the backboards from the opening tip against us in a rematch as they did in the first half in which rebounds were pretty close to even. If they could play the rebounds from the opening tip as they did against us in the second half last night, the result could be carnage - as traprh noted was his worry before last night's game. Just something about which I will continue to worry should we face them again until we prove we can rebound with such a strong rebounding team as MSU.)