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Welcome to The Final Four Is Not on the Schedule discussion board. A forum for the serious and casual MSU fan. Opinions welcome – stay respectful.
I thought it would be interesting to speculate if there was a connection to MSU's general success and their ability to finish dunks at the rim. I was watching highlights of MSU teams of yesteryear and thought that they surely looked to attack the basket in a much more vicious manner. MSU running and getting easy dunks while the opponent fell asleep momentarily is a staple of Tom Izzo's program. I feel as if fast breaks finishing in dunks have been fewer and farther between in recent years.
There are countless factors that contribute to team success, but I wanted to get a visual of the dunks completed per year (Torvik 2010-2023). The most fun part of this is irresponsibly speculating on the correlation between this graph and the team's success through the years. Most apparent thing that jumps right out is the bad 3-year stretch that MSU is on.
It will be interesting to see who leads the team in dunks this year. I am guessing it will go something like Akins - Carr - Sissoko - Booker - Cooper. Of course, much of this speculation is based on how many minutes these players seem likely to play.
@hazelmotes I'd take Carr or Booker for that crown without question. Carr has the best 2nd jump, 3rd jump, 4th jump that I maybe have ever seen. He can dunk two-handed vertically off a 4th jump. It's freakish.
@loomin_knotty I would put Carr first if we were ranking dunks per minute, but I give the edge to Akins when ranking dunks per game because I think Akins will play close to 30 minutes a game and Carr will play closer to 12. Carr has to contend with Hall, Kohler, and Booker at the 4 and with Akins and Normand (and maybe even Hall) at the 3.
I am more optimistic than most on Hall’s upcoming season. He is versatile and he will bring some leadership to the bigs. I believe he is going to be crucial for directing defenses in the post. I even saw him doing that a little bit last year in the tournament. People seem to forget that Hall was dealing with injuries most of last season. If he stays healthy, though, his minutes will likely mean that Carr does not see the floor more than 12-15 minutes a game.
Interesting graph Loomin. That is quite a dramatic drop off... In looking back at our recent rosters, we have just not had the athletes we were used to having 10 years ago. Outside of Bridges, our best players were not overly athletic. Winston, Tillman, were more cerebral then athletic. Akins certainly fits the bill but has not yet unleased his ability yet. Gabe Brown could have been more explosive but would rather take a jump shot vs attacking the rim (especially rebounding). Henry had the ability but again, did not seem to use it fully.
I agree that there is a strong correlation between our lack of running and the decrease in dunks. With this current team, we should get back to our roots (running/offensive rebounding). Can't wait!