Forum
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’ve been an MSU basketball fan for 50 years ( I was a MSU freshman in 1973). I have seen highs, 2 Nattys and lows, entire team walking out on the coach before a game. No matter whether the team won great games or had jayvee on the court to be obliterated I supported the team. Fortunately with Izzo at the helm I have seen much more winning than losing and maybe more impressively holding a team together in times of difficulty like a death, Covid or a mass shooting.
I say all this because I have difficulty with fair weather fans. I especially have difficulty with fans whom after watching some basketball have become “couch coaches “ when they absolutely know how to coach better than a HOF coach because they can see a MSU team better than Izzo and can predict with absolute certainty what is the outcome of a play or game.
50 years ago we would complain about the team while getting high in our dorm but the next day sobered up and let it go. Now there’s no sobering up and people hang on to complaints like a dog on a bone. Social media memorializes irresponsible and irrational thoughts so anyone can see them.
I may sound like a an old man complaining about youth. I can’t complain about youth because I enjoyed it when I was there but I had an advantage in that almost every stupid thing I said has largely been forgotten. There was nothing in writing and my group of stoned friends can’t remember what we said. Without social media you can’t prove we said anything stupid about MSU sports. That is to say to all disgruntled MSU b-ball fans stop complaining in public. 50 years from now it’s more than likely to comeback and haunt you and MSU basketball will not be better than what it is right now.
I went to MSU because it wasn’t um. I didn’t want to be a part of a fan base that could not take the good with the bad. MSU fans are in danger of becoming um clones.
I was disappointed with the loss to Iowa but I’m pumped up for NE and beyond.
Huzzah!
Some thoughts from another fan:
- Much of the criticism of the state of the program can be traced to the last two seasons, as I see it, to the team lacking a leader, someone who could have helped Bingham and Brown be the best version of themselves.
- I see this year as a big positive transition year to years of strong leadership. Hoggard is learning to lead. Holloman looks like a guy who will play his role but can ultimately be another Travis Walton. Fears looks like he could be the next great MSU leader and PG.
- While people still complain that Izzo should have gone to the portal to get a big, I think one of the reasons Izzo had a great 2023 recruiting class and is likely to have another one in 2024 is that these players feel confident that Izzo is committed to them. Also, I don’t think the play Sissoko, Kohler, and Cooper are what keeps us from being the best team in the conference. If we look at the conference losses where we think we should have won (Iowa, Purdue, Northwestern), I don’t find fault in our young bigs for those losses. Our leaders were often the ones that missed free-throws or missed assignments in those games, costing us a win.
@hazelmotes I think that’s spot on. This teams success is more dependent on the play of the point guard. Izzo’s beat teams have had great point guards who know how to use the complimentary pieces. The bigs are already shaping into something and I think we keep getting better.