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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.
Just listened to Rod and Eric’s podcast about upcoming NE game. Well analyzed as usual. Sorry to hear Rod being upset about MSU play thus far. I get that this is a unique team for Izzo to coach and for all of us to watch. I too am baffled by this team. I expected better, much better. That being said I focus on watching and listening to Izzo to get insight into why the team performs well or poorly. I have thus far come away believing this team is slow in developing into a contender because of one thing: they are struggling getting out of the storming phase of this team.
The storming phase is where roles and tasks for each teammate is settled. On older teams this usually takes place in the summer or preseason. This team may be taking longer to move on because of reluctance or inability to take on assignments. That doesn’t explain poor 3 point shooting but it does just about everything else.
All teams that are coached well go through phases to get to their goals. I have watched all Izzo teams and Izzo takes them through it every time. Remember the Covid year? Everyone believed that they were not making the tournament late into the season yet they did. That team had one player will them to the tournament and that was Aaron Henry. The rest of the team was up and down. But they rallied and found their way into the tournament. You could argue whether that team had more or better talent than this team. But talent isn’t getting wins if the team doesn’t play cohesively. Cohesion is more a thought process than a talent. Due to covid that team took the whole season to figure out how to become cohesive. They were playing their best basketball by the end of the season that ended with getting beat by a final four team.
I’m using this as an example to show that Izzo has been in a worse situation and figured it out. This situation maybe baffling Izzo now but he hasn’t abandoned his coaching principles. As long as he’s working on this team there is reason to believe he will get them to the tournament and they will be playing their best.
If you believe that this team at its best is a final four team then relax a little. If you think Izzo can’t get the best out of this team start following another team.
No pressure, Kohler, no pressure.
Four of our five losses are against teams ranked as of today. But, Nebraska? What the?!
No long post, I just don't have the energy/effort to put behind the subject of this team right now.
However, darn, do we ever need Kohler right now. Walker and Hall are playing to expectations. But, forget about other guys taking a step-up from last season, the reality is they've regressed and taken steps down.
Hall is doing an admirable job as an undersized low post presence, but that's not enough. It's asking a lot, coming back from an injury, but if Kohler shows that he's taken a step up like Walker and Hall, we can get some semblance of offensive consistency and back to our winning ways.
No pressure, Kohler, no pressure.
Kindness is free.
Kohler will definitely be a help but if our bigs just turned around and took a wide open jumper then followed it to the basket they might either hit a basket or get a put back It would force the opposing 5 to guard our 5 out further. And open up opportunities offensive rebounds.