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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.
What’s going on Sparty fans, Game 1 in the books! They say good teams win and great teams cover, so unfortunately I think MSU has some work to do. Left a lot of points on the floor tonight.
The Good:
1. Tyson Walker finishing at the rim. Looks much more aggressive this year.
2. Tre Holloman continues to play harder than anyone on the court. Love his motor.
3. Pierre Brooks can indeed shoot.
4. Joey Hauser not being shy, but also picking his spots nicely. Very balanced game from him.
5. Sissoko continues to provide solid minutes without fouling.
6. Active hands cooled off in the second half, but this team is going to generate a ton of steals.
7. Malik Hall showing some attitude. He needs to always think he’s a baaaaad man.
8. Post defense was good. Taut was neutralized.
9. Happy with the officiating again. Let the teams play.
10. Shot selection. Got whatever they wanted.
The Bad:
1. Rebounding tailed off after the first 10 minutes or so. Disappointing after such a great start.
2. Guarding the arc. The percentage wasn’t great, but NAU hit a lot of open threes.
3. AJ Hoggard out of control on the break again.
4. Shot making. Missed a lot of open looks.
5. Passing out of the double teams. Kohler especially needs to work on this.
6. Hate to be this guy, but the production by Big+ needs to be better. The color guys are fine, but the camera is shaky and since I’m paying 9.99 to watch the game I’d expect better.
The Injured:
1. Malik Hall. Looks like he got slightly hit in the mouth or face. Seemed fine.
2. Jaden Akins. Seemed fine but needs to still work on conditioning.
The only quibble I'd have with your analysis is that I thought the production was great on the floor because I got to watch the game live. Haha.
It is really disappointing that BTN puts together such a slip shod product and then charges more than most streaming services for that kind of production value.
@elarson284568176374567 Definitely would have been a better viewing experience being there, even if you have to deal with the heckler behind you! Hope you enjoyed the game and your ice cream sandwich 🙂
Great Analysis. After re-watching this morning, the only point I might disagree with slightly is #2 in the BAD. I thought we defended the 3 pretty well. They only shot 27% from deep and made 8. Cone had 4 of them (2 each half), and all of them were long, and very well contested. That guy can shoot it, so I see those results as a positive. Of the other 4 made 3s, I think 2 were NBA range over pretty good D (both Hall I think). One of the other 2 was a scramble situation in the 2nd half after a long rebound (came out beyond the arc) that they got and kicked to the corner for a wide open 3 that Hall couldn't recover fast enough on. The worst one was in the first half where Hall was slow to recover and close out after he sagged to the rim in a help D situation. Anyway, overall I thought we defended the arc well. I do have some concerns about Hall's close-out quickness as well as his ability to fight over screens fast enough when chasing a quicker wing. As Akins gets his legs back and can play more minutes resulting in a few less for Hall at the 3 I think we will be able to hide that issue a little more.
Time to move on to bigger challenges with the Zags. As a friend of the Timme's, this will be the one time I ever cheer against my man Drew! haha.
Thank you! Yeah, looking back at it through the box score, think I let a little flurry at the start of the second half cloud my judgment on the three point defense. Cone definitely is a tough shot maker. I’d say MSU’s defense as a whole was decidedly better in the first half, so they definitely want to work on 40 minutes of “bringing it.”