Michigan State (which is in Michigan) Post Game Thread | Page 2 | The Boneyard

Michigan State (which is in Michigan) Post Game Thread

While we fouled a lot, I’d say it was more in the vain of the acceptable fouling that comes as a result of aggressive and gritty defense that Hurley’s emphasizing in contrast to last year.
 
Ross had a really rough start, and then it was like someone just threw a switch on. Confidently took what the defense gave him, played solid defense without fouling too much (just the one hack near the end of the game), and came down with some tough rebounds in traffic.
Reibe belongs. He's going to get pushed around a bit, but the game is there.

Demary didn't look to attack much. Made 2 shots early and then seemed content to just distribute. His first two fouls were god awful calls, but the last 3 were obvious.

Both teams fouled a ton, and the officials didn't help by calling a bunch of contact that is technically a foul but didn't impact the offense at all. Agreeing to 6 fouls was probably a mistake -- style of play looked like early 90's Big East. Made it really hard to assess anything.
 
housekeys said:
Not only missing 2 starters, but this was essentially the 1st real game with our starting PG, and we looked in-synch for the most part, given the experimenting with the lineups.
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They have 3 cupcake games starting next week to get everything in sync and then the real stuff starts. Hoping Reed is ready to go next week so they have those 3 games with everyone (well except Mullins).
 
thekollieman said:
While we fouled a lot, I’d say it was more in the vain of the acceptable fouling that comes as a result of aggressive and gritty defense that Hurley’s emphasizing in contrast to last year.
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That's a good start but if you reward the other team with 2 foul shots every time then it's not really good defense.
 
Gotta be mostly positive.

Missing two starters.

Riebe gets twice as many rebounds as Samson Johnson would get in a week. And Riebe is the back up. Looks like he can play 16-20 minutes and foul trouble be damned.

Ball driving and finishing at the rim with both hands.

Karaban found his rhythm. Eventually.

Stew, Ross, Kumona, Milligan, and Furphy all showed they can be rotation pieces.
Demary seemed like he was focused on being a distributor. I am confident he is a 13-15 ppg player once games count.

Refs sucked the life out of the building.

New seats in lower bowl hide empty seats way better than the old seats did.
 
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This team still fouls way too much.

Beyond that hard not to be pleased with a wire to wire win over Michigan State down two starters, including the biggest difference maker on the team. And Silas getting his first reps against a different jersey.

These extended minutes will pay dividends for Reibe when Tarris comes back.

Want Mullins back ASAP. Excited to see what the offense looks like with our starting 5.
 
The game was billed as the Huskies against the Spartans but the Zebras showed up wanting to play too.

We can win a rock fight against a respected team even going far into our depth. They kept saying a player fouled out when they picked up their 5th, forgetting guys get 6 in these exhibitions. Guys like Demary wouldn't have gone back in the game with 2 fouls in the first half without that extra cushion. Ross had his breakout game in my opinion. He made shots and plays. Everybody on the team can help this team if called on. Furphy had a couple good assists and another that wasn't converted. I think our BYU game will play like this with Dybantsa trying to draw 15 fouls against our post guys. Reibe has really looked solid for so early in his career. His shots will fall and his mistakes for the most part aren't physical. Reed, Reibe, give us what we need, and Koroma with the other 6'7 guys and Alex are just fine. Demary & Smith are solid there, and no problem at all to go to Millender. We will be a tough out all year and only lose if our shooting sucks
 
navery12 said:
Ross looked great again off the bench, think it's clear he found his role and knows what to do now. If he can not be a net negative on offense like he was tonight he's going to earn minutes
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If Ross plays like he did tonight he’s going to do a lot more than earn minutes. He may be locked in as a star— connection drops

(Not discussing further let’s kick back and see what happens)
 
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Hurley stated during preseason practice that he wasn’t going to run the same complex offense system that he installed the last three years. He said he was going to allow the players to play with more freedom.

From what I’ve seen in the two exhibition games, we aren’t getting nearly as many open shots.

Our offense doesn’t look any different than any other teams offense this year. It’s not sophisticated, it’s not hard to defend, it’s vanilla.

This year we have more shooters than ever and the complex offense that would get them open shots has been put on the shelf.
 
HW611 said:
If Ross plays like he did tonight he’s going to do a lot more than earn minutes. He may be locked in as a star— connection drops

(Not discussing further let’s kick back and see what happens)
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Yeah that's not happening, and I think you know that too. He's not starting over Braylon Mullins
 
aceboon said:
Best stretch of the game was without a center on the floor and AK at the 5. Encouraging for Ross to have that type of game vs a high major/top 25 caliber opponent, wouldn't surprise me if gets the nod over Stewart to start the season while Mullins is out, Stewart is still mostly just floating in and out of the game.
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Floating is a good word for it. I really don't know what Stew is here in his 3rd year - don't know what his strength is, other than looking like a good athlete.

Ross - stock up
 
navery12 said:
Ross looked great again off the bench, think it's clear he found his role and knows what to do now. If he can not be a net negative on offense like he was tonight he's going to earn minutes
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If he can hit those corner threes at a reasonable clip and just take the looks as they come, it will be a game changer for him. The defense also looked more consistently composed today. BC game he looked a little out of control the first half and settled down the second. Thought he looked good on that end wire to wire today.

Also hat tip to Solo and Stewart, who I also thought put forward some much better defensive efforts.
 
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He looked very confident on offense. Hopefully that translates to continued production. I was very encouraged!
 
Tyler2Rings said:
I hope Reed is all better bc we got beat on the boards all night
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38-34 UConn.

We were out for most of the game but I listened to the MSU broadcast starting at the 14 minute mark of the second half when we got home.

Lots of respect for UConn. Acknowledged we have way more titles in the past twenty years as anyone else, praised the defense, lamented the turnovers by Fears in the first half, said Izzo will not be happy with the effort and the rebounding and mentioned Carr's performance as somewhat disappointing.

Izzo came on and only spoke for 3-4 minutes. Not happy with the effort, said it was a great atmosphere and a good test and wakeup call for the young guys. He was clearly expecting more, maybe because we were missing two important guys, but he didn't say that. Just seemed to be the elephant in the room.
 
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aceboon said:
Best stretch of the game was without a center on the floor and AK at the 5. Encouraging for Ross to have that type of game vs a high major/top 25 caliber opponent, wouldn't surprise me if gets the nod over Stewart to start the season while Mullins is out, Stewart is still mostly just floating in and out of the game.
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A lot of guys familiar with the offense.
 
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JStew started off looking great. Aggressive on O and D. Overall he played well. But he still fell into a trademark JStew la-la land stretch where he just disappeared. Such an enigma. Want to love him but he frustrates so much.

JRoss looked really good overall. I don’t think he fell badly for a pump fake all game. He was good for 2/game last year. Played offense with purpose. His stat line for rebs and assists looked meager, but really, his D assignments didn’t give him that many opportunities to get them. Cautiously optimistic. If he can bring this consistently, we are in really good shape on the wing

Reibe just needs more game minutes. Like what I’m seeing overall from him.

Demary looked game-rusty but I liked what he brought overall

Alex needs to finish those drives more consistently in Year 4. Just too many off the backboard bricks.

Koroma is a great 4/5 to give us a few minutes, break-glass-in_emergency for injuries/fouls guy. Same with Millender.

Furphy showed that knack and feel for the game. More minutes will do him and us good.

Liked Solo’s aggressive takes when they were overplaying his 3’s.

All in all, our bench/3rd stringers played a tin of minutes and we comfortably handled a top 25 team without arguably our two best players. !!!
 
It was great to see the squad in action again, and there was a lot to like, but the constant whistles brought back ugly memories of our 2017 AAC Tournament loss to Cincinnati.
 
Going to be fun watching the boneyard slowly realize this version of Ross is a starter for us if he can keep this up

1761706197003.jpeg
 
HooperScooper said:
That's a good start but if you reward the other team with 2 foul shots every time then it's not really good defense.
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I agree, but it’s also hard for me to imagine most games getting called like that. It made me wonder if there was an instruction to call it tight to help facilitate injury protection before the season starts. Does anyone know if the foul count has been a trend across these high profile exhibitions?
 
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