Michigan State (which is in Michigan) Post Game Thread | Page 6 | The Boneyard

Michigan State (which is in Michigan) Post Game Thread

Chin Diesel said:
Without re-reading every comment, has it been brought up yet the title of this thread just says "Michigan" and not anything about MSU or Mich St?
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I didn’t even notice that until I read your comment. It may have originally said “Michigan State…” but then the title was briefly changed to a personal Jayden Ross shoutout and ultimately changed back to “Michigan…”
 
HW611 said:
I’ve been consistent in saying a confident Ross would be the best case scenario as far as starting wing for the team.

Filling the Castle/Andre Jackson role. @RuffRuff especially knows this.

Not going past starter, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the light bulb clicked to the point of eventual draft pick and award winner. Ross will be as good as he thinks he is. I’m not going out on the limb to say how good he thinks he’ll be. I don’t trust it.
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Oh I can vouch. While his stock is pointing up, as some of us expected (buying low), I still have to see him develop more natural fluidity on the court to be a believer. He's super active, he's very long, something just looks a little clunky around his movement to me - someone in chat used the term "herky jerky" which felt right. There is a gawkines to it. He does have a nice release on his jumper when he gets a chance to square up and it was good seeing him knock down a couple yesterday - hopefully just the confidence boost he needs to run with.
 
RuffRuff said:
Oh I can vouch. While his stock is pointing up, as some of us expected (buying low), I still have to see him develop more natural fluidity on the court to be a believer. He's super active, he's very long, something just looks a little clunky around his movement to me - someone in chat used the term "herky jerky" which felt right. There is a gawkines to it. He does have a nice release on his jumper when he gets a chance to square up and it was good seeing him knock down a couple yesterday - hopefully just the confidence boost he needs to run with.
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I'm a believer as well, but no one is ever going to say "he moves with composure on the floor." I'm not sure he sees the game at a high level and relies more on his "first round pick" athleticism. His little brother getting out there for his few seconds looked remarkably like him in his movement.

Come to think of it, perhaps if the coaching staff learns to get the best out of Jayden they might use this to their advantage with Jacob in the future.
 
It seems like folks in general agree that there was a lot of good in the game.

I know this is "duh", but Hurley is a smart guy and he's surrounded himself with smart assistants. The points of exhibition games is to see where the core group is, what rotations work, how the offense and defense work, which guys seem to be getting it and which ones are struggling, etc.

I think/hope Hurley and co. will go back and rewatch the game with the team and dissect it for improvement and education.

I do have a question on Alex - love the guy and love he stayed all 4 years but... he redshirted his first year so this is his 5th in college (altho he did graduate from IMG early). He'll be 23 in early November. Has his staying hurt or helped his NBA draft stock?
 
EricLA said:
It seems like folks in general agree that there was a lot of good in the game.

I know this is "duh", but Hurley is a smart guy and he's surrounded himself with smart assistants. The points of exhibition games is to see where the core group is, what rotations work, how the offense and defense work, which guys seem to be getting it and which ones are struggling, etc.

I think/hope Hurley and co. will go back and rewatch the game with the team and dissect it for improvement and education.

I do have a question on Alex - love the guy and love he stayed all 4 years but... he redshirted his first year so this is his 5th in college (altho he did graduate from IMG early). He'll be 23 in early November. Has his staying hurt or helped his NBA draft stock?
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Very much hindsight view here, but his stock was probably highest after the 2nd championship.
 
EricLA said:
I do have a question on Alex - love the guy and love he stayed all 4 years but... he redshirted his first year so this is his 5th in college (altho he did graduate from IMG early). He'll be 23 in early November. Has his staying hurt or helped his NBA draft stock?
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Don't think it's had much of an impact either way. He's always been a fringe late round 1/early round 2 guy and I think he'll still be there this year. Age matters less as you get further away from the lottery and teams are looking for specific roles and not necessarily a guy to become a star.

He's projected in the same spot now as he was after his sophomore year, with 2 years of NIL money, so I think it was the right call
 
I will probably get hammered for this take, but this team reminds me of the 23 team. Hear me out:
-- 2023 team had 3 guys who could run the offense. 2025 team does as well.
--2023 team had a couple of sharpshooters in Hawk and Alex, along with a killer in Cam. 2025 team has 2 sharpshooters (Solo and Mullins) and a plethora of players who can score in multiple ways. Oh, and we have a better version of Alex.
--2023 team had a defensive stopper on the wing. These two exhibition games tell me that Ross is going to be that guy. And did you see how Silas and Malachi defend the ball handler? And we saw Stewart defend the nation's leading scorer last year. Nasty.
--2023 team had guys who could create their own shots when the 3 was not working. 2025 team has that too. Solo looks different driving the ball. Objectively speaking, he looks more comfortable driving the lane. Alex looks more assertive driving to the basket. And Mullins is coming back kids. We didn't see Silas do this last night, but watching his Georgia days, he surely has that in his game.
****The biggest difference is the center position. 2023 team had Sanogo and Clingan. Enough said. Not going to argue against them. But if Bear comes back healthy, these last two games showed us that Riebe will be okay playing 15 minutes. And Koroma can play too. We are going to be okay at center.

I love this team. I do not think we know the ceiling yet, and that is a good thing. We are, after all, missing our starting center and our starting wing. And despite those injuries, we dominated an ACC team and a top 25 team. And please do not tell me that MSU is not a top 25 team. How many years have we heard that about a Izzo lead team only to see them play in March?

Jayden Ross looks different. Forget about his stats, and they are nice. I think he is different between the ears. In both exhibition games he badly missed on the first shots he took, and he did not let that affect him. Point of fact, he kept being aggressive. That is progress. Up until now, we have not seen what Hurley sees in practice. Well, we have seen it now in two exhibition games.

My last take is about fouls. I know that we committed dumb fouls, particularly in the second half. But the refs were calling a ridiculous game. A lot of the fouls called on the perimeter were not reach in fouls. They were ticki-tacki fouls that most refs dont call. The eye ball test tells me that this team will guard at a high level.
 
ec33 said:
I'm a believer as well, but no one is ever going to say "he moves with composure on the floor." I'm not sure he sees the game at a high level and relies more on his "first round pick" athleticism. His little brother getting out there for his few seconds looked remarkably like him in his movement.

Come to think of it, perhaps if the coaching staff learns to get the best out of Jayden they might use this to their advantage with Jacob in the future.
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Not a bad take regarding seeing the game at a high level. Feels like an athlete that converted recently from another sport at times.
 
kansashusky said:
I’m not sure it’s ever going to click for Stewie.
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Could it be he's trying to be perfect and thinks too much? That causes indecision, second guessing, and ineffectiveness at whatever you might be doing.
Or, is he just not wired to be relentless and aggressive?
 
navery12 said:
He's not passing any of those guys, it just might be a 9 man rotation instead of 8. Smith, Stewart, Reibe all bring skills and fill a role that nobody else in the top 9 can so it's hard to see them not playing
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The only argument I'd make is Stewart hasn't shown those skills consistently game to game or, many times, even within the same game. Dan Hurley is looking for consistent effort and results and IF Ross has figured it out he may become the answer over Stewart.
 
WhereistheDove? said:
Can we all get an update on where the goal posts on Ross currently sit? AA? All BE? Star starter? Solid starter? Great bench player? It’s hard to keep track of where you’ve moved the goal posts at any given time.
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Surprised someone of your knowledge and stature didn't mention POTY.........
 
Scrutineer said:
The only argument I'd make is Stewart hasn't shown those skills consistently game to game or, many times, even within the same game. Dan Hurley is looking for consistent effort and results and IF Ross has figured it out he may become the answer over Stewart.
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If Ross continues to perform like this in real games against good competition he's absolutely going to play. My only point is that Stewart will too, because he is the backup 4 behind Karaban. And that's a role Jayden Ross can't play, he'll be at the 3
 
The Sleepers guys weigh in. Also down on Stew, had some comps. I'm at the point where I'm not sure you can slate him into the starting 5 next year.

 
EricLA said:
It seems like folks in general agree that there was a lot of good in the game.

I know this is "duh", but Hurley is a smart guy and he's surrounded himself with smart assistants. The points of exhibition games is to see where the core group is, what rotations work, how the offense and defense work, which guys seem to be getting it and which ones are struggling, etc.

I think/hope Hurley and co. will go back and rewatch the game with the team and dissect it for improvement and education.

I do have a question on Alex - love the guy and love he stayed all 4 years but... he redshirted his first year so this is his 5th in college (altho he did graduate from IMG early). He'll be 23 in early November. Has his staying hurt or helped his NBA draft stock?
Expand ...
Based on Hurley's comments when he returned after the 2024 draft process it was communicated to AK that he had guaranteed money coming his way, which would have put him in the early 2nd round territory similar to AJax. I don't think his chances were nearly as high last season(hence the return) and if he has similar issues shooting and finishing as he did last season then I think that pushes him further away from where he was after his sophomore year. If he can shoot closer to 47-48% from the field and 38-40% from 3 along with everything else he does out there that should put him where he hopes to be. Staying isn't the issue, he just gotta perform and not fall off a cliff again.
 
Refs did not want injuries so they called a ton of fouls. I am sure Izzo and Hurley were in on that and they got 6 fouls (geez remember 6 in the Big East?)

Granted a bunch of fouls were mystery I think it was just because no coach wants an injury in an exhibition.

Surely we will foul less than last year and game 1 next week should be a fun one and hope we see Tarris play
 
RuffRuff said:
Oh I can vouch. While his stock is pointing up, as some of us expected (buying low), I still have to see him develop more natural fluidity on the court to be a believer. He's super active, he's very long, something just looks a little clunky around his movement to me - someone in chat used the term "herky jerky" which felt right. There is a gawkines to it. He does have a nice release on his jumper when he gets a chance to square up and it was good seeing him knock down a couple yesterday - hopefully just the confidence boost he needs to run with.
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I'm hoping Ross may see the light as Jermaine Samuels did at Villanova. Had a weak freshman year but then seemed to have an epiphany in the later stages of his sophomore year.
 
HooperScooper said:
Only an hour and a half. What, did they edit out half the foul shots? Lol

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That first foul on Silas has to be the most ridiculous foul ever called. Silas is bent over in a defensive stance far from Fear. Fear bends stretching his upper body under Silas's head. Then he suddenly jerks up with his elbow out hitting Silas.

It was pure bend and snap like in Legally Blond!
 
All things considered I think the team is looking good, a hell of a lot more like three years ago than last year - so far.

Good to see Ross potentially on the right trajectory in-game, let's see how he does in the next few.

I know the rotation is maybe 8 deep once it gets serious but how do you keep Millender and Koroma on the bench?

Furphy looks like he could be some real gold developing, I don't think this year realistically, but I can see how he could jump quickly next year with some time under his belt.
 

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