MSU Thoughts

[Huskymagic]

Jalen, Alterique, and Terry for the most part did enough to make this game competitive which it was until the 10 minute mark of the second half where we were only down 5 points. Terry is a fantastic catch and shoot player. Only Jalen and Alterique should be initiating the offense and they need to look for Larrier on the perimeter when they do.

Our achilles heel was our lack of big men rebounding or being tough on the interior against Nick Ward, Jackson and Miles Bridges who were the difference for the Spartans. They put a lot of pressure on us offensively, and had an impact on our role players making them timid and ineffective. Our big guys got bullied badly. Whaley might have had an impact yesterday with his hops and length. Onourah was useless all night and is not a player for this level.

Kevin Ollie missed a big opportunity after the 9 minute mark when Vital came in making it a 4 little guard lineup plus Larrier at the 5. This is where Winston went off. We needed a long athlete athlete at that juncture like Polley or Whaley. We went semi zone, and our guys could not defend whatsoever missing their man on switches constantly. This allowed Winston to go off because we had no height or length to bother him and he was wide open on switches.

PS: Ollie needs to have more faith in Polley and Whaley especially against teams like MSU where their length, height, savy, and hops in Whaley's case are sorely needed.

 

[Kenny11]

Good analysis. This is not a loss to freak out over. Michigan State is much more talented than uconn and almost every other D1 team.

We need to beat Arkansas and keep winning the games we should win.

 

[dennismenace]

Jalen, Alterique, and Terry for the most part did enough to make this game competitive which it was until the 10 minute mark of the second half where we were only down 5 points. Terry is a fantastic catch and shoot player. Only Jalen and Alterique should be initiating the offense and they need to look for Larrier on the perimeter when they do.

Our achilles heel was our lack of big men rebounding or being tough on the interior against Nick Ward, Jackson and Miles Bridges who were the difference for the Spartans. They put a lot of pressure on us offensively, and had an impact on our role players making them timid and ineffective. Our big guys got bullied badly. Whaley might have had an impact yesterday with his hops and length. Onourah was useless all night and is not a player for this level.

Kevin Ollie missed a big opportunity after the 9 minute mark when Vital came in making it a 4 little guard lineup plus Larrier at the 5. This is where Winston went off. We needed a long athlete athlete at that juncture like Polley or Whaley. We went semi zone, and our guys could not defend whatsoever missing their man on switches constantly. This allowed Winston to go off because we had no height or length to bother him and he was wide open on switches.

PS: Ollie needs to have more faith in Polley and Whaley especially against teams like MSU where their length, height, savy, and hops in Whaley's case are sorely needed.

If Whaley can play defense at that level against guards or small forwards he definitely needs to see more minutes. Not sure he has the knowledge yet or perhaps we would see him more. Can players learn a lot more (get up to speed) by watching film with someone who can break it down over and over and then put it into a live practice. It seems to me that the guard position looks a lot tougher to master; particularly the point or combo than the front court. Yet it always seem that it takes so much longer to develop bigs. Maybe someone can enlighten me on this. The young guys we have now look really athletic and energetic. Really looking forward to their development including strength training. Also, Kisunas next year and having Cobb back.