2020-21 michigan state #2

Things discussed:

• Does Minnesota hockey have a claim on the Big Ten championship? At least they’re not being total children about it.
• Craig Ross got a card to be part of a memory stimulation study for people with the memory of a goldfish.
• Difference between Games 1 and 2 is MSU hit their bad shots and Michigan missed their good ones.
• Worst Coach of the Year award
• Franz Wagner left off the all-defense team is insane. Conspiracy!!!
• Also we’re going to get @davidlectka some followers because this is the third time this week we’ve brought up one of his very good tweets.
• Preview of MSU-Maryland today
• Is the Big Ten the best conference? Yeah—the Big XII is just as strong at the top but they have several teams way worse than Nebraska. Iowa State is 2-22 this year.
• Are we going to play Sister Jean?
• Ohio State-Purdue preview.
• Do you play Eli in the tournament if he’s not healthy?
• Big Ten tournament preview.
• Hockeytalk: Unless the complete morons use Pairwise this year for something other than intra-conference rankings Michigan is in the tournament.
• Do you want Arizona State as the 8th Big Ten team? Illinois?
• Spring practice: they’re going to take a 2-week break in the middle. Do we know ANYTHING? Noooope.

[Hit the JUMP for the player, and video and stuff]

The Sponsors

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1. The MSU Games

starts at 1:00

The good, the bad, and the ugly officiating in the Big Ten this year (from th win). 

[The rest of the writeup and the player after The Jump]

3/7/2021 – Michigan 64, Michigan State 70 – 19-3, 14-3, still Big Ten regular season champions

This game was in the 17%. That's the shot Kenpom gave Michigan State at a win, and that's what it felt like: a somewhat functional basketball team playing over its head as Michigan played under its level and escaping with a win.

This stands in marked contrast to the Illinois game, which was not in the bin of regular-ass outcomes. That felt like a paradigm shift in which previously unkillable Michigan—nevermind that Minnesota game—was brought low and showed an Achilles heel. Maybe an addressable one, down the road. A long-term issue. One that would be difficult to replicate, but a worry whenever a team with some athletic guards and a mountain shows up.

Meanwhile this game was clearly one of Those Games from the drop. Eli Brooks left and did not return five minutes in after coming down on Marcus Bingham's foot. Rocket Watts went 7/11 on midrange shots—virtually all of them off-the-dribble long ones.

cumong basketball gods [Campredon]

Hunter Dickinson was stuck on 3 points for much of the game, less because of anything MSU was doing and more because he seems stuck in a late-season funk. Dickinson eventually scored on this possession but his first shot going off the side of the backboard was ominous:

The officiating managed to provide MSU with six more FTAs (before Michigan put MSU on the line six times in the last minute) despite Michigan having six fewer fouls and seven more attempts at the rim. A typical passage of play was Michigan missing a decent look and MSU canning a bad one.

I mean.

Okay. Have a day, I guess. I'm not going to put a whole lot on a game where Michigan State shoots midrange twos at the same clip (50%)Michigan shoots at the rim.

All of the above takes some remembering since the last time Michigan lost a relatively competitive game was last season. Everything else has been a win or a 20-point loss, the latter occurring just twice. So things could be worse.

[After THE JUMP: closeouts on midrange jumpers should be de minimis for centers.]