Michigan State 77, Michigan 70
In the biggest game of the season thus far, Michigan State came to Ann Arbor and dealt Michigan its first home loss. All-American point guard Cassius Winston was the best player on the floor: his 27-point, 8-assist performance emphatically rejected the notion that Zavier Simpson was his kryptonite. State scored 1.24 points per possession, by far the highest output allowed by Michigan's normally excellent defense. After a high-octane first half, both teams settled in, but State was able to go on one of its impressive second half runs. Over a seven-and-a-half minute stretch, the Spartans outscored the Wolverines 17-4. Michigan didn't have the firepower to mount a comeback.
Michigan State is without four starters from last season’s team — two left for the NBA and two have been injured — but there’s been little drop-off, if any. Tom Izzo handed the keys of the offense to Winston, and consequently, State has one of the best offenses in the country. Winston was superb today: Michigan hedged ball screens aggressively all game, and Winston was patient and consistently made the right play. Winston’s passing against an over-extended defense opened up good looks for the Spartan role players, and they delivered. Kenny Goins, Xavier Tillman, and Matt McQuaid combined for 43 points, and they all played solid defense.
Winston’s play was essential to State’s victory, but Michigan kept pace for a while and actually threatened to build a substantial lead in the second half. Michigan State switched all ball screens, and the Wolverines were able to effectively attack that look for a while. Eventually State tightened up, and instead of pulling away from Michigan with their customary flurry of threes and transition buckets, their defense fueled a slow climb into a comfortable lead. Michigan’s offense stagnated, and State’s mismatched defenders won their one-on-one battles for most of the second half. The Wolverines’ eight combined assists were one away from tying their season low, and while Simpson scored a team-high 19 points for Michigan, he had more turnovers (3) than assists (2).
Campredon
The first half was a track meet. Both teams gave up good looks, and both offenses took advantage. Goins knocked down a couple of early threes; State frequently had him set a screen from Winston, and then spot up from near the top of the key — he also attacked closeouts and had 13 first half points. State led 27-20 halfway through the fhalf, but a quick 8-0 run put Michigan back into the lead. Teske was quite active on the offensive glass against State’s scrambled defense, and Simpson knocked down a few threes. Both teams scored efficiently in the first half, and State held a slim 39-37 at the break after McQuaid hit a three over a flopping Jordan Poole and Tillman got out in transition and hit two free throws.
Winston had a few nice plays to start the second half (a beautiful floater, two free throws after attacking Teske, and a tough shot over Simpson), but Michigan’s defense — which had tightened since about midway through the first half — forced State into some tough looks for a while. Meanwhile, Ignas Brazdeikis got going: he drove on Aaron Henry and scored two at the free throw line, knocked down all three free throw attempts after getting fouled by McQuaid, and threw down a two-handed dunk after driving baseline on a Goins closeout. That dunk put Michigan up 51-45 and prompted an Izzo timeout. Michigan scored 14 points before the first TV timeout, but would go ice cold from there.
From there, both teams missed a ton of threes — they combined to shoot 2-22 in the second half, and State didn’t make a single one — but Winston was able to create good looks and Michigan wasn’t. As the Spartans went on their decisive run, they held the Wolverines to just one made basket (a Simpson layup) over 13 possessions. Michigan had carless turnovers, missed threes, some of which were open, and contested shots near the basket that didn’t go in. By the time the Wolverines finally created a good look with Teske scoring on a layup off a back screen, State had opened up a modest lead. Michigan’s aggressive ball screen defense started to concede quality shots again, as State made the right reads and moved the ball. They also took care of the ball: their six turnovers were a season low.
Campredon
The Spartans responded to that Teske basket with a Tillman post-up — he sealed Teske and threw down an easy dunk. Michigan trailed 64-57 with about five minutes left and couldn’t string together enough scores and stops to close the deficit. McQuaid made a couple of key plays — he got a baseline jumper to rattle in after a great defensive possession by Michigan, and extended another after coming away from a scrum with an offensive rebound. Much like in Michigan’s win in East Lansing last season, the home team spent quite a bit of time fouling; Winston knocked down nine of ten free throws over the last two minutes of the game. Jordan Poole knocked down two late threes (the first threes made by either team that half), but State stayed one step ahead and wound up dribbling out the win.
Despite the attrition, State came away with a vital result in the Big Ten title race with an upset on their rival’s home floor. MVP chants from the visiting fans rang out as Winston sealed the game from the free throw line, and he deserved them. His performance was the story of the day, and Zavier Simpson and the Wolverines will have a chance at revenge when Michigan travels to East Lansing for the rematch in two weeks.
[Box score after the JUMP]
February 24th, 2019 at 7:21 PM ^
Poole's defense is such a liability he was basically unplayable today. But I guess it's either him or...¯\_(ツ)_/¯
February 24th, 2019 at 8:19 PM ^
You gotta hand it to Izzo, we are a far better team and we just got outplayed and out-coached. We have better athletes but they didn't show it today. Charles inconsistency is really hurting this team, as a senior you can't go 1-8 against your in-state rival. I'm glad we get them again at Breslin and maybe in the tournament, they need to get whooped, screw sparty.
February 24th, 2019 at 10:25 PM ^
We got em right where we want em.
Go Blue!
February 24th, 2019 at 10:25 PM ^
Double post... Oops, so I'll add a hot take.
Poole's not squaring up to the bucket on his shot. I'll have to go back and look but he's shooting with far too much of his right side pointing to the basket.
Go Blue!
February 24th, 2019 at 10:32 PM ^
Since I'm hot taking...
Just my hot take but didn't like the 89 reunion, new uni's and a Sunday afternoon game. Wish it was a typical Saturday game.
Too much extra shit going on.
February 24th, 2019 at 11:32 PM ^
I guess when Tom can focus on coaching basketball instead of covering up rape, he can get good results.
February 25th, 2019 at 12:34 AM ^
Poole is a bit of a riverboat gambler in that he takes spectacular risks on both defense and offense, with occasional spectacular payoffs. But it was pretty frustrating to see him foul at least twice with under 5 seconds on the shot clock. He’s a bit like John Starks and Vernon Maxwell from the 90s (with better hair and temperament).
February 24th, 2019 at 7:25 PM ^
Eli Brooks is a complete waste of minutes.
Poole had questionable shot selection as usual and played absolutely terrible on the defensive end today.
Did not get the ball inside or drive to the basket nearly enough, especially in the beginning of the second half after MSU was sending players to the bench after fouls.
February 24th, 2019 at 7:46 PM ^
Nobody played well today. Some guys had flashes, but no one stepped up and was the leader like MAAR or Moe last year in the two MSU games. You could tell Charles wanted to take the reigns, but couldn't do anything against MSU. He's just too limited of an offensive player
February 24th, 2019 at 8:20 PM ^
Agree, absolutely no reason Brooks should be playing at this point, especially with the moxi Dejulius has shown.
February 24th, 2019 at 10:05 PM ^
I think 2 of Poole’s “questionable” shots may have been some high IQ shots. He had Teske with inside position against Winston. A long 3 isn’t a bad play at all there. There is a 30% chance of 3, plus a 50-50 chance of an offensive outback on any miss.
similar thought process as taking the 3 in transition
February 24th, 2019 at 10:30 PM ^
Or just dump it in toTeske and get a 100% two
February 25th, 2019 at 7:57 AM ^
Ignorance and hindsight rules here-don't challenge it.
February 24th, 2019 at 7:25 PM ^
But we’re a football school...
February 24th, 2019 at 7:28 PM ^
But we did....
February 24th, 2019 at 7:44 PM ^
But we are...
February 25th, 2019 at 1:45 PM ^
Baseball team is looking good...
February 24th, 2019 at 7:38 PM ^
I’m thinking Beilein shouldn’t have made them run steps. They ran out of gas with one less rest day between games than the opponent.
February 24th, 2019 at 8:30 PM ^
Hmmm....
February 24th, 2019 at 9:59 PM ^
I know I live in the BPONE, but I said all week that the schedule was a big stinker for this game. MSU home on Wed, UM at Minnesota on Thursday. With both team playing with very short benches, this was a definite factor
February 25th, 2019 at 12:58 AM ^
I'm wondering if the running steps was an exaggeration by the announcers.
February 24th, 2019 at 7:38 PM ^
No shame in losing to a better team.
Let's see how they respond.
February 24th, 2019 at 8:22 PM ^
MSU is certainly not a better team. Both these teams playing at their best, Michigan wins 8/10 times. We got out-coached, State has noone at this point except Cassius.
February 24th, 2019 at 8:33 PM ^
I think you're selling them short. Except for that three game stretch, MSU has been really good this year.
Today's result is no reason to get upset, although we should have been relying on Teske and Iggy more than Poole and Matthews
February 24th, 2019 at 10:03 PM ^
I hate to break it to you, but often in basketball the team with the best player on the court is the better team.
February 25th, 2019 at 3:36 PM ^
The teams are very, very similar and evenly matched. I was surprised that State is as good defensively as they are. On this day they had one player who was the best player on the floor and that was the difference.
February 24th, 2019 at 7:44 PM ^
I had a feeling that today would be the day we would miss our scorers from last year. If you check the tape from last year's games, we often bogged down on offense against MSU, but the difference was we had MAAR, Duncan, and Moe who were all excellent at shooting in late shot clock situations and could bury threes even when our offense wasn't clicking. No such luxury today. Furthermore, Moe was such valuable MSU kryptonite because he was the only player we had who could consistently take his man off the bounce and get a bucket without fear of getting blocked. So often today we were scared to go inside, and when we did we couldn't finish layups or would get stuffed by their bigs. I would've loved to see Castleton get some play with Teske to see if they could try to stretch the floor with their bigs and draw out the MSU big men. That was such an invaluable asset that Moe brought to our team in the MSU match-up. Gonna be interested to see what Beilein draws up on the offensive end for the rematch
February 24th, 2019 at 7:55 PM ^
Ok and one nitpick, wearing bright pink shoes completely ruined the aestethic and point of throwback uniforms. Looked stupid as hell and totally clashed and distracted from unis that I actually thought could look good
February 24th, 2019 at 8:34 PM ^
I swear this is the reason they lost. Gotta look good if you want to play good.
They looked like a goddamn pack of Starburst out there.
February 24th, 2019 at 8:35 PM ^
I'm sure it was the shoes.
February 25th, 2019 at 12:52 AM ^
The shoes were maize, but they had to use pink glue to be sure they didn't rip in half.
February 25th, 2019 at 10:42 AM ^
Virtue signaling gone wrong. Make it stop, looks terrible. Enough. MSU wasn’t wearing pink, I wonder why?
February 24th, 2019 at 7:51 PM ^
Looking at the boxscore after being unable to watch the game, the difference at least in the final margin was the contribution from their weird guys -- a total of 7 points. Not saying they made the difference in any compelling way, but every point counts.
I think we need to re-examine how we perceive this Sparty team and Winston in particular, and how you do a better job defending him to limit his effectiveness, if we are to beat them going forward, at least in the season-ender.
February 24th, 2019 at 8:43 PM ^
I'd say the biggest difference was Matthews disappearing. Basketball is a game of runs. You can't score 4 points in a 10 min span and hope to beat a good team. Too much dribble, not enough attacking.
February 24th, 2019 at 11:19 PM ^
I haven't watched a Michigan game in 2019 due to my kids sports, church, etc. I started watching this game when it was 51-45 Michigan after what I assumed was the under 16:00 time out.
Michigan did not basketball very good from that point on.
The offensive sets looked disjointed quite often. The spacing was terrible. There were multiple times that it looked like Simpson, Matthews, Poole or Brazdeikas wanted to drive only to have a Michigan player at the elbow and in the post. It's ok to be in those areas, but they weren't wide enough to allow a drive. They need to drive more and play inside out. The 3's tend to go down more when they come off kick outs after dribble or passing penetration. They also missed some easy looks to Teske on mismatches of of switches on screens.
Michigan had a missed layups by Teske and by Matthews. The Teske miss didn't even hit the rim from very close. The Matthews layup was a great drive that rolled off maybe due to English. Brazdeikas also missed the front end of a 1 and 1. When points are hard to come by, those shots have to be made. Six points would have made a huge difference late in this game.
February 25th, 2019 at 12:53 AM ^
^^^ All his fault ^^^
I started watching this game when it was 51-45 Michigan after what I assumed was the under 16:00 time out.
February 24th, 2019 at 7:58 PM ^
Is Matthews OK? That ankle turn looked bad. He came back but obviously had a tough game.
February 24th, 2019 at 9:24 PM ^
He didn't look great on the ankle later on either. Probably would have been better off with someone else in there.
I'd also like to see Castleton over Johns at this point. And DeJulius over Brooks.
February 24th, 2019 at 8:00 PM ^
Our best shooter played only 18 minutes why?
February 24th, 2019 at 8:10 PM ^
He had 2 turnovers in a few minute span and Iggy was playing well.
February 25th, 2019 at 9:05 PM ^
Not good enough 80. Time to shake up the lineup. Livers needs 30 minutes. We need his offense.
February 24th, 2019 at 8:02 PM ^
The thing that concerns me about this team is just how reliant they are on the defense having a dominant performance. If they have just one game, or even one half, when they play less than their best, the offense doesn't have anywhere near the capability of bailing them out.
February 24th, 2019 at 8:26 PM ^
I mean, Michigan scored 1.13 ppp in the game. MSU came into the game with the #9 defense in the country. This wasn't a bad performance at all by the offense, and had MSU not played out of their minds UM may very well have won.
February 25th, 2019 at 3:12 AM ^
Correct, although some of that was propped up by the end; they had 1.09 ppp in the first 39 minutes of the game. That said -- their KenPom ORtg went up after this game.
People will point to the offense, because people always point to the offense; I won't rehash football, but it's the same phenomenon.
In this game, the offense was fine. It was streaky, sure, but it was good enough to win. The defense wasn't. MSU had a great game plan to open the game, and they scored 27 points on their first 14 possessions. They also scored 24 points on 15 possessions during the decisive stretch of the second half, prior to garbage time. Michigan had enough offense to withstand either one of those stretches, but not both.
I'm not sure MSU played "out of their minds" except for the opening stretch of the game. I did think that Winston was both (a) very good and (b) too much of the focal point of the defense. Tillman was 6/8 on the game, plus 2/2 from the line, and I don't think his longest shot was more than two feet. It seemed that Michigan often sent the center out to hedge on Winston but that he was able to get the ball inside before Michigan could rotate or get back.
I do take issue with a couple of things in Alex's post, though. It didn't look to me like Poole flopped -- I honestly thought DeJulius did, on the charge that was called, but I thought Poole got shoved, hard, to create open space for a three, and I think Izzo's whining prevented that call from being made. I was also livid about the calls that Winston picked up during the last six minutes of the game, where he was pushing off with the off arm and somehow Michigan was getting called for fouls. I don't think you call an offensive foul every trip down the court, but I don't understand how you can call a foul on the defender just for existing . Winston was 13/14 from the line -- there's no way he was fouled seven times.
Finally, the call that McQuaid drew on Poole was one of the worst foul calls I've ever seen. One second left on the shot clock and the player jumps sideways to initiate contact -- you simply can't call that. It was exactly the same thing that Poole tried during the comeback sequence at the end, where it was (rightly) ignored. You should call a foul when the defender creates an unfair advantage and not when the offensive player is just looking to be bailed out. I'd rather they called neither of those, but if they were going to call one, they should have called both.
February 24th, 2019 at 8:09 PM ^
This wasn't Beileins best day. I know Matthews rolled the ankle, but his length would have bothered Winston if he guarded him some. Brooks is terrible right now. He looks like a D2 player. Someone ask X why he doesn't throw it to Teske when Winston is on him.
February 24th, 2019 at 8:39 PM ^
Poole had a chance to dump it to Teske who had decent position on McQuaid off a switch. But instead he settled for like a 30 foot three-pointer. UGHHHHHHHHH.
February 24th, 2019 at 8:45 PM ^
Poole has become a very selfish player this year. He spent the second half jawing with sparty players or the refs.
February 24th, 2019 at 9:28 PM ^
Yeah that bothered me too. I actually kind of like the fact that he and Matthews and some of the other guys talk some shit and now and then get in the other guys' heads, but Poole had no business doing that today. He definitely was not backing it up today. I yelled at the TV everytime they delayed another foul shot because he wouldn't stop talking. He was really out of it today.
The good news is he has a ton of ability and talent. He's just gotta get in the right head space.
February 25th, 2019 at 12:58 PM ^
Love the swagger but it has to be reigned in.
Mid or late second half, when MSU was starting to pull away, Poole was jawing with the ref before a free throw, and the ref was getting noticeably irritated. They went back and forth a few times. Finally Simpson came into view and said "Jordan, shut the F up an play". He needs more of this.
February 24th, 2019 at 10:12 PM ^
JB May have liked that shot. Teske with position to rebound vs Winston and Poole with a chance at hitting a 3 is a good combo
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