Michigan State 70, Michigan 62
Miles Bridges hit some key shots late. [Bryan Fuller]
Even against a Michigan State team that's not up to Tom Izzo's usual standard, Michigan needed a lot to go right if they wanted to pull out a win in the hostile confines of the Breslin Center.
Very little went right.
The Wolverines struggled to score, shooting 40% on twos and 27% on threes. Zak Irvin had the worst game of his career, going scoreless on eight shots with three turnovers in 36 minutes. Derrick Walton was a bright spot with his aggressive drives to the basket, but while he scored 24 points and went 14-for-15 from the line, he couldn't get dialed in from long range, making only 2-of-9 threes. Moe Wagner, the only Wolverine who could consistently score from the field, only got up six shot attempts while saddled with foul trouble, and his fourth foul came on a preposterous double technical.
There were times when Michigan looked like the superior team, but they couldn't sustain them for long. The deciding stretch came early in the second half; starting at the 17:23 mark, when M trailed by a mere two points, the normally turnover-averse Wolverines coughed up the rock seven times in eight minutes. Suddenly, MSU had a double-digit lead, and the closest Michigan could get the rest of the way was four points as Miles Bridges, Nick Ward, and Cassius Winston closed the game out strong.
Given their offensive performance, Michigan was lucky to be this close. On the flip side, they managed to hang tight with MSU on the road while playing far from their best game. They'll have the whole week to work out this afternoon's issues before taking on a very beatable Ohio State squad at Crisler on Saturday. Two days later, they'll get a chance for revenge against the Spartans, and they'll need Irvin to show up for that one if they want a different result.
January 29th, 2017 at 3:39 PM ^
January 29th, 2017 at 3:41 PM ^
January 29th, 2017 at 3:43 PM ^
There's a reason this team has no road wins. They simply don't have any mental fortitude. Walton gave a great effort, Wagner was pretty efficient and probably should have gotten the ball more. The rest of the team wilted once again, especially Zak Irvin. It wasn't long ago that Beliein said he was going to bench players who didn't perform, even seniors. Apparently that was just all talk. There is no reason Irvin should have been on the floor as much as he was considering how poorly he was playing.
January 29th, 2017 at 4:19 PM ^
Irvin was straight dog shit today. But I think the guy who needs to raise the bar and bring it more is Wilson. He disappears. He needs to be more assertive and active on both ends of the floor. I understand playing it safe at times because of fear of fouling, and maybe he's just a better off the ball shot blocker but man I wish he would challenge people more and meet them at the apex. Get off the ground when they get off the ground. This game is just a perfect example of the mindset and philosophy that we live and die by. I also agree if Irvin isn't bringing anything to the table you might as well throw Watson in. Maybe some time on the bench will get him refocused. I know Watson probably isn't totally ready and lost Mcquaid on the screen out top but damn we just run Irvin all day not to mention he's probably gassed. And sometimes you just have a bad game.
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January 29th, 2017 at 4:25 PM ^
Agreed on Wilson. Guy has an abundance of talent but hasn't fully developed the mental aspect of the game yet. 0 points at Wisconsin and again didn't give us what we needed out of him today. I think those cringe-worthy floaters he took are a microcosm of his (and really the whole team's) issues. Instead of going up strong trying to dunk it in your opponent's face or draw a hard foul, he just lofts a soft shot over them. Wagner and Walton seem like the only two guys who play tough and embrace contact, unfortunately that mentality hasn't carried over to the rest of the team.
January 29th, 2017 at 5:50 PM ^
DJ Wilson continues to be the best overall player on the team. He held Bridges, who is an absolute stud, to just 15 points on 17 shots. Other than a couple possessions on which he closed out too aggressively and got beat to the hole, he was in Bridges hip pocket the entire time. For Bridges to have a 94 Ortg is a huge success. While Wilson missed a couple of floaters late, he hit some early to go 4-8 on twos. That's not great, but not bad. His Ortg was the same as Wagners (thanks to Wagners four TOs). You can't expect him to play that good on defense for 36 minutes a game on the opposing team's best player, AND get rebounds (which he does), AND be a great passer (which he is) AND also be the team's alpha-dog offensive creator. That's not part of his game so to be frustrated that he is not the best player in every aspect of the game is crazy. What you should complain more about:
1) Zak Irvin, the de facto, but completely incapable alpha-dog, was abolsutely abysmal. I don't think this needs more discussion on his offensive performance, but the back-breaking play in this game was when M was up 40-39 and he left McQuaid in the corner to give a half hearted poke at Bridges (reminiscent of Walton's terrible play in a crucial moment against Wisconson) who was very well defended by Wilson and just kicked it out for the wide open three.
2) Immediately after that, Wagner committed a stupid offensive foul to pick up his third - which was the next in a long line of stupid fouls by Wagner that keep him off the floor. He is our best offensive player and needs to be the go-to guy. He can't when he's on the bench. Total lack of mental focus by him seemingly every game. Not to mention the four turnovers. He is so frustrating becuase he's obviously an incredible talent and virually unstoppable 1-on-1. He just makes too many bad fouls and doesn't see help coming yet.
3) Walton was great on offense today, but as expected, he gave it all back to Winston on the other end. Walton just can't guard the dribble and a freshman matched his efficiency on his way to 16 points.
January 29th, 2017 at 6:00 PM ^
You'll notice that Irvin's play is my primary complaint. Hard to complain about Walton since he was the only guy who generated offense consistently for us. Wilson was fine defensively even though Bridges kind of had his way in crunch time, but offensively he was timid and we needed more out of him. There were times where he got the ball with his back to the basket but instead of trying to create something he just passed out of it. He's also another guy who would toss up floaters rather than go up strong. I recognize Wilson is very talented and think he can truly be a great player if he could be more aggressive and look to create his own offense more often.
January 29th, 2017 at 6:15 PM ^
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January 29th, 2017 at 6:28 PM ^
gave up 1 point per possession on Bridges in crunch time. Bridges went 2-4 and Wilson made those makes pretty hard on him. So no, he didn't have his way with him. 1 ppp is what we scored the whole game and worse than MSU's full game rate. So again, Wilson played extremely well on defense on the best player on MSU and forced him to be inefficient on a high number of possessions - exactly what you want to do.
It's just weird how good he is at so many aspects of the game, and the disappointment around here is that he's not also the best creator and go-to offensive player on the team, when he is the best defender (by far), best rebounder, and still a great passer and 3pt shooter.
January 29th, 2017 at 6:37 PM ^
January 29th, 2017 at 11:38 PM ^
and it's a bad point. You agreed with a guy that singled DJ Wilson of all people as the guy that needs to raise his game, while claiming Wagner was efficient. Thanks to Wagner's 4 TOs, he had virtually the same Ortg as Wilson today, and Wagner can't stay on the floor to help the team out longer, while DJ is busting his butt on defense for 36 min.
There is this weird bias for Wagner on the board when he is underacheiving and Wilson is massively overacheiving. Yes, Wilson missed his threes today but all four were good shots that just didn't go. That happens sometimes. His shot selection was fine, his aggressiveness was good. Very odd to see him criticized today.
January 30th, 2017 at 9:50 AM ^
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January 30th, 2017 at 2:18 PM ^
is talking about Wilson being the alpha-dog on offense, but that is certainly not part of his game yet, and he is absolutely not a back-to-the-basket post player. He's a stretch 4. He's largely a perimeter player with a great shot and an ever-improving slasher. Even if you have a couple inch height advantage, you need good post moves to score, especially with Bridges being a very good shot blocker, and DJ isn't a post player. He had had one or two instances in which he may have been able to make a post move, and I assume that's what you're complaining about but given that's not his most efficient play and we were down, kicking it out was a reasonable decision. He also turned it over trying to drive in the second half, IIRC, and every player on the team it seemed did that at least once or twice in the second half during the horrid stretch of TOs.
He attempted eight 2s yesterday which was the most on the team. Two of his 2pt misses were essentially Kobe-assists (one that he rebounded and put back in, the other that set up Teske for an easy put back, but which he fumbled so badly he couldn't get a shot up). So his two pointers were quite productive.
I completely agree that this offense bogs down against good defensive teams that are aggressive on the perimeter. We just pass it around 10 ft behind the 3pt line until someone has to try to make a hero play with 7 seconds on the shot clock. And since NO ONE on the team can do it very effectively, it often ends badly (see: aformentioned streak of TOs). I get that it's frustrating the Walton usually is not that guy, although he sort of was at the end when it didn't really matter anyway, Irvin can't do it, MAAR seems to have gotten worse at it, and Mo is too often watching from the bench so we're sitting here hoping Wilson can be the guy. It's just not part of his game yet, and given the energy he uses on defense and rebounding, it's almost not possible.
They're all wildly inconsistent (see: Walton who had a good game yesterday but is just as often terrible) mostly because we don't have a guy that can create regardless of who is defending him. They all depend on having favorable matchups. Wagner is the closest to being the guy that could exploit any matchup, so he needs to be able to stay on the floor.
January 30th, 2017 at 2:19 PM ^
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January 29th, 2017 at 7:17 PM ^
January 29th, 2017 at 7:35 PM ^
January 29th, 2017 at 7:49 PM ^
January 29th, 2017 at 7:54 PM ^
January 29th, 2017 at 8:05 PM ^
January 30th, 2017 at 6:18 PM ^
unless the're bad shots, and he didn't have more than one or two bad shots. Those elbow pull-ups, as much as I hate them are clearly in his bag and he has the green light to take them. Uou "punish" bench players for making poor decisions and losing mental focus. By all accounts he played good defense on Harris and Langford who were both ineffective. He had the one huge mistake leaving McQuaid the one time, and should have absolutely resulted in a minute or two benching with an ass-chewing, not that Beilien does that, but you take your guy out to remind him not leave a good shooter in the corner when help isn't even needed in that situation.
I don't remember if he was taken out after that, but you have to put him back in after a minute or two because, again, there are no other options. Punishment benchings should only happen for a couple minutes, unless the replacement gets hot or shows he's a better option. MAAR was in foul trouble so Robinson was already in; there was no other option. You can't leave an inferior player in too long (Watson?), or it's punishment for the whole team.
January 29th, 2017 at 4:38 PM ^
January 29th, 2017 at 4:50 PM ^
I don't really care what he did last year. Today, he killed us. He took bad shots, committed costly turnovers, and lost his man on defense too many times. If he really does have the flu then that makes it all the more inexplicable for him to get 36 minutes. You don't have to spell him with Watson. You could roll with MAAR and Robinson primarily, or play Walton and X at the same time (as much as X sucks on offense he wasn't doing worse than Irvin today). Beilein swore he was going to start holding players accountable, it's time he start doing so.
January 29th, 2017 at 5:48 PM ^
January 29th, 2017 at 6:03 PM ^
MAAR was in foul trouble, so Robinson had to play 30 minutes, which is way too many for him. You don't really expect us to throw Ibi Watson out there? He got some minutes in the first half, and looked clueless. Irvin actually did play great defense on Harris, but did make a back breaking mistake leaving McQuaid on a corner three when there was no reason to leave him. Never thought I'd miss Dawkins, but alas, we have no depth.
Unfortunately, we have to win or lose with him. He had been quite good in the previous four games, but somehow has bomb games like I've never seen before (Ace was wrong about this being the worst game of his career: he was far worse this year against South Carolina).
January 29th, 2017 at 5:14 PM ^
January 29th, 2017 at 5:06 PM ^
January 29th, 2017 at 7:47 PM ^
who do you replace irvin with though?
January 29th, 2017 at 3:45 PM ^
Watching Winston and Bridges play made me wonder why Michigan's freshmen don't contribute jack shit and haven't for the past 3 years.
I thought X was supposed to be that dude.Sigh...
UM can get em back in A2 next week if Irvin shows up (or anyone not named Walton).
January 29th, 2017 at 3:44 PM ^
Feel for Walton - he carried the team for awhile there. Irvin's got to get it together.
Three missed opportunities to get a B1G road victory - Iowa, Wisc, MSU. Irritating.
January 29th, 2017 at 3:46 PM ^
Irvin scored the same as OSU did against Clemson. That can't happen.
January 29th, 2017 at 4:22 PM ^
I usually find your posts entertaining, but man, too soon, too soon.
January 29th, 2017 at 3:49 PM ^
January 29th, 2017 at 3:55 PM ^
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January 29th, 2017 at 3:56 PM ^
Seems Irvin didn't practice the last two days because of the flu. So of course he plays 36 minutes. You'd think it would have been an opportunity, playing against an undersized team, to roll with X at the point and Walton at the 2 for extended minutes. If for nothing else, to decrease Irvin's minutes when he isn't healthy.
January 29th, 2017 at 4:08 PM ^
couldn't sit Irvin since MAAR and Wagner picked up really cheap fouls early. The bench got shortened and any aggressiveness was removed quickly.
January 29th, 2017 at 4:23 PM ^
Wagner's cheap foul/foul ratio has got to be one of the highest in the country.
January 29th, 2017 at 6:07 PM ^
he does a lot of dumb things. He reaches almsot every time on the pick and roll even if it's 30 ft from the hoop. He could be called for more of those even. The technical, of course, was total BS though.
January 29th, 2017 at 4:36 PM ^
There is no reason they couldn't have played a lineup of Teske, Wilson, Robinson, Walton, X. Or Beilein could have someone explain some basic math to him about fouls and let MAAR play with 2 fouls.
January 29th, 2017 at 4:11 PM ^
This is definitely not a vintage MSU team. We shot like crap, were uncharacteristically sloppy with the ball (we'll need to work on passing to the cutter in practice, apparently) and had to deal with foul trouble*, and lost by 8.
We've got to win the rematch. This one was there for the taking.
*We commit the 4th-fewest fouls in the country out of 347 teams, yet in Madison and East Lansing our opponents were in the bonus about 8 minutes into the second half. Big Ten!
January 29th, 2017 at 4:25 PM ^
January 29th, 2017 at 4:52 PM ^
No one is outraged because we play a soft style of basketball. An aggressive opponent will always make a JB coached team look like the refs are one sided.
We don't attack. The other team does.
January 29th, 2017 at 4:47 PM ^
in EL and Madison. JB was unhappy with Weymer in Madison. Not sure yet about today.
January 29th, 2017 at 5:17 PM ^
January 29th, 2017 at 4:07 PM ^
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January 29th, 2017 at 4:11 PM ^
27% isn't going to beat anyone. Beilein's team's need to shoot well from distance to win games. Unfortunately, it didn't happen today. It's tough to win on the road in college hoops as well. Got to take care of Sparty at home.
January 29th, 2017 at 4:25 PM ^
can defend Beilein all they wish. The coaching differential between Beilein and Izzo is simply too much for the players to overcome.
January 29th, 2017 at 6:55 PM ^
January 29th, 2017 at 8:54 PM ^
the rest of their players (who are mostly terrible) and played their schedule, yes, we would be worse than 13-9.
January 29th, 2017 at 9:13 PM ^
January 29th, 2017 at 4:24 PM ^
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