Winston has really made a leap this year. Shooting lights out from three.
Sparty with 18 point wins over NC and Norte Dame.
Yeah, anyone trying to pretend that Sparty isnāt absurdly good this year is kidding themselves and last night should have disabused any such remaining notions. The scariest thing to me is that Ward seems to have gotten himself into shape. That turns them from way above average to deadly. If Izzo canāt win a NC with this lot, itās on him.
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The scariest part to me is that Ward and Winston and likely Langford are gonna be 4 year players. Thatās going to be miserable
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Iāll worry about crossing that bridge later. Ward may not be.
anybody know if Notre Dame played any zone and whether it was more effective than man to man?
As good as MSU is this year, I still think that they are a notch behind Duke. This doesnt mean funky things wont happen come March, but if MSU loses to Duke in the finals, I feel like that is to be expected
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Yeah, as much as I would like to use MSU failing to get a championship against Izzoāwho I think is overrated as a coachāwinning a national championship requires some luck. Given MSUās talent, a weak conference and MSUās very favorable conference schedule I will, however, be the first the one to be passing around the petition to ākeep Izzo out of the hall of fameāāIf Izzo canāt win the big 10 outright.
MSU is worlds ahead of Duke when it comes to defense. Duke is not good defensively right no but has so much talent it can outscore about anyone at the end of the game (MSU, UT, Fla, and IU games have gone this way). Right now, I actually think MSU is ahead of Duke as an all around team but if Duke can improve on D, they could be unbeatable.
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No disagreement that MSU is ahead of Duke on D, but Dukeās talent and offense is just THAT good. We have seen Duke already beat them on head to head on a neutral court. The season is certainly long and if Duke can pull its D together, you are right, they will be even scarier. I still cant buy the MSU is better that Duke right now.
Along the lines of evaluating MSU against the rest of the country thought, they seem to clearly be the second best team. I havent watched enough to say for certain that they are by a wide margin but it certainly feels that way given the past week.
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MSUās achilles in games versus the Dukes and other elites will be guard play, specifically defense. In the Duke game Grayson Allen and the freshman Duval were just to good. I do see a rematch for the Championship with Duke winning again as just as MSU has gotten better those Duke freshman will also and they can match any bigs MSU have. I have watched at least 4 of Dukes games and they just out talent you and donāt fold under pressure.
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Iāve said it here repeatedly - they just wear you down with their talent. It takes so much for a team to keep up with them/keep them in a game that by the last 5 minutes, the other team wears down. I just donāt know if their defense will improve. Weāve seen Duke teams with absurd talent that just never shore up that weakness.
First Big Ten games tonightā¦ Purdue (-2) at Maryland and Illinois at Northwestern (-6). Who ya like?
I think NW wins by a healthy margin and Purdue gets upset by Maryland. Purdue will finish the conference with a better record but playing on the road right now wont do them any favors.
Homecourt wins in these matchups.
kenpom #338 Grambling St. beating Georgia Tech doesnāt look too good for Northwestern.
I watched a bit of the Purdue Maryland game and felt like Justin Jackson has been really struggling every time Iāve watched them this year. Looked up his stats and heās only averaging 9 points per game on 36% from the field, 25% from three, just 1.8 assists and 3 turnovers per game. Heād definitely be the captain of my All-Overrated team right now in the league
Well, they did beat MSU head to head without Bagley for most of the game.
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Yeah, right now Iād be surprised to see anyone other than Duke as National Champions.
Right now I would favor Duke, but I would never be surprised to see someone else win it.
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Iām guessing it could be very difficult for you to watch a Duke/MSU National Championship game! 