The one thing Beilfeldt had last night that the freshmen did not was confidence. He played like he belonged out there. If he can make anything at all happen on the offensive glass, I could see him starting at some point, despite his height limitation. We don’t seem to be relying on our bigs for defensive rebounding overly much, though that may change when the competition improves.
I don’t care if its rebounding (although I strongly prefer this) or scoring, anything we can get out of our bigs is a plus at this point. Given the competition level we’ve played against, I think its safe to say that none of our young bigs are going to be impact players on either end of the court this year in conference play, so why not give Max a shot coming off that type of performance. If he can stretch the D out to 22 feet…you have to give him a look at minimum.
Max is the biggest surprise this season. Now I wonder if he should come back next year.
As many said here, Max is a very good player limited by his physical abilities. I hope that he will help the freshmen to improve their games.
Max is the biggest surprise this season. Now I wonder if he should come back next year. As many said here, Max is a very good player limited by his physical abilities. I hope that he will help the freshmen to improve their games.
If they end up not closing on any of the 2015 recruits, which is looking like a strong possibility unless someone pops up late like Dawkins/Maar, there will be enough spots for him.
Making Brandon Dawson guard him at the top of the key? Yes, please.
Wouldn’t be Dawson, Costello would guard Max. Dawson is going to absolutely abuse Kam when we meet. Just have to hope our backcourt can win their individual battles, and I think there is a very good possibility of that happening.
The way Beilein was talking after the game, I think the decision has already been made that Max won’t be back next year no matter what. He was asked how Max handled being switched to a 4th year senior and he said it was a great for him because now he has the opportunity to go play somewhere else his 5th year, if he wants to.
Wouldn't be Dawson, Costello would guard Max. Dawson is going to absolutely abuse Kam when we meet. Just have to hope our backcourt can win their individual battles, and I think there is a very good possibility of that happening.
Likely Irvin on Dawson
Wouldn't be Dawson, Costello would guard Max. Dawson is going to absolutely abuse Kam when we meet. Just have to hope our backcourt can win their individual battles, and I think there is a very good possibility of that happening.Likely Irvin on Dawson
That might even be more of a problem. Really doesn’t matter who it is out of those 2, we are going to give up some offensive boards, and Kam will likely have a rough night on offense. Dawson is extremely physical, and is a relentless defender that is a freak athlete.
That might even be more of a problem. Really doesn’t matter who it is out of those 2, we are going to give up some offensive boards, and Kam will likely have a rough night on offense. Dawson is extremely physical, and is a relentless defender that is a freak athlete.
I agree with you Dawson being a big problem for us. But I think Irvin would be a better defender on him than Kam. Dawson likely gets assigned to Irvin defensively as well.
Yeah, would make more sense for MSU to stick Dawson on Irvin. Absolutely crucial for Walton and Caris to win their matchups against Trice and Ellis/Forbes. I’m pretty optimistic we’ll win those matchups. Costello could be a problem for us as well.
Costello pretty much thrown in the bus in the Izzo-trying-to-encourage fashion here
Well, again, if they want to stick Dawson on a guy roaming 20 feet from the basket, let them. Sure, he’ll make his hay on the offensive glass, but he won’t match anyone on 3 pointers.
Doesn’t need to, he will slow Irvin down considerably. He’s that good defensively.
As long as Irvin shows up I think he has the capability of battling Dawson to a tie, much like Stauskas did against a great defender in Harris last year. Nik was very patient in picking his spots and made huge plays at the end. Beilein and staff definitely do a great job getting their players prepared in practices and film room leading up to games based on what their opponents like to do. Either way they want to play it, there is two other great perimeter players out there in Waltin and Irvin.
I’ll probably get laughed at, but at this point I honestly think Max deserves to be the starting center based on the body of work the last 3 games. Donnal is too soft, Doyle isn’t skilled/athletic enough at this point. We really don’t have a good option, but Max has been decent at rebounding, and hasn’t made many mistakes.
JB agrees, and so do I. The Frosh were non-existent in second half PT, he doesn’t trust them. I know it’s early, but for all those who thought Kam and Donnal were gonna be a seamless transition to a big year, I think not. Really surprised at Kam so far, he looks totally confused.
I’ll say this - and im surprised that Im actually speaking these words - after 4 games im MUCH more concerned about the offense than the defense. We are very stagnant in the half court. Outside of transition we are shaky. Caris is getting to the rim at will but he is going up soft rather than going for dunks. Walton is dynamite in transition, but still looks a bit hesitant to be an alpha in the half court. Zak is very one dimensional. We are getting ZERO from the freshmen at this point. Kam can get his shot off, but he can’t knock it down. The rest of the freshmen are totally reliant in the big 3. Hopefully we make some large strides before conference play. From a pure talent standpoint, we’ve clearly taken a step back from the past 2 years, but that’s to be expected with all the attrition.
I can’t make a quantitative assessment of our D until we play a team with a post threat. This is not a good team ( UD ) and they were tied with us with 5 to go. They took horrible shots when the game was still in doubt, IMO they self destructed offensively by not being patient. I wonder how long it will be until an opponent starts face guarding Irvin all over the floor reminiscent of Duke and Nik last year. He’s not gonna be allowed to stand in the corner unmolested by good teams. That’s when we’ll see if we have any counter.
Wilson looked completely confused and out of place in his short stint in the second half. I wonder what it is about this year’s freshman that isn’t sitting right? When we had 5 frosh in 2013, all but LeVert made a major impact, and they definitely seemed to “get” the offensive system more, but this year’s bunch looks just confused and flustered out there.