Nebraska has the 106th ranked kenpom defense. Not actually terrible for a “by far the worst in the conference” type team. We’ve seen a couple in the 200’s in recent years and it’s usually around 150-175. But obviously still not great. Confidence is a hell of a drug though.
However Iowa, Maryland, and PSU are the only other conference teams far outside the top 50 on defense. They do get to play Nebraska again and Iowa twice (not that the latter is a positive, MSU’s defense is also well outside the top 50 and will likely get comically destroyed in the post by Garza), but PSU and Maryland are single plays.
Or Izzo made the (correct) decision that Rocket Watts playing significantly less would benefit the team right now and rather than have that come out of nowhere as a surprise to the media and fans, he orchestrated his own well-crafted narrative to blame himself for being “selfish” and asking too much of Watts and paint Watts as somehow being selfless (I think?) for asking to move back to solely playing a position that is wildly over-crowded on their roster and is totally not a position of need.
Why did he even have to disclose that Watts “asked to stop playing PG”? My personal answer: he didn’t. But he knew 15 minutes for Watts and the 9th man off the bench would look absolutely horrible so he got ahead of the entire conversation.
If Rocket Watts can’t beat out Foster Loyer, AJ Hoggard and the Cartilage Formerly Known As Josh Langford, he damn sure ain’t beating out Jaden Akins, Max Christie, senior Foster Loyer, sophomore AJ Hoggard and the 6th year super senior Cartilage Formerly Known As Josh Langford
I actually thought about this recently. I was pondering the discussion on here about Watts asking to move and people laughing at it, but it crossed my mind that this seems like something that would probably happen quite a bit. We just never hear about it. And that the weird thing in the situation was Izzo inexplicably talking about this publically. Not sure I’m totally on board with your conclusion yet, but it addresses that for sure.
Player comparisons are dumb, but I can’t sleep. The thought popped into my head when thinking of underappreciated defenders, but what do we think of a Eli Brooks - Stu Douglass comparison? Junior and Senior year comparisons are below (Unless noted, these are straight averages of the two years. I acknowledge this is not the “correct” way to do it, but the minutes between years in both cases are close enough that it should work fine).
% Mins
Brooks: 78.6%
Douglass: 75.5%
ORtg
Brooks: 104.5
Douglass 103.3
Usage Rate
Brooks: 17.1%
Douglass: 14.8%
True Shooting %
Brooks: 53.2%
Douglass: 52.4%
Assist Rate
Brooks: 14.3%
Douglass: 13.0%
Turnover Rate
Brooks: 16.9%
Douglass: 15.7%
2 point % (Not the average of both years since I have actual numbers available).
Brooks: 46.7%
Douglass: 50.6%
3 point % (same as above)
Brooks: 35.6%
Douglass: 34.8%
As I mentioned above, the comparison actually came to mind when considering their defense. Maybe I’m totally misremembering Stu as my basketball fandom was young back then, but Douglass seemed like Brooks in that he was shorter than most 2’s and didn’t have eye popping athleticism, yet still managed to be a plus defender. Then I looked at the kenpom numbers and the offensive similarities were very clear too. Plus both careers are ones in which it is clear that they’re best at the 2, but have had to play spurts at PG on occasion. Both samples include a year with a very ball dominant PG and one where they’re in a bigger role. Maybe it’s just me, lol. I’d love to hear thoughts though.
Stu was a very good defender. He understood what the opponent was trying to do and had great anticipation as a result. Those stats are so similar; they really are comparable players.
That was a better MSU performance overall. Their D isn’t strong but with Hoggard playing 4 points 5 assists 1 turnover, Watts with 9 points 0 turnovers and Langford having one of the best games I can see how they can improve.
I think the Minnesota/Ohio State game will be fascinating today… Computers continue to like Ohio State but I’m kind of “meh”… Minnesota swept OSU last year but I’m not really sure how “legit” they are this year.
Feels like a game that will tell us a lot about both teams.
I know Minnesota and OSU are both ranked and I’m glad they are for the conference and SOS purposes, but these are the two teams I feel are a bit overrated in the league right now.
