Hoggard will always struggle to be successful in the half court. Downhill transition opportunities are his game and he will have plenty of chances to show that skill with the MSU break.
MSU Thoughts (was half-watching):
- As noted above, Hoggard looks more confident, but got most of his buckets in transition.
- Bingham looked better too. Like his face up move. But obviously he’s no Xavier Tillman. Will be good, but not what we’ve typically seen from MSU.
- I’d never seen Christie play before but (again, I was half-watching) he never popped off the screen for me.
- Walker had a rough game.
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Idle thoughts:
Nebraska once again looks like a team that has no interest in the non-shooting activities of a basketball game. They gave up 23 offensive rebounds. Western Illinois shot the ball pretty poorly (sub-30% from 3, sub-50% from FT) and still won. Yikes.
Fatts Russell did not attempt a three-pointer and seemed pretty content to play within an offense. I will holster my bias for now.
Indiana shot 4-24 from three. TJD showed up but the rest of the team kinda stunk. Still not sure how they’re much different from last season.
Didn’t watch any of the rest of the league but the box scores would indicate the Johnny Davis and Keegan Murray breakout campaigns are on the way up and the Jaden Ivey breakout parade is on hold (4-11 including 1-5 from three, 4 TO on a night when everyone else on Purdue had no issue scoring)
I think everyone over-reacts to small sample sizes (and I’m sure we’ll all do it with our game tonight). In MSU’s case it is even more pronounced because they played a really good team away from home without any tuneup games.
To Dylan’s point on PG, here’s my take on it…
- MSU doesn’t really need to have their PGs score, they need them to facilitate for others and run the offense effectively.
- Hoggard did more good things last night than all of last year so you tip your cap, but they weren’t necessarily the things they need.
- Walker got in big time foul trouble so you almost have to throw out his performance until you see more of him.
- That being said, their three PG-like objects (counting Akins) had 8 assists and 8 turnovers. To me, THAT is the alarm that should be going off. Getting some transition buckets from Hoggard or throwing out Walker’s offense because of fouls is fine, but that A:TO ratio is what would worry me.
The other concern to me is where their offense is going to come from. Brown and Hauser were just the same guys as always. Decent efficiency, low volume, not anyone you need to scout to stop, no new tools in their toolboxes. Bingham is the same thing - he was 5-for-10 overall and 0-3 from deep. Didn’t get in foul trouble, grabbed 7 boards…but for some reason Izzo still only played him 18 minutes. Marble is the same way - he had a pretty good game overall and was their most efficient player…but played just 16 minutes. Christie will have better games, but who else will?
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I know Izzo would never do it but what would you say to a lineup of:
Walker/Hoggard
Akins
Christie
Brown
Hall
Again that’s not Izzo-shaped, no post presence or rebounding at either end, but it gets Hauser and the pupu platter at the 5 off the floor
They would give up over 80+ points per game.
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Seems like just an awful defensive lineup. I wholeheartedly endorse it!
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I like to present bad ideas on purpose to keep the board sharp
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I thought Walker’s second half performance looked much more solid. Game was getting away from them as a whole, so it didn’t look all that good in terms of stats, but I thought he looked in control and composed in the second half. First half was a mess.
Hoggard bricked his two FTs, so I don’t really expect the shooting to look good going forward. Last season, he started out 2-5 from 3s and then went 1-13 the rest of the season (and lack of attempts is as much an indicator as anything). Think his performance was just lack of prep and scouting for him since last year he looked awful. I’m sure Kansas just thought he was trash.
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GO BLUE!!!
I like it.
GO BLUE!!!
Beyond what others have said, I know a lot of people love Akins but based on last night he’s not ready for major minutes against good teams. He was 0-3 from the field with 1 TO and no assists. Maybe in a few months it’s a different story, but right now he seems like an end of the bench piece.
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I didn’t think the 5 spot for MSU was all that pupu. Bingham seemed like he had a presence down low. Brown, Hall and Hauser just were awful last night. They all still need their offense to be created for them and were really sloppy defensively.
By chance did anyone grab the KP prediction for the B1G (both overall and conference record) prior to last night’s games? I totally forgot to do so. Wanted to compare as the season goes on.
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if I checked now would the numbers have changed already?
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Unfortunately, yes. 
Good points. Hoggard looked good but not in the “We have a point guard that is going to make offense easier for the rest of the team” way they were hoping Walker would.
Also agree that Walkers performance probably can be thrown away for the foul trouble. But, he did look tentative so he might have more
adjustment than they hoped (all of the talk recently as i mentioned above was about how Walker is the true PG unlike anything they had last year)
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I definitely think people are overreacting to Hoggard, but I get it because I thought Hoggard would be a horrible backup PG and now he looks at the very least like a competent rotation guy.
I would agree that Walker maybe wasnt as bad as people are saying, except I think MSU needs Walker to be their guy, not just a 4th or 5th option type. And if that’s not a thing, this team is screwed (unless Hoggard is actually great every game, which I don’t buy at all)
Ahhh, I was super close to screencapping it and making a post, but it was too big of a hassle on mobile. Only thing I remember is Michigan was 15-5 predicted Big Ten record and two teams (I assume Illinois and Purdue, but don’t quote me on that) were predicted 13-7. This surprised me.
Dylan I don’t know I just read how Hoegaard ran a master class at the PG position…