I hate it, but I think you are right. This is just one of those years when everything is going right in conference play for sparty. That may not mean anything in March, but they will be very tough to beat for the regular season conference championship.
MSU is favored by 9 against Maryland? That has to be too much even at home, right?
Iām in Vegas so Iād like to hear everyoneās best guess as to where to wager.
Also,
UNC -4.5 home again Va Tech
Kansas -5.5 at home vs. Iowa State
Where would you go on all three?
KenPom spread in Maryland at Michigan State is 11. Maryland lost by 30 at the Breslin last year.
I wouldnāt touch that game.
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Nah Maryland isnāt really impressive statistically I think MSU will won it handily. I donāt think itās too wild of a spread.
MSU EFG% defense in league games continues to be otherworldly.
Why do they do this?
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What does MSU do defensively that causes every team to shoot terribly against them? Last couple games Iāve watched, the other team has gotten good looks. They just miss.
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Does Anthony Cowan Jr ever play a good game against anybody but us?
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Thatās kind of just what you say about defenses that are locked in. Iām sure Villanova fans said the same thing when they played Michigan early this year.
MSU is really good defensively.
https://twitter.com/movingscreenpod/status/1087504451353612288
Iām not a fan of Marylandās offense. Looks to me like half the time all it is is 5 out dribble drive and kick, iso pick and rolls and post 1 on 1s. Ball movement is poor for them. Pretty easy to defend when 3 or 4 guys are consistently just standing and watching the ball. Leads to a ton of bombs from 3 point range when the shot clock is winding down. Never going to beat any solid defensive teams, let alone MSU, who are one of the very best in the country. And at MSU too.
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I didnāt see the MSU/Maryland game but just looked at the KenPom box score and saw that there were only 62 possessions. Quite slow for those two teams.
Nebraska lays an egg on the road. Rinse, wash, repeat
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Nebraska about to go down at the RAC.
Beginning of the end for Tim Miles in Lincoln?
KenPom still loves Nebraska because of all their baby seal clubbings but in conference play theyāre now 3-5 and essentially equal in efficiency margin.
This is true, but MSU has been allowing a bunch of 3s - 11th in conference play in 3pt rate - and so far teams are only hitting 26% (1st in 3pt defense). It will be interested to see if that trend continues.
And, for what itās worth, we see now that Nova fans were probably somewhat correct if they said that about Michigan.
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Very impressed with MSU last night against Maryland. With Winston and Ward combining for only 14 points, they still dominated Maryland.
MSU has become a very good passing team. They excell at getting the ball in down low, passing between bigs down low and kicking it back out to open shooters.
They have also done a better job of developing their bench, especially the freshmen. Maybe they have an easier system to grasp.
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Have they developed their freshmen more? Iggy plays a much bigger role than Henry and Brown, Kithier, Bingham and Loyer all play very limited roles despite a starter being out for multiple weeks.
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I donāt know that Iād say they developed their freshman more, but I am shocked with how good MSU has been and that they won handily against Maryland with 0 from Ward and a DNP from Langford. I thought depth would be a huge problem for that team and they have survived the Langford injury with 0 problems.
All throughout non-conference play and pre-season I swore that this MSU team was lacking talent all over the place and that their freshman class would be so much less game-ready than Michiganās. Iām still looking for answers on why this team is so dominant. Defensively they are way better than I assumed a team with Cassius Winston playing 40 minutes could be. I also think Goins, McQuaid, Henry and Ahrens are way ahead of where I projected them to be. I assumed they would all be liabilities on at least one end of the floor and they have been far from it.
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Iāll be really curious to see how they re-integrate Langford. Not really sure his immediate return to the lineup (whenever it happens) will make them better.
Him being out has forced more touches, minutes and usage for Winston and Ward. They have been off the charts efficient their whole careers.
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