Debating Michigan State’s basketball team seems to be a common discussion point here. I’m creating this thread to pull conversations out of other threads – i.e. NBA Draft mocks – that strays from the primary topic.
These are the kinds of teams where Izzo is at his best, in my opinion. I could see them making a real run in the conference and tournament, but I’m not sure their ceiling is high enough to have a legit shot at a championship.
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MSU lost 3 regular season games last year. I think what happened post-regular season makes people forget how successful their regular season was.
MSU is the best offensive team in the league, and it isn’t especially close. That said, I’ll wait to see them defend against the better teams in the Big Ten, and navigate a game where other teams can set pace and keep them out of transition before I conclude that this is even possibly a better team than last year. Very good–yes–but last year’s team had the ability to win it all. I don’t think that this team has that upside.
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I agree with Champions opinion. I watched a lot of MSU basketball last year. They were overrated. I was not surprised they went out early. Weak schedule last year. Routinely played poorly for half of the games. Bone-headed play after bone-headed play…
Their team this year is impressing me. I am surprising myself by saying this but I think they are better this year than they were last year.
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Yeah… I don’t understand some of the takes based on MSU’s season last year. They were a dominant team. I know they lost to Syracuse, but that doesn’t wipe away their regular season.
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They look pretty dominant this year as well. Not saying they were bad last year, just saying that I think they are playing better this year.
A year ago they had blown out UNC, Notre Dame, Nebraska and Maryland and were No. 1 in the country in KenPom (maybe the polls too I don’t remember).
Well, this is a UM board, UM beat them in EL and in the BTT, then MSU lost to a double-digit seed in the tourney – so it’s not surprising that UM fans would less impressed with their team than neutral observers might be.
For the record when I said this year’s team is where Izzo shines, I didn’t mean this year’s team is better than last year’s, just that Izzo makes teams like this much better than many coaches would, while not necessarily maximizing uber-talented teams like last year’s.
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Did that all happen by January 2nd? I don’t have their results in front of me, but I seem to recall that they didn’t have to face Purdue on the road, they lost to us twice and struggled against Rutgers at home. Maybe I am mis-remembering.
Yep, comparing at the same point in the season.
Just feels to me like there’s a lot of revisionist history just because Michigan beat Michigan State twice. That MSU team won the Big Ten outright and went 28-3 in the regular season.
Can poke holes in their resume if you want (you can to any resume), but it is just crazy to me how people try to downplay how good they were at points last year.
We shall see on this year’s MSU team… the Florida win really impressed me, but some more interesting tests coming up.
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Also, I believe there was talk before and even during the year about it being MSU’s “greatest team ever” and other hyperbole, so when the team turned out to not be quite that, it felt like a letdown. If expectations had been lower, then maybe it’d be seen differently.
I thought MSU was going to be awesome last year prior to the start of the season.
For me, I remember realizing they were good but not great after witnessing their blooper reel type plays every game. They were doing some bone-headed stuff that elite teams just don’t do, imo…
I don’t think it is fair to object that “you can poke holes in anybodies resume”. Their seeding was a gift in terms of quality of wins when factored for home and away. A gift! Detroit was a gift! Their Big Ten schedule was very very favorable. Objectively favorable schedule by a variety of measures…
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Well, last year’s Big 10 strength of schedule for MSU was very easy. No road games at UM, Purdue and Nebraska. This year they play all of those on the road, plus other difficult games. MSU’s schedule is much tougher than UM’s and much tougher than MSU’s schedule was last year.
For 2018-9, I think UM wins the B1G over MSU primarily due to the relative strengths of the league schedule. UM has a two game lead going into the finale at Breslin. My thoughts.
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I think Michigan’s head to head record vs MSU last year has skewed opinions here o. Their 2018 team. MSU was been really good last year, and they’re good agains this year.
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But people were saying they were an overrated team last year before we played them.
I do think we matched up really well against them last year. Z and Wagner are about as a favorable a matchup you can get to mitigate the effectiveness of Winston and Ward.
I do think MSU is very good this year and to be honest UM is a little overrated (if I tell the truth).
I agree with everything re:MSU. I can’t figure out if we’re overrated, because I think our resume and marquis wins (with zero losses) warrant top 5 ranking. But we’re also not playing to our ceiling right now. We’ll lose games this year, as will other top ten teams, and I think we’ll finish right about where we’re at in the rankings.
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I think Michigan is a much worse matchup for MSU this year than last. They run even more stuff through Cassius this year, who has never been able to get any sort of leverage against Simpson. They play 2 bigs 100% of the time. Goins and Tillman are going to have to guard Iggy? Matthews or Poole can take advantage of McQuaid, depending on who MSU sticks Langford on.
Nick Ward might have to go 15 for 18 from the field and score 35 to beat Michigan in my opinion. And he might just be capable of doing that, especially if Teske’s post guarding struggles are real.
Sure seems like if both teams play the way theyve been playing/stick to their tendencies, then the game will come down to just how much X can slow Winston. Even in transition, it’s *find Winston, so he can make a play." Even if Ward gets his, itll be on inefficient post-ups and Id expect Michigan to foul way less than OSU/Ward to not hit 80% again