Offseason Discussion Thread

And Foster Loyer can’t play alongside Winston and can’t provide anything much different.

You may be right but Winston played with Nairn at times and I think Loyer is superior to Nairn.
Loyer and Winston probably brutal together defensively, but you could have some mighty fine offense. I hope to see it, think it would be interesting.

Not sure the offense would be so great either. Both can really shoot but can either create his own shot or shots for the other guy?

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Even their returning players are severely limited. Cassius Winston can’t guard his own shadow or create his own shot against bigger defenders. Josh Langford is basically a spot shooter whose highest volume is the most inefficient shot in basketball. Nick Ward can’t handle a double team and can’t guard a soul on the perimeter.

The hype for their recruiting class is hilarious to me. Some nice pieces for sure but if both teams made a list of Michigan and MSU’s combined incoming recruits, Iggy and Johns should be 1 and 2 on every single one.

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I think so. Maybe not but I’d be surprised if they couldn’t. Get 4 shooters on the floor and spread the court and leverage is easy to obtain. Loyer and Winston can really shoot it

Without Ward is this their starting line-up?

Winston - Langford - McQuaid - Bingham - Tillman

What’s the bench production like on that team? Goins and the freshmen off the bench aren’t enough. I think they’re still at least top four of the Big Ten but I really don’t think that’s borderline one-seed of the NCAA Tournament even with Ward.

I know I am guilty of unrestrained bias but I think even top 25 is a stretch. I am expecting top 40-50 ish.

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I think senior Goins starts. Izzo took “The Class” of Winston, Langford, Bridges, Ward as freshmen and turned them into only a 9 seed in the tournament. All those guys except Bridges were playing 20 minutes or less the majority of the season. Goins started 14 games at center over Ward that year.

Tillman Ward McQuaid Goins Langford and Winston will be his horses next year, Bingham, Loyer and Brown will play limited roles. Hell it wouldn’t surprise me if Kyle Ahrens is the first wing off the bench over all the freshmen.

Unless Winston becomes “Big Ten Player of the Year Cassius Winston” I think MSU could be a bubble team. But I also think Winston very easily could turn into that so we’ll see what happens.

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Interesting note on Cassius. He had a 129.2 (!!!) offensive rating on the year. But he had 108.5 offensive rating versus Tier A competition (top 50 opponents location adjusted). So, it’s possible that he just doesn’t have it in him to dominate versus high-level athleticism. But if MSU is gonna have a chance to be a ranked team next year, Cassius is definitely gonna need to have heavy usage. Need to pick and roll with him every possession.

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There’s some interesting adjusted efficiency deltas, here: If you take [(2019 O - 2019 D) - (2018 O - 2018 D)], you get:
Michigan: -8
MSU: -2
Wisconsin: +6.5
Maryland: +2.2
Nebraska: +2

Not really sure how MSU is projected to stand so firm, when losing 2 lottery picks. And Michigan’s D is supposed to dip from 88.8 to 94.6?? With Teske taking Moe’s minutes and Livers taking more of Duncan’s minutes?? And Wisconsin is supposed to have a better defense than Michigan? I would totally understand predicting a dip in Oeff, after losing Moe and MAAR. But the offense only dips 2 points, while the defense got knocked 6.

I could definitely see Goins starting and Ahrens getting significant minutes off the bench. That MSU team next year is going to be real interesting.

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I definitely expect to see every PG struggle against Z next year. The young man will own the B1G PG’s…the kid just takes it personal!

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We put Z on Winston, Charles on McQuade and Teske and Livers on their bigs. MSU better hope Langford has a big game.

This 2019 projection doesn’t pass the logic test, metrics notwithstanding. 9 conference losses? I sure hope not.

I think it might be a good thing if they come in wildly overhyped, again, and flail, again. Sooner or later people will get the message.

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Is that one on one, or as a team or either.

I also think it’s extremely doubtful he shoots 50% from 3 again. He’ll be much more of a focal point for opposing defenses now.

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I enjoy the MSU discussion and it seems we are all in agreement that it is…questionable at best that they will meet the expectations they seem to be getting.

But between this and the article posted above I am more surprised about is Wisconsin! 2nd in the B1G?!?!?!? If Happ returns (far from a sure thing, I think) I figured they would be a bubble team at best. If he doesn’t, it could be the end of the Greg Gard era because I could see them being really bad. Agree this doesn’t pass the eye test because I can’t see any way outside of catastrophic injuries (Wisconsin this past year but worse) where we are 11-9 in the league

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Wisconsin was really hurt by the trice and king injuries last year