Michigan vs. Michigan State Basketball Open Thread

The tech was on Dane Fife! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Can't dirty up Izzo's spotless record...

Don't let them get an easy win, that's all i ask

Big Ten refs are total garbage

with 11 min to go I think these kids are gonna find a way to win.

He was stepping on the line are you serious?

a dude a foot shorter than you got that rebound.

How many times can you shuffle your feet on the baseline without getting called for a travel?

grab a seat. you are horrible today.

Excellent series by Smotrycz...

what the fuck kinda defense was that Smotrycz?! And then you airball

there we go in the bonus now

It's okay, because, well, they are Spartans, and as I look through the crowd in that arena, I know damn well that i will be significantly more successfull than any of them.  They can have this win.

GGGGAAAARRRRRRGGGGGG!!!!!

For being as useless as a poopy flavored lolly pop.

Smotrycz is simply brutal from behind the arc.  Infuriating.

Remember when Smot could shoot well? That was a nice time

Are they going to mention Michigan's bench scoring? Oh wait, there is none.

THe announcers keep making a huge deal aout our turnovers even though they have as many as we do, and our lack of bench points even though we never get some anyway

I dont understand how that is foul if he is straight up and down

bad call

Would somebody box out??? Christ!

Would somebody box out??? Christ!

The refs are actually giving us a lot of calls today for being on the road.  I bet MSU is rebounding 60-75% of their misses.

Would somebody box out??? Christ!

can. not. rebound.

Ha, it's laughable how much bigger Payne is than our entire team.

State should just shoot threes every trip down the floor if Michigan can't grab a rebound

For TREY!

Wow, Burke

Burke is a beast. I hope he stays here forever.

I think maybe if Beilein wants more work ethic out of the guys he should ramp up the pregame speeches a bit.  They're not exactly from the Vince Lombardi handbook to say the least. It might help us to not come out so flat if he would inject a bit of emotion into the locker room.

That's 5-17 on 3's, which is actually better eFG% than our 2's. 

We have to be one of the worst rebounding teams in the country

damn, they make the toughest shots

common hardaway, nice pass by douglas

In what world is falling down not a walk?

Wow... I don't think it's our night.  Great defense, better offense.

Get this to 5 and watch how tight MSU's nuts get.

Dunk that in there face. Nice hustle though.

In just one play? That "lay-up" was ridiculous.

man, Burke playing with a fire, that's what I like to see

Man up on D

Pretty sure if a guy falls down with the ball it's a travel.  Side note: I don't think I've ever watched a basketball game and said afterwards "Those officials called a good game."  I will not be saying it today either.

Has anyone seen Tim Hardaway JR? 

Finally Trey is pressing hard. Hopefully it's not too late

I have little respect for Draymond Green but damn he has made some tough shots today. 

Michigan leads MSU in the series right? How can MSU think their domination is the natural order

Saw that the arty bigs were tangle uped. Push the ball and drew the whistle...heady play.

The alltime series is 94-74 in Michigan's favor.  

After they just showed all of THJ's shots...I noticed he is leaning back on every single one of them. Not neccessarily a fadeaway, but he's not going straight up. Therefor, most of his shots are extremely short.

Stu wide open three... take it

SHOOT THE BALL

Stu's gotta shoot the 3 in the corner

Yep, just not our day

we turned down numerous open jumpers there

For a game in which we've gotten few good looks I think we passed up about 4 of them that last possession

why didnt you take the wide open 3; either time.  show some senior leadership man.

Honestly?

You're down by nine.

That was such an ugly possession. Why are we turning down open shots? Novak got into the paint and just kept going. Turn and gun

I think we can stop complaining about the officiating after they just let Trey Burke handcheck 7 times in 5 seconds.  Not that it mattered.

If Timmy followed his shots, he would have a lot of rebounds...

Over.

"That's the kind of shot you have to continue to shoot if you're THJ." Now I know where he's been getting it from.

Okay, who's got the THJ voodoo doll? It's not funny anymore.

Or does THJ look like he just doesn't want to play anymore?

(I don't mean the shooting, I mean when he doesn't have the ball, everything looks half-hearted at best, like he'd rather be somewhere else)

Maybe he has Roundtree problems. Get that kid an eye test

Have to hit those damn FT's

Timmy where are you?  What has happened to him??

just like that the lead is back to 13

uh travel

whatever remember that we have an easier schedule from here on out.  We will probably still have a better BTT seed.

Izzo bought that blocking call. Unreal.

let the obvious nix travel to then call a block on a blatant charge.

Need a easy basket!

fail

Draymond Green is outrebounding us 15-14............

The bright side is that THJ has to be realizing that he isn't anywhere near a pro prospect yet....three year plan just became a four year plan

It's tough when you have a six-man rotation and two of those six are completely in a funk.  We could survive with one struggling, but two makes it really, really tough.

This is one of those games where you look in the mirror afterwards and simply say "Wow, we played like straight up dog poo." They aren't going to win, but if they did, Sparty would have to wonder what the f happened.

Can't shoot. Can't rebound. Hardaway couldn't hit one of those fisher price hoops with a ping pong ball. Douglas seems overwhelmed. Smotrcyz is useless. At least Burke, Novak, and Morgan seem like they give a crap.

-22 in rebounding.  I wonder what the win% is for teams outrebounded by 20+...

way to box out THJ

Next year they lose Green, and we get McGary so we should be doing pretty good inside.

A Smot three. Impecable timing

Smotrcyzhyzhg just needs us to be down by 20 to hit a three....

To little to late Smot! Where the fuck has that been all year

Figures Evan would wait until garbage time to finally hit a three.

who was the guy that wrote "I think THJ is gona have his best game of the year". Thanks for that jinx big guy

For the love of god, will somebody acknowledge that we are the least physically imposing team in America (outside the Ivy League)?  There are high school teams with way better size and toughness.  

Can't blame anyone but the TEAM this time... Refs actually seemed to be inn our favor.

they are not even running for long rebounds. It doesn't look like there is any emotion.

Is it just me or does it seem like Tommy Amaker was coaching this game today.....

smotz should have taken that charge instead of fouling

seriously.  you can't straight up block a layup by a 6' guard coming right at you?

What are rebounds?

Oh noes, we play Illinois on CBS...

They just beat them physically and emotionally today! Looks like the whole team just checked out in the 2nd.

gotta like it.  still playing hard.  don't give up that shit!

Fuck Michigan State and their classless group of asshats

Is it me or did it seem like Tommy Amaker was coaching today....

Overthetop is another Spartan troll.

We need Horford bad if we want to get deep into the tourney, redshirt be damned.

A just like football chant? Clever. Not.

Cute

Next chant will be little sister

Well that was a serious ass kicking...I hate those fuckers

How frustrating that we can't hit a shot to save our lives until it is too late.

We're gonna miss Novack and Douglas more than you think.

Novak had another efficient day - 14 points on not many shots.  He needs more looks.

I know that we were playing with house money today (lower-ranked, on the road, already beat them in AA), but the way that we lost was disappointing.  We had a chance to make a run if we had hit ANY big shots, but we shot and rebounded so poorly that we let Sparty win with a mediocre performance on their part.

How do their professors still have eligibility? 

It wasn't our day.

It happens. Even in places like this.

Seriously they are 1-3 over the last 4 and couldn't be happier!

this game is followed by the "waste management open"

Can anyone try to convince me of one reason Beilein shouldn't bench THJ?  Seriously.

Their plan was to stop Burke today and they did it, hats off to them.

A tough loss, but not unexpected.  I am not inclined to say players gave up - MSU is a very good defensive club at home, and they basically shut down UM from inside and forced them to shoot a bunch of jumpers.  MSU did exactly what they needed to do, and this team (as currently constructed) is going to be worked over by larger teams.  It happens.

Still, the team is moving toward the postseason and will learn from this game.  Illinois and Nebraska are next, and those need to be wins before OSU comes to town.  But right now, considering how relatively young and inexperienced this team is at certain positions, I'm comfortable with the direction of the team.  

Just a Michigan St. domination. Eh, it happens though.  I'm still not sure how we managed to hang around the 10 pt. defecit mark the whole game though.  The fact that, once again, Michigan hung around enough that if they were to have hit a few crucial shots at crucial times, they could have made a run to get within ~5 pts (and chip away from there).  But once again they missed shots they needed to make to win, and THJ looked like sh*t.  It happens.  Give Izzo and MSU credit, they played a great game and were prepared/had a great gameplan (offensively and defensively). 

  An adequate symbol of today's game.

Annoying game.  The terrible first-half effort really did us in.  I thought we competed better in the second half but just couldn't string together a run.  Every time we looked like we might have it in us, we'd miss a layup and then Green would drill a fadeaway at the other end.  Kudos to Green - he backed up his words with probably the best game he's ever played against Michigan.

Oh well - I'll take the season split.  

We didn't even come close in this one. The first 5 minutes dictated the pace of the game. We were sluggish on offense and nonchalant on defense. No intensity whatsover.

They have a good basketball team, we have a good basketball team, and we split the series this year.  We both should get good tournament seeds, and, as always, we're better people.

Worse things happen.

What a waste of time. Got teased when M got back to within 8. Wish we didn't spend the entire first half outside of the 3 point line. Need moar dishes to Jordan Morgan on pick and rolls.

Those people on here that think this is still a Sweet Sixteen team I hope you see now that we have a large hill to climb for that to be possible. Rebounding is about effort and hustle and I did not see either today. I know we were on the road, blah... blah..... blah, but with THJ and Smortz. playing the way they are and having no bech rotation both tournaments are going to be tough.

if a lot of other things would happen first.

If you can't get into college go to state clap clap.

This game was painful to watch. THJ is absolutely awful and forces so many unnecessary shots it is unreal. It is hard to bench him though just because we have no one else to step in. He is terrible on defense as well. Does anyone else seem him as being kind of like a cancer to this team? I honestly think Belien needs to not start him against Nebraska just to let him know that he isn't invincible and is capable of losing his starting spot. I don't care if he comes in right after the first T.V. timeout. I just think he needs a wake up call because he just seems like he only cares about getting points and when he doesn't get his touches/points he just loses all focus in the game. I am just frustrated watching this team right now. I figured we would lose to state but didn't think we would play this poorly.  I think the only players that ever play with any heart on this team are Burke, Novack, Morgan, and Stu and I don't even think Morgan and Stu are any good lol....It is going to be sad when Novack leaves because this team lacks any leadership outside of him. I think Burke will eventually take this roll but it is so hard for a young guy to be a leader. Just hope we can finish strong and make it into the tourney and hopefully make a sweet 16.

to MSU.  They had a better game-plan and executed much better than us today.  Greene was playing on half a leg and Appling seemed to have his head on straight after many games of playing poorly.

Congrats Sparty, Congrats.  Today is your turn in the sun.  Enjoy it while it lasts.  You certainly deserve all the credit and praise today.