MBB vs. Illinois OPEN THREAD

Submitted by GVSUGoBlue on

Illinois at UM 1 p.m. Crisler Center

TV: CBS

Let's get to 14-0 at home! GO BLUE!

Boomer519

February 12th, 2012 at 3:20 PM ^

Finally its over. Good win today from the guys, being able to overcome that many BS fouls and still get the win. There is no way this game should have only been a 9 point win. THJ had a nice game looks like he made extra effort today to drive rather than settle for threes and long twos. Looks like those bench players are starting to pick their games up at the right time.

enlightenedbum

February 12th, 2012 at 4:40 PM ^

M took control early behind some good shooting by Hardaway (!) and Smotrycz (!!).  Never really blew it open, but the lead was between six and fourteen for basically the entire game after the 10 minute mark or so.  Key was Illinois turnovers leading to fast break points, which we won like 19-0 or something silly.  They killed us on the offensive glass, unsurprisingly.  Vogrich made both of his three point tries and I think is 5/5 in the last two, so that's a good sign.

Officiating sucked, at one point calling nine straight fouls on us and getting Morgan, Hardaway, and Novak in foul trouble.

The major takeaway is that Hardaway and Smot might be breakout out of their slumps, and Vogrich making threes.  If those things are true, we're a much more dangerous team.  Have five days off until Ohio comes to town.

Mr. Yost

February 12th, 2012 at 4:59 PM ^

Sounds like we played well...

Against Ohio we're going to have to shoot well again. But I'm worried about the boards we're giving up. I think we're relying on the starting lineup too much and we're not mixing it in with the old starting lineup (Stu out, Smotz in) enough. We can't play the whole game with Morgan/Novak or Smotz/Novak...we need to play Morgan/Smotz more...and if that means play Novak at the 3 and Hardaway at the 2, so be it.

DeadMan

February 12th, 2012 at 4:43 PM ^

Stat of the day 7-16 from 3. If we shoot like that from 3 the rest of the year (and limit our 3 point attempts), we will be a force. Hopefully Smot and THJ broke out of their slumps today.

B-Nut-GoBlue

February 12th, 2012 at 5:21 PM ^

Need the hot hand to continue into Saturday night.  Also, whoever mentioned the offensive boards is right.  It's one thing to give them up due to Leonard swatting the ball to teammates who miss the 2nd and 4th chance opportunities, but OSU does and will capitalize (as we've seen already) on 2nd chance shots.  Sullinger is a beast on the glass, along with the a few of the other awesome athletes they have.  Michigan needs to find a way to neutralize them on the glass somehow. 

One thing Michigan St. was able to do yesterday that helped them was garner most of OSU's misses -as they were cold as ice- and not let them get offensive board after offensive board.  Michigan is infamous for giving them up and it kills them.  We'll see next weekend if we can even out the rebounding margin, but it's a crucial matter in OSU's ability to beat us and for Michigan to win it needs even out.

SF Wolverine

February 12th, 2012 at 5:39 PM ^

Team really seems to have it at Crisler.  Trick is going to be to use these last few road games to establish the ability to win away.  THJ starting to take better shots and make those he takes is a big, big deal.  Rebounding sounds like a big problem, but I think Belein is purposefully sending fewer guys to crash to limit transitoinal buckets and make opponents work the court to earn their points against us.  Given the size we give up to almost everyone, that seems like a sound strategy.