Conference Tourney Open Thread
I just want to talk about basketball... A lot of good games on today!
Damn Trimble you a boss.
don't know how I feel about Trimble destroying MSU right now. I want Maryland to do well in the NCAA tourney but not the B1G tourney .. on the other hand, Sparty tears taste so good.
If I didn't live among so many Badger fans and have to deal with the gloating, I would be 100% on-board with this. as is, I'm 50/50 on being a Wiscy supporter.
Spartan tears. C'mon Maryland, make those tears rain down!!!
Maryland up 23-9, Trimble (13 points) is only up 4 on MSU.
Smotty is tearing it up. Money from 3 and he takes a big charge. Michigan could have used that the last two years...
Telling that he started on Michigan's B1G championshp team, and comes off the bench for the Terps. This is a deep squad.
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Sure, yeah, we had exactly the type of year we can let a guy like him go, and just think, it sure is good to be a real prestigious school and shit, and just let guys who can ball a little bit go because we can replace them with the likes of any moron with a pulse, who can put on a Michigan uniform. Makes sense. Go Blue. Real fucking sensible. And shit.
March 15th, 2015 at 10:47 AM ^
You do realize that Smotrycz wouldn't still be in college basketball if he'd never transferred, right? If he hadn't transferred, he would have graduated a year ago. So no, he wouldn't have been any help to us this season.
Anyhow, if Smot had stayed, he'd have been GRIII's backup for two years. Given that we won 59 games those two years, went to the national title game and won the B1G outright, I don't think we missed him that much. He didn't seem very happy here even when he was starting.
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Trimble, wtf was that last possession. All you had to do was get a shot off and worst case scenario you go to half up 8. Best case is you make the shot or get an oboard and a bucket at the buzzer and momentum into half. Instead you did the worst thing you could do and get a shot clock violation. 4 seconds plenty of time for MSU to get a shot. Terps fortunate they didn't.
Watching Maryland-MSU here when I am probably supposed to be socializing, but then this is statistically about as even a game as you get right now. Both teams are around 50-ish percent for eFG%, similar rebounding, A/T ratios, etc...
Momentum is funny, as someone mentioned. Honestly thought Maryland might turn a shower into a flood, but alas it did not materialize.
Well this sucks. Valentine hits a big shot to put MSU up 38-36, about 12 minutes left. MSU stepped up the defense (and the intensity in general), and the Turtles haven't matched it.
Hope Trimble and Wells can make a push...but I doubt it.
Watching them get waxed by Wisconsin would be fun :)
I don't care if they win the BTT, they'll be lucky to win 2 games in the dance!
Actually, based on recruiting rankings, they absolutely should be a contender. Don't believe Izzo's woe-is-me BS.
IMHO, their success has come from 2 factors. 1) Having a solid 2 guard show up out of nowhere was a pretty lucky break. And 2) having Trice make the sophomore leap 2 years late. Their backcourt was looking like a disaster, and has turned into a strength.
Wisconsin needed to play Maryland to get a chance at a #1 seed.
Can I say that I absolutely hate Izzo, but I respect the hell out of him.
They have no more talent than we do and here they are peaking in March...again.
MSU has 1 top 60 high school player on their roster in Dawson. Valentine and Costello were both only 70-100.
Instead of making some an arbitrary cut off at "top 60 player," why don't you actually look at their roster?
MSU is starting two seniors, two juniors, and four 4-stars. We're starting two freshman, a sophomore, and one 4-star. We have 5(!) freshman in our 8-man rotation. That is a tremendous advantage for MSU in both ranking and experience, so basically, you could not be more wrong.
On another note, I have no idea how any Michigan fan could respsect Izzo. He is childish, whiny, egotistical, insulting, and petty - everything John Beilein is not.
They are also all upperclassmen. Izzo is a fine coach, but put this team in last year's conference and they are in deep trouble. They kinda lucked out that a down year for them meant they didn't have to deal with any injuries and the rest of the conference lost so much talent that they could hang around and be the 3rd/4th-best team.
March 14th, 2015 at 11:17 PM ^
It helps when your entire starting lineup is upperclassmen. MSU is the only "top bball" school that sends almost no one to the NBA early - Harris was their first in a decade. Izzo does not need to rebuild from scratch every year like UK Kansas or Duke. Hell or like we have had to of late.
Dawson was a McDonald's All American who is a frigging 22 year old senior.
Valentine is a JR ranked in the same area as Nik S (both around 80)
Trice was a revelation - he is doing a lot of the things Spike is doing, I give kudos for developing him.
Costello is a Mr. Michigan who is a JR.
Schilling is a top 100 ranked recruit who is a SO.
They imported a JR sharpshooter in Forbes - he is limited but he can shoot the damn ball.
They have a top 100ish PG freshman.
There is a 7 man rotation i.e. what we have been playing for 1+ month. Throw in a freshman like Clark as your 8th and whomever else for mop up minutes at 9th in the rotation.
So 4 of those first 5 guys are just like anything UM has and the first 4 are upperclassmen. Of which we have Max and Spike. It helps a lot to have guys who have seen it and done it. Especially in a sport where the most talented guys constantly leave in 1-2 years. See Wisconsin the past 2 years. They have only suffered one key injury all year and it was to a freshman (Bess). Other than their PG they dont rely on freshman for anything - and he wasnt needed until about a month ago. Contrast that to us who throws out a freshman or two every year as a starter out of need. And which had Caris as the sole starter upperclassmen to begin this year.
Maryland and MSU are not that dissimilar other than Melo is a star freshman - both have a lot of older guys.
of having Senior leadership on your team. Izzo has been very fortunate over the years to have some 4 year players elevate their games as Seniors.
That's the upside of being mediocre at developing players.
March 15th, 2015 at 12:22 AM ^
March 15th, 2015 at 10:39 AM ^
March 15th, 2015 at 11:04 AM ^
A team that has four (!) upperclassmen starters hardly qualifies as a "dumpster fire" in my book.
Don't fall for Izzo's whining. To hear him complain, you'd think he starts nothing but walk-ons and that MSU was the only program in the country to ever lose a player early or to injury. He repeats this line so much that it seems to have an effect - as this thread shows, even some Michigan fans have been duped by it.
The truth is, most of MSU's guys were highly-regarded recruits. And they've been very lucky when it comes to early departures and injuries over his tenure. They've lost one guy early in the last 10 years, and they always seem to have a healthy roster by the end of the season. I can't recall the last time they lost a starter to a season-ending injury. It's happened to us two years running.