Reminder: It's Been 722 Days Since MSU Has Beaten Us in Basketball

Submitted by BursleyHall82 on January 21st, 2019 at 9:03 PM

I wish Maryland had shown up tonight, but for all your Sparty friends who are feeling pretty full of themselves on social media tonight, please remind them (as I have) that they haven't beaten us in basketball in 722 days.

They haven't beaten us in ANYTHING (basketball or football) in 471 days.

footballguy

January 21st, 2019 at 9:08 PM ^

It seems like a bunch of teams "don't show up" against them.

They're good. Their defense is improving. It will be a dog fight both times we play them, and I hope that day streak somehow doesn't end this season

footballguy

January 21st, 2019 at 9:29 PM ^

Nope. I just don't get as emotionally invested into this stuff as a lot of you on here. So when I offer an objective opinion, it may look like I'm not a fan.

I'm a big fan. But after going through college athletics myself and coaching a bunch of kids into college, I realized how trivial rivalries are and I don't judge kids solely on the team they play for. 

They're just games to me

footballguy

January 21st, 2019 at 9:42 PM ^

Please refer me to where I said that. I mean it is a fact that all those teams played in a tourney and Texas beat UNC, then MSU beat Texas. But that doesn't mean that MSU would have beaten UNC - basketball is all about matchups.

Not sure if you're confusing that with saying the Texas win is better than UNC? Those are mutually exclusive things

bronxblue

January 22nd, 2019 at 12:10 PM ^

Yeah, MSU is going to be tough.  They are solid defensively and can shoot the lights out.  It'll be interesting to see how they look against UM's level of defensive intensity, but they're definitely a legit team.  The only thing I wonder is if they might be "peaking" a bit early; sadly, I think Michigan might have as well, though Beilein's teams have a history of finding another gear offensively as they move toward March.  

footballguy

January 22nd, 2019 at 12:29 PM ^

I think Michigan could get better, but I think Iggy may have peaked. Not saying he won't do really well, but I don't see him out performing his early season success - more teams know who he is, and know what to do to defend him.

But even if they peaked, they showed what they can do to win against pretty much anybody. They have a few games where they scored 30 points in about 8 minutes, which is a flurry that will beat anybody.

 

TrueBlue2003

January 22nd, 2019 at 12:38 PM ^

I think you're somewhat right about Iggy, in the sense that he's finding out now how well prepared teams can defend him better than teams earlier in the season.  I don't think he's peaked by any means.  He's just going to have to adjust to their adjustments.

And I think Poole has a lot of room to grow.  If he starts making better decisions and taking better shots and drawing defenses to open things up for other guys, this team can absolutely get better.  We've seen it too often from Beilein teams.  They'll make the necessary adjustments.

Whole Milk

January 22nd, 2019 at 1:51 PM ^

Are you suggesting that Langford may be their best player? Get out of here with that nonsense. Just a shooter and even that is generous given that his True shooting % is worse than everyone except for Goins out of their contributors. He doesn't rebound, he has more TO's than assists and he is literally the worst offensive player on the team. Even if you give him the lofty praise of being their "best defender", the team defense has went from 29th the day he got injured to 9th now so he can't be too important on that end.

MSU is likely better without Langford unless you consider depth purposes, but if the only reason you would rather have a guy back is for depth, he is no where near your best player.

footballguy

January 22nd, 2019 at 2:09 PM ^

Eh, I don't know. He can be streaky, but he is a better player and scorer than the other options they have. Winston and Ward are better, and that Henry kid seems to be pretty good too, but Langford has the ability to create his own shot and can score in bunches.

He is definitely hot and cold, but there is no way MSU is better off without him. That's like saying we're better off without Matthews. 

 

Whole Milk

January 23rd, 2019 at 2:01 PM ^

If you reference scoring as your clear point of determining offensive value, it is probably not worth arguing with you because you don't understand the in's and out's of the game, but I'll bite. The team has drastically improved by getting Henry and Gabe Brown more minutes since Langford's injury. And yes, he is their worst offensive player in their generous 10 man rotation according to Kenpom's Offensive Rating (Which I'm sure you don't have because all the information you could ever need is in the box score). He has a 106 offensive rating, most good offensive players are at least around 115.

In fact, if you consider the top teams in the B1G: Michigan, MSU, Maryland, Purdue, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Nebraska, Langford is only a better offensive player than Matthews and Charles Thomas of Wisconsin when considering significant contributors (20% or higher usage). And that is with him missing a large portion of the B1G season. He is simply not a good offensive player.


It would obviously be worth having him back for depth purposes, but that is largely it. 

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

January 22nd, 2019 at 11:38 AM ^

Ha.  My dad and I have kind of a running joke when we're watching games to call everything a streak or a shutout if the end of that trend would be good for us.  Announcer mentions the opposing team has converted their last two third downs?  "Wow, they have a streak going!"  Graphic that says the opposing kicker is 7-for-7 on extra points this year?  "Hey, he's perfect on his kicks!"

If you do that often enough, it works sometimes. 

rice4114

January 22nd, 2019 at 3:03 AM ^

Since Novaks program changing anuerism they have been the better team. Until they werent, over and over again. This team is less talented, by a god margin, than the team that lost to MTSU. They are big, and tall, and play solid defense. Enough to get you through the big ten mostly unscathed, mostly.

HireWayne

January 21st, 2019 at 9:36 PM ^

I am.  We only have 1 reliable jump shooter.  The non-conference blowouts against UNC and Villanova gave us a false sense of security that the offense wouldn't miss a beat without Duncan, Rahk, and Mo. 

We need to shoot better.  Beilein is getting them the open looks.  They have to start going in to compete for the Big Ten Conference Championship.