Friday night LIU Brooklyn will make another appearance in the NCAA Tournament. Unfortunately the Blackbirds drew #1 seed Michigan State in the first round. It’s going to be a difficult game. The Spartans just finished a Big Ten season in which they tied for first with a 13-5 conference record. Then to quiet the doubters they captured the tournament title as well. Tom Izzo is regarded as one of the best tournament coaches in the country. I asked Pete over at The Only Colors to provide some insight into the Spartans.
1. Michigan State is really good (obviously, they’re a 1 seed). If there is a weakness for the Spartans, what is it?
The one weakness they’ve had earlier in the season is that MSU was an off-and-on three-point shooting team. For example, against Iowa in the regular season they were 10-18 from three, but other games (especially the season opener against North Carolina) saw the Spartans laying a good number of bricks. This might change however, with freshman forward Branden Dawson out for the year with an ACL injury. This will force the Spartans to play their better three-point shooters, but what they’ll gain in outside shooting they’ll lose in offensive rebounding in athleticism on defense. If I had to say one thing I’m concerned about in the tournament, it’d be help defense — they’ll still be very good on defense, just not great.
2. Tom Izzo is considered by many to be one of the best, if not the best, tournament coaches in college basketball. What changes in March?
I think that Izzo runs a complicated system on offense and defense. The offense has so many sets that a team outside of the Big Ten will find preparing for them very difficult. The defense is almost always man-to-man, and it takes the freshmen a while to learn the tenets of good help defense. By March however the freshmen begin to internalize the offensive sets and defensive system, and learn to react more than think. This leads to increased speed on the court, and thusly, better basketball.
3. Draymond Green does absolutely everything for Michigan State (and even leads the kPOY standings going into the tourney). How has he improved during his senior season?
If I had to choose one aspect that has improved significantly for Draymond, it’d be his defensive rebounding. Other people might say threes, but he was a decent three point shooter last year as well (36.6% in ’10-’11, 39.5% this year). His rebounding on the defensive end however has improved from grabbing 23.8% of defensive rebounds last season to 27.7% this season, that’s 10th in the nation. In person or on TV it’s something to behold; I’ve seen him get position on forwards and centers four to six inches taller than him again and again.
4. Early in the season MSU “only” beat Milwaukee by 13, Bowling Green by 14 and Nebraska by 13. Has this team improved since then? How can LIU keep it in single digits by halftime? For the game?
Well, I don’t think those non-conference games are indicative of MSU’s true performance, most teams are going to struggle with weaker opponents in November and December. That Nebraska game was on the road as well, and few Big Ten teams are going to get blown out at home. The team has improved though, and I attribute that to learning how to play better two-point defense. In losses to Northwestern, Michigan, and Indiana, defenders often lost track of their man in the paint, allowing passes for easy twos. That didn’t happen as much later in the season (although that Iowa game was a couple weeks ago.) They’ve learned to defend better, and I think that’ll help in such an athletic region.
As for LIU, they’re going to want to run, but I only think that’s going to start any potential blowout sooner. The Blackbirds need to play antithetical to their style and slow the game down, get open shots, and the one thing they’ll absolutely have to do is play defense in the post — Centers Adreian Payne and Derrick Nix provide two different looks in the post (Payne’s an athletic jumper with range out to the three point line, Nix is a 6’9″ 270 lb. banger with a few killer post moves and above average passing ability), and LIU will have to figure out a way to counter them both.
Thanks Pete! Check out The Only Colors for more. Also, if you want an NEC perspective, check out Pioneer Pride for an in-depth breakdown of the game and how LIU might be able to keep things close.
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