LIU Brooklyn came in confident and ready to play, but it just didn’t have the bodies to compete with Michigan State in the paint in a 89-67 loss in the NCAA Tournament.
Tag: Michigan State
LIU vs. MSU Round up
Tonight LIU Brooklyn will try to shock the world and take down #1 seed Michigan State. A lot has been written over the past two days about the game, so here are some of the highlights.
Q&A with The Only Colors about Michigan State
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.
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What do similarity scores say about the top seeds?
When picking a bracket everyone wants to know how good the top seeds are. Which ones should make the Final Four? Go even further? Right now the standard answer seems to be Kentucky. What team though is the one you shouldn’t trust? I used similarity scores to try and determine both the strongest and weakest of the top eight seeds in the tournament this season.
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Assist Tracker: Dec. 19
Damier Pitts (G, Marshall) — Pitts had a double-double with 19 points and 11 assists in the Thundering Herd’s 87-86 victory over Belmont. DeAndre Kane scored 29 points to lead Marshall and six of Pitts’ 11 assists went to him. Also, seven of those 11 assists were for layups.
Grant Gibbs (G, Creighton) — It’s easy to get assists when you’ve got one of the most prolific scorers in the NCAA on your team. That’s what Gibbs has to work with in Doug McDermott. Against Tulsa on Monday Gibbs had 10 assists. Seven of those assists went to McDermott. Two of Gregory Echenique’s four made baskets came from Gibbs.
Eric Atkins (G, Notre Dame) — Atkins’ nine assists against Sacred Heart came in the Fighting Irish’s 106-65 victory and he distributed them pretty evenly. There were three layups, two jumpers and four threes. Both of Alex Dragicevich’s threes came from Atkins assists.
Keith Appling (G, Michigan State) — Two of Appling’s eight assist in the Spartans’ 89-54 win went to Draymond Green, who also had seven of his own. Appling had three assists for threes. Two of them went to Brandon Wood.
Draymond Green (F, Michigan State) — None of Green’s six assists went to Appling, but he did have two to Wood and two to Branden Dawson. I find it interesting that just one of his six assists was for a three. I’d expect a post player like Green to be passing for assists, but he’s hitting cutters in the lane.
Kendall Marshall (G, North Carolina) — Marshall upped his dunk percentage in Monday’s 99-49 victory over Nicholls State. Four of his seven assists went for dunks. That’s probably the advantage of playing a team like Colonels. I believe this is the first game this season that Marshall didn’t have an assist on a jumper.
Tyshawn Taylor (G, Kansas) — Last Sunday Taylor had knee surgery. Today he was playing in Kansas’ 80-74 loss to Davidson. He had seven assists (and five turnovers) in his first game back. Those assists went to three people: Thomas Robinson (3), Elijah Johnson (2) and Jeff Withey (2). I’d really like to watch this one on ESPN3 replay if possible and see if the turnovers were committed while trying to pass to one of them, especially because Robinson and Withey are true post guys.
NYC Buckets Archive 