Fran got beat by Izzo

[Adam]

I will start by saying that I am a fan of Fran. I really like the way the program is trending. That being said, I think Fran got his pants pulled down a bit by Izzo. At about the 14 minute mark of the second half Iowa and MSU were deadlocked. Fran went to the 3/4 press and trap. MSU broke it with precision. It was clear right then that Izzo had seen that trend and had made it a focus for his team. Fran stuck with the 3/4 and MSU caught fire breaking the press and fanning out to open 3 point jump shots. This allowed MSU to start hitting those 3's. With the home crowd going crazy this pretty much ended the game. I think our half court D was actually pretty damn good. I can't figure out how Fran didn't recognize that MSU was ready for our second half press. He should have abandoned it completely. I think had we stayed in the half court D then MSU never goes on the run. We would have been in the game until the buzzer. Don't get me wrong the Iowa players were not lights out, but we didn't need to be perfect to beat MSU. I hang this loss on Fran. He should have been prepared for MSU to annihilate our press.

 

[PCHawk]

I will start by saying that I am a fan of Fran. I really like the way the program is trending. That being said, I think Fran got his pants pulled down a bit by Izzo. At about the 14 minute mark of the second half Iowa and MSU were deadlocked. Fran went to the 3/4 press and trap. MSU broke it with precision. It was clear right then that Izzo had seen that trend and had made it a focus for his team. Fran stuck with the 3/4 and MSU caught fire breaking the press and fanning out to open 3 point jump shots. This allowed MSU to start hitting those 3's. With the home crowd going crazy this pretty much ended the game. I think our half court D was actually pretty damn good. I can't figure out how Fran didn't recognize that MSU was ready for our second half press. He should have abandoned it completely. I think had we stayed in the half court D then MSU never goes on the run. We would have been in the game until the buzzer. Don't get me wrong the Iowa players were not lights out, but we didn't need to be perfect to beat MSU. I hang this loss on Fran. He should have been prepared for MSU to annihilate our press.

So are you saying he should have never used it at all or he should have abandoned it sooner? The way MSU turns the ball over, using the press is a no brainer. It didn't work tho but the only way to know that is hindsight.

Truth is, we needed MSU to play awful for 40 minutes to have a chance that game because we shot so bad. They only played awful for about 35 minutes. Tough to put it on the coach in a game like that.

 

[SteveGarvey1]

I guess Fran should have known that MSU was going to be allowed to mug Jok the whole game and planned accordingly. From that standpoint, Izzo out-coached Fran.

 

[Adam]

So are you saying he should have never used it at all or he should have abandoned it sooner? The way MSU turns the ball over, using the press is a no brainer. It didn't work tho but the only way to know that is hindsight.

Truth is, we needed MSU to play awful for 40 minutes to have a chance that game because we shot so bad. They only played awful for about 35 minutes. Tough to put it on the coach in a game like that.

No I'm not saying we shouldn't have ran the 3/4 at all. I'm saying it was clear that MSU had game planned on seeing it in the second half. They broke it easily time after time. I'm saying he should have scrapped it right then. Giving them momentum was dumb.

As to your response about the turnovers, If you re-watch the game you will see that roughly 80% of MSU's turnovers came in the half court. With as sloppy as MSU was with the ball I actually don't see any benefit to pressing. All it accomplished was spreading out the D and letting MSU's athletic advantage take center stage.

 

[Adam]

I guess Fran should have known that MSU was going to be allowed to mug Jok the whole game and planned accordingly. From that standpoint, Izzo out-coached Fran.

Have you ever seen MSU play? A monkey could have known that MSU was going to take our best players away with physicality.

 

[Adam]

I guess Fran should have known that MSU was going to be allowed to mug Jok the whole game and planned accordingly. From that standpoint, Izzo out-coached Fran.

Sorry, I see now that you weren't actually arguing with me. I will note though that I do believe Fran was prepared for Jok to get shut down. I don't think that is what broke our back.

 

[NikeHawk21]

The thing I hate about the press is it creates easy shots for the other team which gets them going.

I thought Fran managed subbing terribly last night. After watching the game I thought we probably should have been beaten down like we were in Evanston, luckily for us, MSU played very poorly as well.

People may not agree with me, but if Fran continues to ride Jok 30+ minutes we will continue to lose winnable games. IMO for whatever he brings offensively right now, he gives up that much and more defensively when he plays those kind of minutes. He was an absolute statue in that press.

It probably doesn't matter at this point as Fran seems more concerned with getting Jok 1st team all conference and our NCAA chances are dead.

 

[NikeHawk21]

I watched the game and don't be remember Jok being mugged all that badly. I do remember him missing 3 wide open 3s. He hits those and he gets his 20 points and Iowa is right in that game.

 

[PCHawk]

No I'm not saying we shouldn't have ran the 3/4 at all. I'm saying it was clear that MSU had game planned on seeing it in the second half. They broke it easily time after time. I'm saying he should have scrapped it right then. Giving them momentum was dumb.

As to your response about the turnovers, If you re-watch the game you will see that roughly 80% of MSU's turnovers came in the half court. With as sloppy as MSU was with the ball I actually don't see any benefit to pressing. All it accomplished was spreading out the D and letting MSU's athletic advantage take center stage.

By the time you know not to do it anymore, momentum has already been established.

 

[NEIChawk]

Fran leaves a lot of the decisions to his players....MSU is a hostile place, road game, the kids know what to expect and how they play defense....we just to be better at execution....this team will get back after a week off, get some necessary rest and take it to the next team. Unfortunately I didn't see the game, so I'm relying on the board to fill me in. Fran is very predictable but so is Izzo, but Izzo has a better team (for now), and, I brlieve, Fran is playing to win every game but sometimes he gets caught with his pants down.

 

[Adam]

Fran leaves a lot of the decisions to his players....MSU is a hostile place, road game, the kids know what to expect and how they play defense....we just to be better at execution....this team will get back after a week off, get some necessary rest and take it to the next team. Unfortunately I didn't see the game, so I'm relying on the board to fill me in. Fran is very predictable but so is Izzo, but Izzo has a better team (for now), and, I brlieve, Fran is playing to win every game but sometimes he gets caught with his pants down.

This MSU squad not better IMO. About equal is how I feel. They are more athletic though. That is what 22 years of being great does for you.

 

[Adam]

By the time you know not to do it anymore, momentum has already been established.

Well we were down 6 after they broke the press 3 times in a row. They picked up a little momentum, but nothing a time out and offensive conversion couldn't fix. Instead we didn't call a time out and we stayed in the press. 3 possessions later we are down 11. MSU bench players are hitting 3's and the Breslin Center was registering on the Richter scale. That was the critical turning point. My simple point is Fran walked right into it. Izzo was happy to play a back and forth close game, because he knew exactly what Fran was going to do. He said in his presser that they felt good about the game plan and they executed it. Pretty sure he means winning the rebounding defending (held us to a 4 game offensive low) and breaking our press.

 

[HawkPrdatr40]

I guess Fran should have known that MSU was going to be allowed to mug Jok the whole game and planned accordingly. From that standpoint, Izzo out-coached Fran.

With respect to your JOK being mugged comment. Honest questions: First did you even watch the game? or Second do you not know what a Basketball Mugging looks like?

 

[seepig]

I will start by saying that I am a fan of Fran. I really like the way the program is trending. That being said, I think Fran got his pants pulled down a bit by Izzo. At about the 14 minute mark of the second half Iowa and MSU were deadlocked. Fran went to the 3/4 press and trap. MSU broke it with precision. It was clear right then that Izzo had seen that trend and had made it a focus for his team. Fran stuck with the 3/4 and MSU caught fire breaking the press and fanning out to open 3 point jump shots. This allowed MSU to start hitting those 3's. With the home crowd going crazy this pretty much ended the game. I think our half court D was actually pretty damn good. I can't figure out how Fran didn't recognize that MSU was ready for our second half press. He should have abandoned it completely. I think had we stayed in the half court D then MSU never goes on the run. We would have been in the game until the buzzer. Don't get me wrong the Iowa players were not lights out, but we didn't need to be perfect to beat MSU. I hang this loss on Fran. He should have been prepared for MSU to annihilate our press.

So what else is new. Prepare for the late season slide once again.

 

[HawkPrdatr40]

Well we were down 6 after they broke the press 3 times in a row. They picked up a little momentum, but nothing a time out and offensive conversion couldn't fix. Instead we didn't call a time out and we stayed in the press. 3 possessions later we are down 11. MSU bench players are hitting 3's and the Breslin Center was registering on the Richter scale. That was the critical turning point. My simple point is Fran walked right into it. Izzo was happy to play a back and forth close game, because he knew exactly what Fran was going to do. He said in his presser that they felt good about the game plan and they executed it. Pretty sure he means winning the rebounding defending (held us to a 4 game offensive low) and breaking our press.

Saw it exactly!!! Fran has a way of doing that not sure why but that's just Fran's way.

 

[Adam]

So what else is new. Prepare for the late season slide once again.

In all fairness, I don't think this team is going to slide. I think they have proven that they will keep competing. They have enough talent to play with just about anyone. I think we might steal the Maryland game still. We play so much better the 2nd time against teams we have seen. I also expected to lose the MSU game. I was more surprised that we were in it for so long and was sad for the players the way we lost it. The 2nd half press was like pounding nails through your own feet. I was just disappointed that Fran had no back up plan.

 

[Adam]

Saw it exactly!!! Fran has a way of doing that not sure why but that's just Fran's way.

Yup. It's almost as if he doesn't believe in momentum. The use of timeouts on the road should be exclusively for breaking momentum. The home team hits back to back 3's and the crowd is roaring....TO! Settle your guys. Draw up and inbounds play and score. That will shut the crowd up and stem the momentum. Appeantly Fran does not subscribe to this school of thought.

 

[PCHawk]

Well we were down 6 after they broke the press 3 times in a row. They picked up a little momentum, but nothing a time out and offensive conversion couldn't fix. Instead we didn't call a time out and we stayed in the press. 3 possessions later we are down 11. MSU bench players are hitting 3's and the Breslin Center was registering on the Richter scale. That was the critical turning point. My simple point is Fran walked right into it. Izzo was happy to play a back and forth close game, because he knew exactly what Fran was going to do. He said in his presser that they felt good about the game plan and they executed it. Pretty sure he means winning the rebounding defending (held us to a 4 game offensive low) and breaking our press.

So you're saying 3 possessions cost us the game? I hate to break it to you, but even if fran takes off the press 3 possessions sooner, we still lose that game. The players couldn't make a shot the whole game.

 

[PCHawk]

Yup. It's almost as if he doesn't believe in momentum. The use of timeouts on the road should be exclusively for breaking momentum. The home team hits back to back 3's and the crowd is roaring....TO! Settle your guys. Draw up and inbounds play and score. That will shut the crowd up and stem the momentum. Appeantly Fran does not subscribe to this school of thought.

Fran does call timeouts to stop momentum now. This is an argument for previous years.

 

[Adam]

So you're saying 3 possessions cost us the game? I hate to break it to you, but even if fran takes off the press 3 possessions sooner, we still lose that game. The players couldn't make a shot the whole game.

In 3 possessions we went from 2 ahead to 6 down. Next 3 possessions we went to 11 down. I'm saying 6 possessions or about 4 mins of game play is what broke our back. I disagree with your statement that keeping the game close could not have resulted in a win. We shot crappy all game. Yet we had the lead at the half.