Upon the completion of the contest last night, I went and watched the game over again. By the time I had watched it a second time, many Hawkeye fans had already been dubbing this time as not clutch and not the elite team that many had touted us to be. While I agree that this team has had troubles from closing games out and hitting free throws late in games, there are still a TON of positives that can be taken away from the game last night.
Michigan St. without Dawson and Payne are still an extremely good team full of elite guard play and raw talent underneath the hoop. Gary Harris will be a lottery pick this year and I think both Payne and Appling will get a shot in the NBA as well. That being said, we held Harris to 9 points and played some of the best defense I've seen in a long time. Bilas and Tirico mentioned this along with Olaseni hedging a couple times throughout the telecast. Our full court pressure slowed them down immensely and I think the only spot where we really got beat was in transition due to extremely athletic plays via MSU. Last night overall was our best defensive performance of the year. Minus the numerous 3pter's hit by MSU as the shot clock expired, we shut them down. Strictly because of our defense, I believe we can play with ANYONE in the entire country.
Offensively, everyone keeps talking about the FG drought late in the second half. Yes, that was terrible, but is not completely telling. We hit over 10 FT's during the time frame due to the large number of fouls given by MSU. Everyone keeps forgetting that Michigan State is one of the best defensive teams not only in the B1G, but the entire country. I think a few set plays during the drought instead of sticking in the motion offense could have helped get an open look or two to take the lid of the basket. Along with that, there were several rebounds that either due to a bounce that didn't go our way or a missed box-out that hurt us.
Although this team is experienced, they haven't experienced these big time games and seemed like they were caught up in the moment to begin the first half last night. This does not worry me. We are just about to the half way point of B1G play and still have the BTT. Now our odds at winning the conference are slim at this point, but this team feels like they will get better and better as the season goes on and I wouldn't be surprised with them winning the BTT. With this being said, we are going to be in the NCAA tournament and that's ultimately where everything counts, not during the regular season.
The loss certainly grounded the team and I think gave the coaching staff some major flaws for them to work on (free throws, 3pt shots, clutch rebounding.) We still have a long season ahead of us and there is no reason to think that we can't beat Michigan at home here in a few weeks, but let's stop acting all disappointed when the Hawks are in fact exceeding expectations that most set for them at the beginning of the year. I think the Hawks will surprise by the end of the season.
Go Hawks.
Michigan St. without Dawson and Payne are still an extremely good team full of elite guard play and raw talent underneath the hoop. Gary Harris will be a lottery pick this year and I think both Payne and Appling will get a shot in the NBA as well. That being said, we held Harris to 9 points and played some of the best defense I've seen in a long time. Bilas and Tirico mentioned this along with Olaseni hedging a couple times throughout the telecast. Our full court pressure slowed them down immensely and I think the only spot where we really got beat was in transition due to extremely athletic plays via MSU. Last night overall was our best defensive performance of the year. Minus the numerous 3pter's hit by MSU as the shot clock expired, we shut them down. Strictly because of our defense, I believe we can play with ANYONE in the entire country.
Offensively, everyone keeps talking about the FG drought late in the second half. Yes, that was terrible, but is not completely telling. We hit over 10 FT's during the time frame due to the large number of fouls given by MSU. Everyone keeps forgetting that Michigan State is one of the best defensive teams not only in the B1G, but the entire country. I think a few set plays during the drought instead of sticking in the motion offense could have helped get an open look or two to take the lid of the basket. Along with that, there were several rebounds that either due to a bounce that didn't go our way or a missed box-out that hurt us.
Although this team is experienced, they haven't experienced these big time games and seemed like they were caught up in the moment to begin the first half last night. This does not worry me. We are just about to the half way point of B1G play and still have the BTT. Now our odds at winning the conference are slim at this point, but this team feels like they will get better and better as the season goes on and I wouldn't be surprised with them winning the BTT. With this being said, we are going to be in the NCAA tournament and that's ultimately where everything counts, not during the regular season.
The loss certainly grounded the team and I think gave the coaching staff some major flaws for them to work on (free throws, 3pt shots, clutch rebounding.) We still have a long season ahead of us and there is no reason to think that we can't beat Michigan at home here in a few weeks, but let's stop acting all disappointed when the Hawks are in fact exceeding expectations that most set for them at the beginning of the year. I think the Hawks will surprise by the end of the season.
Go Hawks.
