Mackey mauling

What can you say about this game? The press corps was trying to come up with worse MSU hoops performances in recent memory. Someone mentioned the Duke home game in 2003, and someone else mentioned a 70-40 loss at Illinois the year before.

This one ranks right up there with any of them -- and it's the least points an MSU team has scored since 1952, when Pete Newell was coach and "shot clock" was a skeet shooting term. Nasty.

The key for MSU now, obviously, is to rest up, put this game in perspective for the single loss it is, and work on getting better. Also, to rediscover Marquise Gray.

I asked Tom Izzo tonight why he played walk-on Jake Hannon for the last three minutes of the first half instead of Gray. He replied that foul trouble was the reason -- that Gray and big men Drew Naymick and Idong Ibok all had multiple fouls, making it necessary to pair Hannon with Goran Suton.

But in actuality, as I discovered later when looking at the first-half box score, Ibok had three fouls, Naymick two and Gray just one. So was this really a motivational/punishment thing that Izzo just didn't want to talk about? If so, that's definitely not like him.

Regardless, this much is clear: Gray has disappeared in tandem with this losing streak. If MSU is going to start winning, he's going to have to start earning more minutes and producing. He has a total of 14 points and 27 rebounds in the past five games.

Unlike MSU's dog-tired perimeter guys, its big men get plenty of rest. They have to start doing more, and Gray -- the most talented athlete of the bunch -- is the one who must lead them.

Comments

[John Rhodes]

Fatigue or whatever the perimeter men have always shows up in February. The schedule is no help either, with all the tough games coming up in the end of the season. Like I have said the team can look forward to an NIT bid, and talk about bubbles and such is just that, talk. There is no bubble for this team for the big dance. That ended when they lost to Iowa the first time. I see a 6-10 record for the big ten season and nothing they have done has convinced me that will be different. Gray is a guy who will probably develop late in his career if he does at all. There was a small forward some years ago that everyone was waiting to develop his shot and never did until he left MSU and then returned for an exhibition game and burned up the nets.

[Evergreen]

Inarguably, the worst performance of the season for State. And against Purdue. The others just make me shake my head in frustration, but this one truly hurt.

I'm on the fence as far as which postseason is better for this team, between the NCAAs and the NIT. The NIT has the potential to take a lot of recruiting momentum away and garner far less attention. No one remembers who won last year's NIT. Far fewer remember who made it part way through. The idea of the NIT champion being the 66th best team in the country is completely false, with the way every conference is guaranteed a slot in the big tourney. But at the same time, it's nothing to brag about either. What the NIT would give is more experience on which this team can build next year. The NCAA tournament, although on a much bigger stage, could almost certainly provide an embarrassing one-and-done scenario (on that same big stage). Our incoming recruiting class has a lot of talent and when combined with Tom Herzog pulling off that red shirt, I think this program can withstand the negative connotation that comes with being in the NIT (and then some). I hate the thought of missing the tournament, but I hate the thought of losing to a fired up Witcha State by 20 even more.

Possibly the most frustrating aspect of all of this is that this team is better than what they're showing right now. Neitzel has the ability to be a high-scorer. Suton has the ability to be a confidant and reliable contributor. Morgan has the ability to be a breakout star. Naymick and Ibok have the ability to be solid defenders inside. Gray has the ability to be a dominant inside player and rebounder. Walton has the ability to be a great pick-pocketer and crafty point guard. And each guy has shown his ability on more occasions than one.

However, Neitzel can't score if he's running the point as much as he is, and is therefore forcing shots. Suton has been anything but inconsistent (I'm sorry Joe, but that piece earlier this week on his consistency was way off the mark). Injuries have been an obvious problem this year, but Morgan is definitely a freshman and makes lots of natural mistakes. This is a fact and not a criticism. Naymick and Ibok both have the tendency to be foul-happy, relegating them ineffective on the bench. Gray seems to forget to use common sense a lot of times, and also is inconsistent. Walton isn't as confidant as he needs to be to defend and run the offense (leading to Neitzel assuming his past role). Due to injuries and his freshman-ness, I have yet to figure out Joseph.

No team is perfect, but it's so aggravating when a team doesn't play to their potential at least half-way consistently. At the beginning of this year, there wasn't a lot of buzz about this team because we all knew it was a rebuilding year. I've read that word so many times I could puke, but it was true. Then, after a couple of uncertain performances against Grand Valley and Brown, things picked up. Or they seemed to. We had our way with the cupcakes on our schedule, and even put out a couple of quality performances beating Texas and taking Maryland to the wire. It went to most fans' heads and suddenly some were talking about a Big Ten championship and even a run in the tournament. Conference play, and the disruption of injuries, has quickly slapped those lofty thinkers back into reality. We never should have been ranked earlier this season. That said, the season is not over and shouldn't be abandoned (by players or fans). There are six games left and then the conference tournament. All of those games are valuable in one way or another, and each should be played with all the guts and determination that this team has to make them count. We need to get back to the pressing and running and rebounding that Izzo reemphasized a while back, and make that a Michigan State staple once again.

This program is not going down the toilet. Izzo is not washed up. And true fans are not losing heart. My blood's just as green as the rest of yours, and it's tough to see this team struggle through a down year (and even tougher, sometimes, to be realistic about it). However, the recruiting's there (arguably even better than it was in the late 90s), the coach is still there who knows how to get it done, and the program is just waiting through the formality of a down year to get back where it belongs.

[florida spartan]

remember Coach Izzo's discription of his team: immature. ups and downs, downs more so than ups recently. I feel like a Chicago fan - wait till next year.

[jterry]

Re:Izzo's frustration:This is MSU-
a young team...but when you have
instant analysis-sometimes you get
lost and this team is searching for its identity.When you come so]
close to beating OSU-you think,"we
can beat Purdue,well remember this
is 'MSU' and every one wants to
beat you because others notice it.

that 2000 championship team put a
big burden on all that immediately
follow...Remember Illinois star
guard (williams)saying,"man what
does it take to beat those guys,
and look how Wisconsin has built on that team that slowed us down to try and beat us-now they are.

This team,has some bigs and few
floor runners,we are burnning our
guards ands wings out maybe we
need to think about half court,use
the clock,control what we can con-
trol and resolve to score more points that our opponent by games
end. Izzo knows what he's up against,but this teams strength is
more like those Ivy league back,
door teams,sometimes you can beat
teams by lulling them to sleep.
this team is not athletic enough
to trade punches,still you fight
thru it,stay cerebral and see if
you can create.Good luck coach we
may be pis.....,but I bet everyone
is still with you and hoping you
find the answers-they are there in
the archives and around the USA.

[Bakes]

This team may have overachieved a little bit in the beginning of the season. Also, the scouting done by the other big ten teams is pretty ruthless. These points, combined with a tired backcourt has brought MSU down to Earth. Look for them to settle down and come back strong(er) with a week off.
Also, this has been bothering me for a while...

ATTENTION 'jterry'... 1) you do not need to press the enter key every three words. the computer can do that for you. 2) you might want to re-visit a run-on sentence lesson from 2nd grade. Sorry, but your posts are just unreadable.

[RC]

When was the last time that a Spartan team played with some degree of consistency throughout the year since the Cleaves era? Yes a couple teams went deep into the tournament, but underperformed during the year -- especially the video tape-smashed team. Lack of leadership has been a problem since Cleaves. Not even Izzo can coach it. Can it be recruited?