Basketball gets going
This is Denny Schwarze in for Joe. I was at the Michigan State men's basketball exhibition win over Ferris State on Sunday afternoon and here's a few thoughts that I took away from the game today.
Freshman forward Branden Dawson is a beast from what I saw. First, it is immediately apparent that he has a Big Ten body right now - very impressive physically. The way he flies to the rim for rebounds (especially on the offensive end) is something that I have rarely seen from a freshman. His leaping ability is deceptively good and he shows off his athletic ability in bursts - He'll be lumbering around and look as if he's almost beginning to fatigue, then explode to the rim once the ball is put up for a shot. His rebounding ability is as good as advertised. As the season goes along and we continue to look at the stats, he's going to look like he's taking a lot of shots simply because he gets so many put-back attempts. Dawson took 14 shots against Ferris State but it seriously felt as if he only had about five. It will be interesting to see how he develops as a shooter and how he plays defensively, but right now a place in the starting five is definitely his. Tom Izzo said he will need to hustle more up and down the floor and Dawson agreed that he had watched some tape and needed to show more urgency on the court. With how tenacious of a rebounder he is, he'll see the court a lot.
Derrick Nix has changed. He's always had good feet and above average post moves, but now he has the athletic build, which will allow him to do more than just appear in flashes. He played 17 minutes and said afterwards that he wasn't even tired despite playing sometimes in six minute stretches, when he would have been just a few minutes after being on the court last season. Between him and Adreian Payne, there's definitely a nice foundation down low. Will it be enough to contain Jared Sullinger, Robert Sacre or North Carolina's frontcourt of Barnes, Zellar and Henson? Probably not (although I think Green/Nix/Payne could plug up the middle and force the UNC trio more outside... which will still be to UNC's advantage), but baby steps are the key here. Nix looks like a player who is close to nailing down the starting spot inside if he hasn't already. Payne was OK at times and good at other times and his final line of eight points (2-for-4 from the field, 4-for-6 from the FT line), six rebounds looks pretty solid. He also had a nice block in the first half and a nice putback slam. I'd give the edge to Nix here for now.
I thought Keith Appling did a solid job as a point guard, but again baby steps is what to look for. I still see him being a score-first point guard and he showed a penetration game against Ferris State that simply hasn't been there in the past. It's going to be tough to balance the shooting/passing, considering they'll need his points most games. Freshman guard Travis Trice was impressive in relief. I've said it before the season, but I think he will become this team's Aaron Craft at some point in his career. He stuck his nose in there and got four rebounds and shot more than I thought he would. His free-throw shooting (5-for-6 from the line) will be a helpful thing when the Spartans are ahead late in close contests this season. Trice also allows Appling to play the 2 guard, which is obviously his more natural position.
It was nice to see Byrd come in and get some minutes. There was definitely a buzz in the crowd as he came to the scorer's table with 3:20 to go in the first half. Byrd had two solid looks and one look from the corner by the MSU bench that was a little off-balance. He showed a good stroke and made one of three from behind the arc. Thornton was also 1-for-3 from deep, but had four turnovers in just 18 minutes.
MSU was just 3-for-18 from behind the 3-point line and that needs to get much better. I was expecting them to shoot a little better, but that may change when the Spartans take on Hillsdale in their final exhibition game on Friday.
