Observations from Columbus

[The Wiz]

Billikens owned the Front Street Tavern,,,,a sea of blue....wall to wall Bills ...a great venue.

We were the better team....even when we fell behind we did so because of turnovers and missed easy shots, Once we stopped turnining the ball over and made the sure shots we started to pull away. We finished the game strong beating Memphis 32-17 in the final 12 min. Must have been that zone we warned them about. Great win for the Bills....fans were ecstatic.

I stuck around for the MSU/LIU game. Even though MSU will be favored over us, I am here to tell you MSU is beatable

They were not impressive against an outmanned LIU team. LIU hung with them into the 2nd half until MSU finally wore them down. MSU has a series of wide bodies, Guys who look like they play for the Spartan football team. They plant their 3 big boys under the basket and feed them the ball. They then bull there way to the boards. In the 1st half 17 0f their 19 baskets were in the paint. With all this heft they didn't do much on rebounds especially on the defensive end. If we can deny them in the paint (no easy task) we can take them. Payne (one of the trio of big boys) is fairly athletic ... Nix and Green not so much. Nix is the biggest of the bigs...Liu players were bouncing off of him....Better to go around him. Izzo spent most of the game in the ear of the ref until the refs gave him a warning.

Answers to key questions

Is MSU better then Mem? Yes

Will we have to play better to beat MSU? Yes

Can we win ? Yes

Is Izzo a better coach than Pastner? Yes

Can RM counter him? Yes ...the RM effect was worth 8 in the 1st game. Maybe 5 or 6 in this game.

Bottomline....if we take care of the ball and make the sure shots (2 footers) we can win this game.

[joe_davola]

I pretty much agree with everything you said. They feed the ball down low and just bulldoze their way to the rim. They are going to get their share of points in the paint, but we HAVE to box out every possession or I think we will just get killed on the glass. They have a couple monsters. With that said, I think they are beatable We cannot turn the ball over as much as we did today. If we can limit our turnovers and play some solid D...call me nuts, but I think we have a good shot of taking these bastards out.

[thetorch]

Agreed. I watched a little of the first half before I left & having seen Mich St play a few times.

They are just a big bruising team. Green is a handful but he isn't a protypical point forward, not a long smooth player. Not terribly athletic, he plays like Conklin does, just all over the floor. If we mix and match with him, running Evans, Conklin, and Jett at him at certain times he can be neutralized. MSU does seem like their whole roster is made up of 6'4-6'7 thick guys who can handle a little. We don't see those types of players a lot in the A-10.

Slowing down the tempo against them won't do much good. They like that too. They will pound it inside all night. We can force them into poor shots though.

Big key for us will be Loe & Ellis. They were really nonexistent tonight. Memphis didn't let them get open looks. MSU's bigs will have a harder time chasing them around. We need 15 to 20 from Down Under, not 9 like tonight. If we can get 15-20 from Ellis and Loe we will be in the game.

[SaintLouBlue]

Having watched MSU quite a bit this year I think the analysis is pretty spot on (I'm also a lowly Illini fan seeing as went to grad school there). I do feel like MSU is beatable, but we'll have to bring one of our top games. I am not sure if I would say Green is not athletic. He is pretty darn good. He can bring the ball up the court, he can shoot the 3, he can bang down low, and in a lot of ways I see him as the heart of their team. I guess maybe you could term him as "SLU Athletic", if you consider althletic to being long and lanky. If he goes off on us for 24, 12, and 10, like the first game we'll be in trouble. I think we'll have to watch our big guys getting into foul trouble against their big front line. And, if we can get some of their big guys in foul trouble, which we've had a knack for doing this year, it would be beneficial. I think the rebounding will be key. MSU is notorious for crashing the boards and getting 2nd chances.

The only other thing that scares me is Izzo. I just know every year in my brackets, I don't have MSU losing before the Sweet 16 or Elite 8 no matter what kind of season they've had (except this one ). Like Majerus, Izzo is almost good for a win or two on his own.

But enough about MSU. If we take care of the ball and play to our ability, we could move on. I'd love to see that team that played in the second half at home vs. X. I agree that we'll need to have Ellis, Loe, Evans, MM or someone else step up to really support KM and BC. Still stoked about the win last night and excited to still be talking Bills basketball.

[SaintLouBlue]

PS...I remember at the beginning of the year after beating Washington and winning the Tourney out West, we said we had beaten a team from the Pac 10, Big East, ACC, and Big 12. Figure we can win on Sunday to take down someone from the Big 10 and then might as well keep going and take down Kentucky to get our win against the SEC.

[Schasz]

I agree this is doable on Sunday and I have been having fun with my best friend going back and forth on this game as he sent his kid to Michigan State, and has been telling me how great a HC Izo is. We need to play our strong defense and play offense like we did VS UDub. I think Cody and Rob hitting the treys would really help out Kwamain and Conk. Let's take care of the basketball much better too as there were too many unforced errors in the Memphis game that I attribute to nerves. Finally, block out and hold our own on the boards and we can get our Big 10 pelt for this season. Let's Go Bills!!!

[jjray]

It's always a good sign when fans from other schools show up on our board and tell us about their future NBA draft picks. One can only hope some Spartan cazzo show up saying we don't belong on the same court with Michigan State.

[The Wiz]

I agree with the above posters ...we need to nix (mix) it up a bit with them. As mentioned RL, CE, and DE would be good choices . Maybe this new kid Miller that Memphis has loaned us can help out. He seems to be quite the stud. Back on a serious note, I think a player we are forgeting who would be perfect against MSU would be CR. I hope he steps up on Sun. One thing the LIU game showed is that when LIU did mix it up MSU struggled. We are much better than LIU and deeper,,,,we could give State a lot of trouble ...enough to cause a loss.

[Adman]

I agree with the above posters ...we need to nix (mix) it up a bit with them. As mentioned RL, CE, and DE would be good choices . Maybe this new kid Miller that Memphis has loaned us can help out. He seems to be quite the stud. Back on a serious note, I think a player we are forgeting who would be perfect against MSU would be CR. I hope he steps up on Sun. One thing the LIU game showed is that when LIU did mix it up MSU struggled. We are much better than LIU and deeper,,,,we could give State a lot of trouble ...enough to cause a loss.

Wiz, a game prediction yet?