+3 and -3 from MSU vs Duke,

+3 1. I love that we play these games. Yep, it stings to lose to them. Yes, I hate that Coach is 1-11 against Coach K. But the same as when I coach, I want to find out what my guys got between their legs early in the season. I could play 10 CMU's and never know. I want to get punched in the mouth early and see how individuals and my team react. People hate to hear it, but the teachable moments that come from this game and film session, are worth 10 of the other games. Coach knows what to do with this film and guys will learn a lot. The loss sucks, twice as bad to those dirtbags, but plenty of good will come from it. 2. I thought Tum was great tonight. He really guarded, got the transition game going, and was our best zone offense player. Yes, you read that right, he was our best zone offense player. He really moved the ball, got into some gaps, made great reads, and found open men. Instead of being a liability, I thought he was a big asset. Good game by him tonight. 3. Our transition game was fantastic again. When we get out in transition, we are as good as anyone in the country. But, you need to defensive rebound to run! Love the way we share it, attack, pitch, get early post touches, so many good things come when we run. You can tell this team has spent a lot of time on it and it will continue to pay off. -3 1. MSU did not play a very good basketball game. Duke can get plenty of credit for that. But when you turn it over 17 times against a team with minimal ball pressure, give up 25 offensive rebounds, shoot 36% from "3" and 56% from the line, and have as many defensive breakdowns as there were in the second half, you deserve to lose. Yes, it's November. Yes, it's Duke, Still don't think we played very well. 2. Team Defense in the second half. You scored 81, you should win. First half, held Duke to 27% on first shots. I don't want to comment too much on the 25 offensive rebounds until I've watched the film and charted those, but the number of defensive errors in the second half were numerous. MANY of those errors were in ball screen defense and we made just about every kind of error. - Schilling and Ward showed too early, got split by the ball handler. 3. Our guards are not good enough, right now, to win a game like that. Langford was 3/9 for 9. McQuaid was 1/4 for 2. Those two also got 35 hung on them. Cash was 1/5 for 3 and had a courtside seat to Duval's 17 points. One of the reasons MSU lost the game tonight was how dramatically they were outplayed at the guard position. The missing of uncontested 3's when a team is playing zone, especially after great ball rotation, is very deflating for a player and team. When Langford is -20 plus/minus like tonight and McQuaid is 4/23 from "3" on the year, it's going to be tough to beat good teams MISC - As I said after the Ferris game, I expect us to see a lot of zone. So few teams can matchup with us and many will at least give it a look because it limits out athleticism, it's easier to get set up in, and it makes us shoot 3's.

- I hope the move to the "3" by Bridges doesn't mean he's going to take 65% of his shots from 3. He's just not the same mismatch there.

- This team does not have a wing stopper on D. No, we won't play many Grayson Allen's, I get that. But stop coming at me with McQuaid or Langford as a D-stopper. Can they be plus defenders? I guess. At times they have been. But Tum is the only stopper on this roster at the guard position, IMO. Everyone else is simply a little better than the guy next to him, so that looks pretty good on a team without really good wing defenders.

- Gavin Schilling's fouls are an issue. It puts him on the bench at times when we need him and also gets the other team closer to the bonus. 6 minutes and 4 fouls. The AWFUL take that we have enough bodies so his fouls don't matter is beyond stupid. Whether or not you think it was a foul, the moving screen when we were up 1 with 9:50 left, when Winston hit a "3" that would've put us up 4, was a big call.

- I'm confused by the "rotation struggle." We have 1 player who is new to MSU in the main rotation. We don't have many injuries. We play against amazing competition each day in practice. We get to pick our rotation, no one else dictates it to us. I am missing what rotation challenges we have that other teams don't?

- Interesting that Coach K, at Duke, ranked #1, admitted they couldn't guard MSU and came out and played zone for 40 minutes. I get that it worked, for tonight. But you aren't always just coaching for tonight, especially in November. Interesting message to send to your guys who at some point you are going to need to "D" up and play some man. Interesting move...

- I thought our zone offense was really poor the first 10 minutes of the first half and the last 5 minutes of the game. In between it wasn't bad. We scored 81 and I'm supposed to be bent about zone offense? C'mon. We used the high post area, got decent ball movement, some post touches, and a lot of wide open looks. In those other stretches we had bad turnovers, pick 6's, and didn't look as smooth with screening the zone or zone set actions as we will later in the year.

- I was a little surprised that all 3, McQuaid/Goins/Carter were in the game during that critical stretch of 6 minutes to 3 minutes. Didn't win or lose the game, wasn't at all shocked that we saw 2/3, was surprised that it was all 3.

- The way Grayson Allen plays is bad for college basketball. If you love the game, the way the game is meant to be played, all the PLAY THE RIGHT WAY stuff, if you love John Wooden, Bobby Knight, moving without the ball, taking a charge, defensive rebounding, ball movement, and playing the game the way it was meant to be played, you absolutely cannot like the way Grayson Allen plays the game. It’s like a flopping and flailing soccer star was dropped down in the middle of major college basketball and has no respect for the integrity of the game. I spent a lot of time talking to my 10-year-old son about the right way to play the game, to respect the game and your opponent, and that you owe something to this great game each time you step on the floor. The game has been great to so many of us, we owe something back to it. I lose a lot of respect for Coach K every time I watch Allen play. - On a lighter and positive note, was coaching a 5th grade game tonight for my son's team. Up 3 with 10 seconds left after a made FT. Chose to foul at half-court in the #FoulOrDefend world. Kid executed it perfectly. Other coach was clapping and almost laughing at me, not sure he understood it. Missed the FT, we got the rebound, won the game. Didn't get me as excited as doing it to win a HS or college game, but still made me smile!

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