Coaching Corner / +3 and -3 from Michigan State vs. Ohio State,

+3

1. Have some perspective. 3rd time this weekend a top 5 team lost. This happens on the road in conference season. It’s almost like people can’t switch out of college football mode (where this ends your season) to college basketball mode, where it happens a couple times a week. You won 14 in a row, you lost a road game to a good team. All your goals are in front of you. A wise coach once told me take out your best 5 games, take out your worst 5, the 25ish in the middle is who you are. That remains to be seen.

2. Won the rebounding battle 39-32. Langford had a decent game offensively.

3. 85% at the line? I don’t know, really reaching to find a positive after a game like that.

-3

1. This young team has no proved their worth on the road. Mediocre road team last year. You are still starting 4 sophomores and a freshmen. That matters. You played a veteran team at home today. It’s fair to call the mental toughness into question. No notable true road games in the non-conference, brutal in a road win at Rutgers, and that disaster you saw today. Slow down on the Final Four talk. Slow down on the national championship talk. None of that matters now anyway. Prove yourself on the road in the league to see if you can win your conference. That should be the discussion right now. Maybe people can stop talking about 20 game win streaks or 17-1 B1G seasons. It’s like we forget how hard it is to win on the road in the conference until real conference games start up again.

2. Shot the ball horribly (39% and 28%). Defended horribly (gave up 80). For being #3 in KenPom adusted-D, you can’t make a run in the 2nd half if you don’t get stops. If you shoot under 40% on the road, it’s going to be hard to win. The last 35 minutes were as bad as this team could look on both ends.

3. In the biggest games, especially on the road, your best players need to play well. You can tell me about McQuaid, how Tum can’t score, or how Goins missed a 2 footer. But this game is about your best being their best. Bates-Diop dominated Bridges, Jackson, and anyone else who tried to guard him. When Bridges and Ward play like they did today, you may not beat anyone on the road in the B1G.

Coaching Corner

* VERY impressive job by Chris Holtmann. Great plan to double Ward aggressively and quickly. Really backed off Tum and that allowed them to show .5 help on MSU’s best players. Put MSU’s bigs in space vs. ball screens. Ran Bates-Diop off diagnol and flex screens to get him the ball 12-15 feel away with a slight advantage. He took a program that had talented players, but was a little bit of a mess, and is off to a very good start. Much credit to Holtmann and the staff for the game plan today.

* Let’s talk a little more about the post double. There are 3 basic ways a team can double. You can double from the furthest player away/closest help man, from a certain player, or from ball side. Ohio State doubled from the furthest player away and was very successful. Nick Ward took one shot and it hit the top of the backboard. MSU tried to dive the weak-side big, but that’s just a 1 on 1 dive and the OSU player beat him to the spot. OSU basically left the man furthest away from the ball and bet that MSU couldn’t reverse/skip the ball in time. They were right, MSU couldn’t. Ward and MSU have a couple options in terms of how to deal with this:

1. Ward has to catch deeper and make a quick post move before the double gets there. Also try to get catches more toward the middle and not so close to the baseline.

2. Have a specific rotation/screen/movement once the ball goes into the post. When you have that, Ward doesn’t have to read and then pass. The read is partially taken out as certain players always cut to certain spots.

3. Do more screening for Ward prior to the catch. That makes the help become much more complicated as it’s hard to tell who the “doubler” is and where Ward might catch it. MSU didn’t run a ton of sets like that today and I’d like to see more of them against this defensive look.

I’m sure this will be figured out by a Hall of Fame coach and his staff. I will be interested to see what wrinkles they will use, as you know other teams are going to do it.

Extras

* Ohio State was really good. ONLY turned it over 6 times. Shot 53%, held MSU to 39%. Jaren Jackson is one of the best 4-spot defenders that MSU has EVER had and Bates-Diop squared him up and scored in his face the first two possessions. That was a bad sign for MSU on his way to 32 points. Sometimes the other teams plays one of their best games when you play one of your worse. That was today.

* The MSU bench, which was great vs. Maryland and has been really good this year, STRUGGLED mightily today. MSU jumped to an 11-6 lead, subbed, and it was 12-11 really quick. McQuaid/Tum/Goins went 1/10 today.

* It was a bad technical at a bad time for Coach Izzo. My guess is he will say the same and own it. He lost his composure and so did the team. It was 31-29 late in the half, a bucket, a T, Winston takes the shot too early, Dakich banks it in, and you have 41-29 and the game changed. Not the right time or situation to get the technical, especially when your opponent shot two free throws in the first half.

* If you take Nick Ward out of the game, which OSU did today, and this becomes primarily a jump shooting team, you might score 64 points as you do today. Nick Ward is MSU most valuable offensive player, IMO. When he’s good, they are almost unstoppable on offense. MSU hasn’t necessarily figured out how to deal with those doubles.