+3 and -3 from MSU vs. Seton Hall,

Side note - Happy for my brother. Great Spartan fan. Lives in Manhattan. Came home to sit thru the rain and watch us lose to Penn State. Took in the Kentucky loss. Got to see a win tonight! Now is going to Maui...hopefully to watch us win that! Holy ****. That was fun! What a game. So excited for the ride this team is going to take us on. +3 1. Road win, against a very good team, where we faced A LOT of adversity. Winston with a broken heart/foul trouble, Tillman with broken offense, Henry injures ankle, Powell going crazy, rowdy environment, and you end the game on a 10-2 run. The play of the year for me right now is the Watts "3" down 5. He had just missed an uncontested layup off a great back-door set. Powell missed a shot, Watts made that huge 3 then assisted on the next 3 to Cash. To end that game on a 10-2 run with all that had happened was very impressive. 2. Malik Hall. I mean, c'mon. Guy has 0 points on the year and goes for 17 or 19, whatever it was. 5 rebounds and is perfect from the field including 3/3 from 3. I thought Loyer and Brown's minutes were huge in the first half. Instead of being down 10 at half like UK, were up by 3 and a lot of that was due to Loyer and Brown with Cash in foul trouble. 3. 44% from 3. Really shot the ball better in the 2nd half. Hall and Winston knocking down 3's and the HUGE one from Watts. Gotta make shots to win games. Gotta score points and had 46 in the 2nd half tonight. -3 1. Half-court defense in the 2nd half. It's funny, because I thought we guarded like crazy in the first. But in the 2nd, we got beat off the bounce into the lane time after time after time. They looked so much quicker and more athletic than we did. While Powell made some really tough shots, Hall also missed a late hedge on him and Henry a rotation when X came over to help. Getting beat off the bounce was an issue vs. UK and was again tonight. That's where McQuaid and Goins are missed as much as anywhere. 2. I get that Tillman made some great defensive plays down the stretch with the principle of verticality. I get that he had a great assist to Hall when Seton Hall went zone on the last possession. I love that he had 11 rebounds. I know how big they are. Know who else is big and long? The entire NBA. But 1/9 with 4 turnovers in a game where we really needed him was so short of what's expected of him. Maybe we've made too big of an assumption about the offensive skill set. Again, there are a lot of things that I continue to love about his game, but he's 4/17 for 10 points,with 8 fouls and 7 turnovers, against UK/Hall combined. Will need more of his offense as the year goes on. 3. Almost let one guy beat us again, like vs. UK. Henry's ankle probably stopped him from spending the most time on Powell, and we aren't going to play many guys like Maxey/Powell, but need a defensive stopper to be able to disrupt guys going off like that. MISC * I thought Willard going to a zone-jump to end the first half was a great move. We weren't prepared and didn't get a shot. He rolled the dice and went zone on MSU's last possession. Veterans stepped up. Winston found Tillman, who found Hall, who finished (should've been a "and one"). * First half I thought we defended great and shooting was terrible. Missed so many open looks. Second half almost exactly flipped. * Willard also rolled the dice on their second to last offensive possession. It looked like the call was for the big to slip as Hall jumped out to help on the pin-down for Powell. X came over to help and their big didn't finish. It was an open play, but took it out of Powell's hands, which is risky. * Speaking of those officiating down the stretch. After we went up by 1 on back to back 3's by Watts/Winston, I don't think the foul called on Gabe Brown was a good one. The ref anticipated the call and gave Powell the call. He initiated all the contact and it was clean on top. Then, the no-call on the Hall "and one." I think the play when Tillman came over to help was a foul. I think that should've been called. The last one I don't think was a foul. Powell flailed into 3 guys with 0% chance of making the shot. Henry blocked it with his elbow. * Less turnovers than SH and more rebounds. Both helpful for a road win. * I said before the game that this may be MSU's toughest road game of the year. My brother was at the game and said the environment was awesome. Don't think there will be many tougher on the road * Size and strength of their bigs really bothered Kithier and Bingham * Uncharacteristic mistakes by Ahrens tonight * 59% from the FT line isn't good enough