Michigan State Recap

The Illini lost to Michigan State tonight, 51-41. Box Score

Another tough loss for the Illini tonight. Pretty amazing that our big shooters are Chester Frazier, Calvin Brock and Mike Tisdale. I think on the offensive end of the floor we have either hit a new low, or showed the world that MSU has the best defense in the country this year. Most likely we hit a new low.

On the topic of free throw shooting, we must have hit a new low, shooting 7 of 19 free throws tonight, 36.9% to be exact. At least this was better than our 30% field goal shooting, and 18% shooting from three point range. Where's Jamar Smith and Alex Legion when you need them? (Hopefully back in Champaign drinking a Pepsi or somthing like that....)

We learned tonight that Coach Weber actually did enlist a shrink (aka Sports Psychologist) earlier this year to work with our guys. Guess that didn't work, but I think a number of bloggers had recommended it. It was obvious to me that when the Illini go to the line in the second half, they are missing one thing--confidence.

We did have a nice effort on defense tonight, and that should win some games for us the rest of the year. Maybe we can get back to .500 this year as a goal for the season. And if someone can figure out how to score baskets, maybe we can do even better, and make a run in the Big 10 tourney.

About MSU, they are fundamentally sound, tough defense, great rebounding, and great free throw shooting. Their shooting from outside was really lacking tonight, but hopefully some of that was the Illini defense. They also had quite a few turnovers, 18 for the game. Michigan State could easily be the team that wins the Big 10 this year. But unlike prior years, I won't pick this Izzo-coached team to go to the final four. They just don't seem to have the explosiveness on offense to go that far in the tourney.