Bradley vs Michigan State - Discussion Thread

[JackTalkThai]

How do you think the two teams matchup?

What brand of game do you think will transpire? Up tempo? Deliberate?

What aspects of Bradley basketball will likely take MSU by surprise?

What's your score prediction?

[houstontxbrave]

I think we will surprise MSU with our height and physical presence on the interior.

This game will be up and down the court.

[audacious_aficionado]

How do you think the two teams matchup?

What brand of game do you think will transpire? Up tempo? Deliberate?

What aspects of Bradley basketball will likely take MSU by surprise?

What's your score prediction?

i think we match up fairly poorly against them after neitzel. ruff and neitzel is the obvious matchup to watch but after that we may have some issues. if we play crouch at two, he will certainly not be able to keep up with the quickness of kalin lucas who is only 6 feet tall. after that, they have a 6'7" powerhouse in raymar morgan. then there is gray and suton who are 6'8" and 6'10". putting warren on morgan, wilson on gray, and salley on suton to start the game makes us 8 inches shorter than them combined at those three positions! not good. i would have seriously considered a start by collins but now i think it is unlikely considering the fact that he did not start last game to get used to it.

i think if we are close at the end we will see a very uptempo game with lots of threes. kind of obvious. it's what our team does best.

assuming we win this game..... i'd say the score will be around 85-84. we're gonna need to score in bunches to keep up with these guys. ruffin playing goood D against neitzel and someone shutting down morgan is essential to winning also.

[BradleyBrave]

How do you think the two teams matchup?

What brand of game do you think will transpire? Up tempo? Deliberate?

What aspects of Bradley basketball will likely take MSU by surprise?

What's your score prediction?

BU matches up fairly well, or as well as one can hope to match up with a top 10 team. I think the most important matchup of the game is Theron Wilson on Raymar Morgan. Morgan is a superstar, and last year really had no one that could match up with his size or athleticism. Wilson is the only player who comes close to matching Morgan in either area.

While BU has the bodies to play down low this year, I am not sure they want to get it into a halfcourt game. Watching the 2nd half of the Mizzou game, MSU showed it can be vulnerable to being sped up with full court pressure. With BU's depth this year (10 deep), I think they'll want to speed up the tempo.

I don't think there will be any surprises tomorrow. Izzo's read the scouting report, and knows that BU shoots a lot of 3's. The only thing that may take some of the younger Spartans by surprise is the environment of their first true road game.

I can't predict a score at this point. I will predict that Michigan St comes in as an early 8 point favorite.

[Double D]

While JL has demonstrated the ability to adjust the the opponents style (ala SIU last year), I believe at this point in the season and on our home court that we need to play to our strenghts (tempo and quickness).

That means avoiding the obvious trap of trying to go too big (Wilson at 3 with two other bigs) to try to keep up with their size advantages. We have shown when we match up with some of the other power conference teams that we can run circles around some of the larger players that we go up against. Esp. at the 2 and 3 positions.

I know Michigan St. is a different story as far as talent at those spots, but IMO this would be the best course of action for us.

[JackTalkThai]

ruff and neitzel is the obvious matchup to watch but after that we may have some issues. if we play crouch at two, he will certainly not be able to keep up with the quickness of kalin lucas who is only 6 feet tall.

Some info on MSU...

FWIW Neitzel is MSU's starting SG and their starting PG has flip-flopped over the first handful of games. Walton started the first couple of games...then Lucas started the next four, and Walton has been the starting PG for the last two games. Expect Walton to be the starting PG on Tuesday.

MSU goes a consistent 9 deep: Neitzel-6'-Sr, Walton-6'2"-Jr, Gray-6'8"-Jr, Morgan-6'7"-Soph, Suton-6'10"-Jr will start and Lucas-6'-Frosh, Allen-6'3"-Frosh, Summers-6'5"-Frosh, Naymick-6'10"-Sr will come off the bench). That said, depending on fouls, fatigue and competition, Izzo has shown no reservations against going 10 to 12 deep as Ibok-6'11-Jr and Dahlman-6'6"-Soph were both part of the regular rotation last year and are just victims of an extremely talented freshmen class and Herzog-7'1"-RSfrosh was a 4 star top 50 center coming out of high school.

MSU has just two perimeter shooters (that like to shoot): Neitzel and Allen...and Allen thus far has been struggling to find his stroke. Morgan and Summers "can" shoot but they don't look to shoot the three. MSU's strength is their depth, rebounding, interior defense and ability to fastbreak off made and missed shots. By far their biggest weakness is their propensity to turn the ball over.

[mportsch]

Thus far, MSU has been one of the better offensive teams in the nation (6th, per Pomeroy). This is primarily due to:

• offensive rebounding (2nd in nation)
• shooting two's and making them (56.1%, 23rd in nation)
• getting to the FT line (22nd in nation) and making them (76%)

The 3-point shot hasn't been much of a weapon for MSU - they rarely shoot it and are just OK in terms of percentage (36.8%, 105th in nation). Neitzel and freshman Chris Allen are the only Spartans who average more than one 3pt attempt per game.
I see Bradley needing to do these things to pull off the upset:

• Limit MSU's offensive rebounds.
• Make threes.
• Limit turnovers.

To help on the defensive glass, I'd be inclined to give more minutes to Egolf and Singh, who, along with Theron Wilson, have been excellent defensive rebounders thus far. Matt Salley hasn't been getting it done on the defensive glass, so I'd look for his minutes to be reduced against MSU. David Collins has been great on the defensive glass, but his turnover rate has been terrible, so I'd be inclined to play Egolf and Singh first.
I'd try to stick with Ruffin, Crouch, Warren, Wilson, and Egolf/Singh for most of the game, and hope that the guards are hitting their threes and taking care of the ball (which has been a big issue for BU thus far). The biggest offenders in turnover rate are:

Salley 33.6%
Collins 33.0%
Maniscalco 29.1%
Cole-Scott 25.1%

Unless these guys have shown a better ability to take care of the ball in practice, I'd consider limiting their minutes against MSU. Of course, there's a reason Jim Les is a coach and I'm not. Should be a fun game to watch!

[mportsch]

That means avoiding the obvious trap of trying to go too big (Wilson at 3 with two other bigs) to try to keep up with their size advantages.

I agree completely. Wilson has shown excellent rebounding ability and can be used primarily at the PF slot, allowing Bradley to keep their three guard look for most of the game. I think giving more minutes to big guys at the expense of Bradley's talented guards would play right into MSU's hands.

[Guinness]

I'll be the first to publically state that we're most likely going to lose, but if we win, it wont come as a surprise, rather a "we played like we know we can".

But we come out of the gate like we have thus far this season? Done.

[it's boogie time]

I think the most important matchup of the game is Theron Wilson on Raymar Morgan.

Agreed. Wilson is going to have to stay out of foul trouble since he looks to be the only one that can guard Morgan.

Somebody is going to have to come up big on the offensive end other than Crouch or Ruffin.

Rebounding. BU is better than last year, but still a notch behind a team like MSU.

Andrew Warren has to hit his first shot. He becomes a nonfactor when he misses his first couple of shots.

Obviously, there are some givens that BU has to do every game if they want to win like hitting 3 pointers at a decent percentage and outhustling the opponent since they are usually the smaller team.

[dogsrus]

I think MSU sounds alot like Vandy at least in size. We won't see too much more than that all year. They also had a superstar we had trouble with but we also lost Wilson for much of the first half becuase of ONE ref that wanted to be the show.

Wilson comes in and wouldn't be denied on the boards......this should be fun.

How bad do the newbies want this? Summer school is over...time to grow up REAL fast. I worry a bit about the lack of intensity from Egolf and Collins....they better get or find a mean or aggressive streak very quickly.

[SFP]

To help on the defensive glass, I'd be inclined to give more minutes to Egolf and Singh, who, along with Theron Wilson, have been excellent defensive rebounders thus far. Matt Salley hasn't been getting it done on the defensive glass, so I'd look for his minutes to be reduced against MSU. David Collins has been great on the defensive glass, but his turnover rate has been terrible, so I'd be inclined to play Egolf and Singh first.
I'd try to stick with Ruffin, Crouch, Warren, Wilson, and Egolf/Singh for most of the game, and hope that the guards are hitting their threes and taking care of the ball (which has been a big issue for BU thus far). The biggest offenders in turnover rate are:

Salley 33.6%
Collins 33.0%
Maniscalco 29.1%
Cole-Scott 25.1%

Unless these guys have shown a better ability to take care of the ball in practice, I'd consider limiting their minutes against MSU. Of course, there's a reason Jim Les is a coach and I'm not. Should be a fun game to watch!

I agree with most of your accessment except with Collins. Collins makes up for his TO rate with his ability to score. He is really our only big man that can create his own shot. Unless we want to depend on Ruffin and Crouch to do all the scoring and even if we do we need an inside threat. Collins is the only big guy that they will need to double down. That will open up the 3 for us.

If Warren can to slash to the basket and pick up fouls and or take and make some mid-range jumpers in this game, we will have a shot. My guess is that they will try to take the all out of DR and JC's hand. AW will have to make them pay. If Warren's head is not in the game being agressive I'd give more minutes to Egolf period.

[dogsrus]

I agree with most of your accessment except with Collins. Collins makes up for his TO rate with his ability to score. He is really our only big man that can create his own shot. Unless we want to depend on Ruffin and Crouch to do all the scoring and even if we do we need an inside threat. Collins is the only big guy that they will need to double down. That will open up the 3 for us.

If Warren can to slash to the basket and pick up fouls and or take and make some mid-range jumpers in this game, we will have a shot. My guess is that they will try to take the all out of DR and JC's hand. AW will have to make them pay. If Warren's head is not in the game being agressive I'd give more minutes to Egolf period.

Thats OK but Egolf is not any more aggressive then Warren PLUS Warren should give you better D. I just hope Les can give Ruf and JC minuites off to stay fresh. In a game like this you need some surprises to step up. Sam and Cole_scott hitting a few threes would be HUGE.

[Stryker]

All I know is that we need to make sure MSU doesn't start off hot and get a 10 point lead, because there is no coming back and winning against a team like this. If we fall behind early they will take the crowd out of it and we won't be able to catch up again.

I think Les needs to get some high-percentage plays going right from the start, either dumping it in to Collins or running a great pass game to get the 3 open for Crouch or Ruffin.

[BradleyBrave]

For the MSU fans - How seriously are the fans taking this game? With the announcement of the Champs Sports Bowl v. Boston College (I hope you whoop them), it seems like that has taken on most of the attention over on SpartanTailgate. Looking at the schedule, State has another tough road game following BU, heading out to Utah to take on BYU. Obviously this game is the highlight of our non-conference schedule, I can't help but think that MSU looks at the schedule and might overlook this game.