Michigan St - 2:00 central, BTN

[hanny]

i was set to come in here and say NU had a chance today because Gus Johnson was doing the game and the Law of Gus would apply. That all games Gus does turn out to be close so his excitement can be maximized. But now Rosenthal says he can't make it because of travel snafus. So, carry on. MSU beat down, Draymon Green will get 22 and 14. Maybe it'll give you an excuse to start your new year's drinking early.

[Cdog923]

Damn. Kinda wish I was in Lincoln; I've been wanting to watch MSU and Izzo for a long time.

[UNK_LOPERS]

Hannny, when I heard Gus wasnt coming, your the first person I thought about. I live Gus too and this sucks. Michigan State only favored by 7. Is it wrong of me to lay that down big time? Ha...XMas is pretty much paid for earlier than normal.

[hanny]

Gus was there in spirit...if he would've been there in person we could've pulled it out. Not a bad effort today. We didn't match MSU's intensity out of the half. They went on something like 20-4 the first 6 minutes. Really, besides that they played pretty even. It was fun watching an izzo team in person. They're huge and they're all around the basket every shot. Impressive. They were pretty whiny, though. Izzo is a tiny dude, too. He was looking up at everyone, including the refs. Didn't realize he was that small. Hope people realize the wisconsin game is not the end all for this season. It's going to be a rough stretch, but if they can steal 1 or 2 here and play well when the schedule normalizes, they'll be ok. Don't give up yet.

Hope the "just drive it in there" crowd saw what happens when you "just drive it in there." you get it sent back down your throat. We don't have a lot of big finishers at the rim. It's a skill not everyone has. You can't just force it, any more than you'd force someone to shoot 3s.

also noticed today how much we miss jeter on the fast break. Not ragging on bo, thought he played fine today. We just had some missed opportunities and turnovers in transition. Jeter was a master at getting to the rack strong. Walker is probably our best transition finisher, followed by richardson, who has to use ssome magic to get his shots off. Bo seems hesitant to get it to the rim, and they also made some poor passing decisions on the break today.

on to next week...now go watch wichita state beat up creighton.

[UNK_LOPERS]

We had some breakdowns in transition defense today.  Which is funny because that's Doc's staple, he created the video on it....literally.  We missed a few opportunities in transition as well.  At the end of the day, Sparty worked us on the boards, that was the deciding factor. 

Again, Diaz and Talley being our are killing us.  If you really think about it, we currently have 3 players out who were easily projected in our rotation.  That continues to just kill us.  Michigan State is a good squad, hats off to the boys for the effort. 

Not that you ever want to be in a position to play him, but it was awesome see Fox drill that trey. 

Hanny, were you at the game?  If so, what's your take on Diaz.  You think there's more to the story than just an injury?  Also, what is your take on Hilliard/Moore/Rivers?  I really like Moore.  I think he's very gun shy, which is part because of Doc's "leash" on shot selection.  I think him and Rivers could both be pretty solid but I don't think either one are difference makers.  Hilliard I'm not sure of yet. 

[hanny]

I was at the game, yes. I think about the same as you on the 3 freshmen. moore looks like he's going to be a nice player. but you're right, he looks scared as heck out there right now. i don't want to put it on a short leash or anything like that. my bet would be doc wants to get some points out of him - he needs any points he can get off that bench. it just looks to me like the game is moving 100mph for him and every player looks like they weigh 350 lbs. he'll get there, it's just gotta slow down for him. rivers the same thing. i'm not sure what they're going to do with him. the preseason talk was him playing at the 4, but he introduces himself as a guard, and they don't put him in the bigs rotation. he looks athletic - slasher-type. again, it's gotta slow down for him.

hilliard i think will be fine. you're asking him to do different things than anybody else out there. he's gotta be your pg, your leader. and i think he's "the man" there next year. there's not a lot of pressure on him to do it a whole lot this year, but you can definitely see doc grooming him. along those lines - and i believe this was mentioned in the OWH story - they're really making it a point to initiate the offense with anyone but bo. be that richardson or hilliard. bo even turned down some inbounds passes. which is fine, especially with talley unlikely to play any time soon, they really don't have a 2 man. but back to hilliard. he's got a year to learn. i saw bo taking him under his wing a few times after timeouts and stuff. he's got two seniors to learn from in bo and richardson that played PG. he's got to soak it in and apply it in doses this year. i really think we'll get 3 good years out of him at point. he won't be asked to score (well, it's NU so we beg anyone to put some points up), but he'll need to be the floor general. i think he's capable.

and now to the incomparable JBD. i had foot problems when i played too. i still do, but i don't go 5 or 6 days a week, so it doesn't really crop up the same way. it can hurt like hell and make moving a pain in the rear. it hurt to step, and then you'd get callouses, blisters, blood, etc. don't know if that's the same nature of what he has, or if its all strictly structure stuff or what. when i had it, i played through it. it hurt, but it wasn't bad enough where i couldn't play, until it got infected for about 4-5 days and then i didn't want anything within 10 ft of that foot. i suppose the biggest difference was making cuts or pushing off. you just get really reluctant to put a lot of weight on it. watching diaz warm up today, he didn't look to have any gingerness in that regard. grabbing rebounds, layup lines, etc. now, you might know diaz doesn't exactly have much foot explosiveness even when healthy, so who could really tell the difference between a 100% diaz and a ginger diaz. he's sort of 100% ginger. maybe his feet are good enough to play but he couldn't really run the court with them. i'm sure he's not in enough shape to doc's standard, but maybe he'd be so slow getting down the court it would be a defensive liability every time. do i think this is some cover up punishment for something else? no. do i think maybe he's milking it? could be, probably just because he doesn't look to be in that much pain. but i'd hate to judge somebody's threshold or what they're really feeling. maybe he could suck it up more, maybe not. i guess my view is that it's probably a pretty legit issue, that playing him probably wouldn't do anyone any good. i also don't think there's any chance of it getting much better with rest or insoles or whatever. having been through it, you can put on 18 pairs of socks, insoles, different shoes, chicken bones on your shoelaces or whatever, your damn feet are still going to hurt. i think he wasted his time by getting whatever "therapy" was done at duke and probably should've just got the surgery. i think they should stop screwing around now and call it a year and get the surgery now and give him max time to rehab for next season. just bite the bullet. what are you looking at for this year? another 3 weeks or so of rest, then he might be good enough to practice 2-3 weeks to get into shape for a game, then the season's almost over, and if not, how long is he good for anyway? a few weeks? 2 months? 1 game? then you go into the offseason no better off than last offseason. i'll give everyone involved the benefit of the doubt that the issue is real and serious, but my concern is how they handle it going forward. i think it was diaz' call for no surgery last year, so maybe it's time to put the hammer down. stop putting a bandaid on a gunshot wound issue. or so i'll say without having any knowledge of what's actually going on 

so there's some way-too-long answers to your questions. now time for sullinger and his below-the-rim game to meet mr. ubel, mr. mccray and herr niemann.

[UNK_LOPERS]

Thank you for the response.  Many people are reading too far into this Diaz situation.  Some thing he's trying to transfer, quit the team, or this or that.  Just wanted to hear your take on that, warmups and whatnot. 

Hilliard is hurting, but I like the way he gets after it on defense.  I think Benny Parker comes in here and has a Cookie Miller type impact, here's to hoping HIlliard works his ass off and comes to compete for that spot next year as a little competition never hurt nothing.  Gotta love Moore, comes from a big-time winning program. 

I'm a college basketball freak, watch a ton of games every week in all different types of conferences.  I gotta be honest with you, I never looked at the Big 10 under a microscope and thought about what a team needed to be succesful.  We really do need a power big every other class.  In the Big 12 you worked so hard to get athletes to defend these 6'7"-6'9" athletic freak post players.  You really do need a Maric-type.  In the Big 12, I sort of forgot what a traditional center was....but it's high-time we recruited one.   

As I've said recently, I fully support a new direction for this program.  However, Doc has to get some credit for changing conferences, switching to the Big 10 is a whole different ball game.  It really is night and day.  You have to recruit different types of players I think.  Yeah, basketball is basketball, just get players.  But it's a different type of game, it's officiated completely different. 

Also, I want to thank the officiating crew for doing such an outstanding job today!  Going against a ranked team and getting a fairly officiated ball game?  I can't even imagine the last time I've seen a fairly officiated Big 12 game when the dog was going against a ranked opponent.