Impressions from the North Florida basketball game

On Tuesday evening, I attended my first MSU basketball game of the season, a somewhat snooze-worthy blowout win of North Florida in front of a vaguely disinterested, Izzone-less crowd. The biggest excitement of the evening, quite frankly, took place during the timeouts. In the first half, the seniors for the Spartan football team came out with their championship trophies and saluted the crowd and were received with the most rousing applause of the night. Late in the second half, Tom Izzo called timeout and addressed the crowd, saluting Ed Hightower, who was officiating his last game at Breslin Center before his retirement. Hightower has taken quite a bit of abuse from MSU fans over the years, but he received a warm ovation and he seemed truly touched by the gesture.

As for the game itself, the play of Gavin Schilling and Russell Byrd was encouraging, but given the competition is probably not worth getting overly excited about. Certainly, it'd be great to see Schilling continue to improve this season since this basketball team's biggest weakness is in the front court. Derrick Nix's departure has left a hole that the Spartans have had a difficult time filling. Russell Byrd played the best game I've ever seen from him. He made some big shots and looked confident. He was even able to drive to the basket and lay it up and in. I've never seen that from him. Yes, I know it's "only" North Florida, but maybe this is a good sign. Maybe, just maybe, Byrd can become a guy to come off the bench and provide a spark. One can't help but root for this kid.

The last highlight of the evening occurred after the game, when Adreian Payne and Branden Dawson joined in the singing of "MSU Shadows" and offered some interpretive dance moves to go with it. It was an amusing moment.

Coming up is the game against Texas, and this game will probably be a big challenge for MSU. I watched most of the second half of the Longhorns' win over North Carolina at the Dean Dome, and Texas looks like a very good team. Considering how depleted the Spartans currently find themselves, it'll be tough for MSU to come away with a win, but I'm sure they'll play hard and you just never know--stranger things have happened. Never count Tom Izzo out of any game.

Spartans batter the Badgers

Ho-hum, just another huge win for Spartan basketball last night in a thoroughly dominating performance against Wisconsin.  I feel as if I'm getting spoiled.

I just finished re-watching the game on ESPN3, affording me the opportunity to focus on the details of the game.  Here are some observations:

After a slow start, the Spartans went on a 14-0 run between the 9:23 mark of the first half to 4:27, when Jared Berggren of Wisconsin finally converted on a jumper to end the drought.  This is the best defense MSU basketball has had since at least the '08-'09 team, which I suppose isn't going back that far and just goes to show how consistently good Tom Izzo-coached teams have been defensively.

Branden Dawson is blossoming as a player before our eyes.  I noticed one Wisconsin possession in particular in which Dawson smothered Rob Wilson like a blanket.  Dawson also had a spectacular coast-to-coast bucket in the first half in which he cut through defenders like a Lamborghini weaving through freeway traffic.

Ever since he had a 90-minute heart-to-heart meeting in Tom Izzo's office, Brandon Wood has looked like a new player.  He's been doing the little things that help win games, like terrific passes to open shooters and hustle plays on defense.  Wood had a beautiful dish to Derrick Nix late in the first half which Nix converted into an easy bucket.

It was nice to see Brandan Kearney and Russell Byrd getting some minutes.  Kearney played especially well in his brief time on the floor.  This should bode well for future. (And as an aside, has MSU reached its quota of players named "Brandon"--or variations thereof?).

Although Adreian Payne didn't have an especially great game (perhaps coming down a bit after his great performance against OSU), Derrick Nix did, and displayed some great moves in the paint.  I love MSU's big men this season.

Keith Appling was brilliant and had one of his best games in at least a couple of weeks, and if Draymond Green isn't college basketball's best player, I'd like to know who is.

MSU basketball exhibition vs. Hillsdale

I managed to score two tickets to the exhibition game against Hillsdale and took my ten year-old son.  As soon as we stepped into Breslin, I immediately fueled him with Pepsi and popcorn and we were fairly good to go for the rest of the evening.

It's hard to take much from games like these.  Although Hillsdale played hard, they were clearly overmatched.  The Spartans led the entire game and really were not seriously challenged at any point in the game, as should be expected in an exhibition.  The final score was a fairly lackluster 80-58.

It was fun to see all the new faces on the MSU basketball team.  They are young, but have several athletic newcomers who should be enjoyable to watch this season.  I really have no idea what to expect from this year's team, but the sense of the unknown makes it more exciting, if that makes any sense.

Here are some observations, but keep in mind that I was sitting 28 rows up, behind the basket on the south side of Breslin, trying to keep my son entertained and dealing with several rugrats making lots of noise on my left: not exactly a position to be able to concentrate as fully as I'd like.

Travis Trice is one player who really stood out for me in this particular game.  The kid looks like a natural leader on the floor, has a nice smooth shot, and really works hard.

I had not seen Russell Byrd until tonight, and he's another player with a silky smooth shooting stroke from the perimeter.  Of course, I suppose it's easier to look smooth when one is playing against an overmatched team like Hillsdale, but I still like what I saw.  Trice and Byrd have big upsides, and both could develop into excellent contributors in the near future.

Of the other Spartan players, Draymond Green was solid, Derrick Nix looks to be in the best shape of his career, and Keith Appling did a great job guiding the team at point guard, though he struggled from three-point range and had a few ugly turnovers.  It will be interesting to see how much time Trice gets this season at point guard.  If he continues to play with the confidence and determination he displayed tonight, he will get significant playing time.

But I have absolutely no idea how these guys will play next week against North Carolina.  I suspect it could be a tough game for the Spartans, but they just might have the youthful energy and guilelessness to surprise some people.  And nobody likes an uphill challenge more than Tom Izzo.

One final note: I was genuinely impressed with how hard Hillsdale played, and the Chargers had one player who stood out for his moxie and grit.  He is a little guard named Tyler Gerber (#12).  The Hillsdale athletics website has him listed at 5' 10", but he didn't look any taller than 5' 7" from where I was sitting.  He finished with about 10 points and hustled the entire game.  He looks like a gym rat who isn't afraid of challenging anyone, even if his opponent is a foot taller than he is.  Good luck to Hillsdale the rest of the season.