Texas at Michigan State Open Thread

Anything but OT in the Stanford/Tech game!

They get an offensive rebound every two possessions? That is absurd. James, Connor, Mason, Wingman, Chaps all need to step up on the boards.

Every defensive rebound we get is huge, because the Spartans like to crash the boards, meaning we can RUN and get easy baskets.

On both defense and offense

DJ hits the three.

big break for us, he was guarding DJ.

Connor and Mason not taking care of the ball.

They've got this game at their pace so far. This group of Longhorns hasn't played very well when they've been muscled on the perimeter, which is what we're seeing right now. Not a good sign.

...on the offensive end right now.

I like that Barnes is trying to force some of the offense to run through him, but he doesn't look comfortable shooting (or even getting in position to shoot) right now...

Hope I'm wrong...

that alleyoop didn't work.

He's GOT to get that stroke back.

he's not surprising anyone. Everyone knows who he is.

Connor with the block before.

Mich St. get the offensive rebound and hits a three.

...they are getting the better looks right now.  The point about them being prepared for our speed seems prophetic...

Too fast a pace for Dex, but this is the game where not having Gary Johnson could finally prove devastating...

5 pts and 5 rebs.

So far, we're outrebounding them by 4. Mich St. in some foul trouble.

He has 2 offensive rebs, and it's given them 5 pts.

Lewis for three!?

The defense is atrocious

Abrams or Lewis? Two cancers on defense.

James and Augustin are carrying us. AJ is struggling with his shot. Mason and Connor are almost no-shows so far.

...we're going to have to make some serious half-time adjustments, even though we've been leading the entire game.

One of Mason/Atchley is going to have to step up offensively today...

I thought they were too fast for him to play, but he's in there.

Then again, we put freakin JD Lewis in the game.

Had perfect position

that's his 2nd.

6 minutes to go in the half

this is gettin ugly. Bad defense, and they're running with us, and we can't stop them.

Abrams playing terribly. With two fouls on DJ, not sure what we're gonna do on offense.

Big trouble.

Mich St. gets in early foul trouble, so the bench guys step right up like they lost nothing.

Our bench guys? Well a whole lot of nothing so far, and the same for a couple of our starters.

WE NEED GJ.

...and they're both hurt right now.

This would have been a nice game for Gary Johnson, Dogus Balbay, and even Matt Hill...

I admire Rick for trying Dexter for an extended period here, but we're going to have to go back to Chapman or Wangmene...Dex isn't adding anything offensively and has been exposed a few times on defense.

James keeping us alive.

We're nothing without DJ.

And they're getting layups. Horrible.

Obviously, there are problems on offense without DJ, but we're playing awful defense; that's the real disappointment.

I still think we can comeback and make it a real close game. But this defense is atrocious, and unfortunately it won't be addressed until we get Johnson.

...this was what I've been afraid of the entire season.

Abrams can't shake loose from the harderbetterfasterstronger defender guarding him, Atchley is covered up, James and Mason are offensively limited, no post presence, and DJ is having an off-night...

Really interesting to see what Rick comes up with out of the break...

We need more movement on offense. The set plays have been non-existent.

Connor has ZERO shots attempted! We have to get him open from off the ball movement. Spartans have locked on to him.

Whoever he's guarding needs to get more involved in the offense. They are far superior to us in depth and size, so we need to send them to the bench.

...is that we can't even turn this into a jump-shooting contest b/c Mason can't shoot and Abrams can't shake loose.  And we all know we can't get the ball inside without DJ penetrating...

The best chance is going to come from getting turnovers on the defensive end and scoring in transition...

4-5 shooting and 3 offensive rebounds.

Their freshman guard off the bench Lucas is lighting our guards up. 11 points, already 4 above his average.

but good rebound by the Horns

Follow up on your shots!

too many jumpshots. It's great if they go in, but we can't live and die by them.

D is better so far. Box and 1 D confirmed

turnovers in a row

glad we went inside.

so he and Morgan have 3 at least according to ESPN.com boxscore

on James. However, it seems that MSU has the momentum on their side.

that James picked up both FTs.

He's been a big boy on the boards. Double double already.

Nice to see DJ drive and get the foul. We need to go inside, get FTs, and make them.

Connor with another block.

the rest of our team cannot create

Izzo's gone to a zone to keep the penetration to a minimum; we've not counter-adjusted very well at all, running picks for a man defense.

If we're going to play Abrams and his terrible defense, we should at least run some overloads and double screens to get him an open look on the three. If they over-rotate to stay with him, the middle should be open for a cutting Atchley.

They've been bumping our guards all night long. Very smart by Izzo. Refs have barely called it.

At halftime, goingforthecorner. We've done a better job getting it to Atchley; I wasn't sure that was something we could do. We need to do it more.

Transition defense has been bad in addition to all the other aspects of defense.

Muscle, muscle, muscle the Texas guards.

If the refs allow it, it's trouble for our offense.

that MSU fires back after every one of our baskets with a quick basket of their own, while we're taking our time getting the play set up. It seems to be affecting the game's momentum.

and Spartans score. It's a double digit deficit. It's time to man up.

1. We need to keep drawing fouls

2. We need to hit free throws

3. The defense must improve dramatically. They're scoring at an absurd rate.

First the AJ floater, now the DJ three

follow up your fucking shots! Go after your own rebounds, instead of running backwards on D right after attempting the 3!

but needs to work on shooting off the run and off the dribble.

and we BLOW THE LAYUP OMFG

are we stopping at the 3 point line and taking shots (and missing, by the way), instead of taking a 2-point shot with a better chance of making it?

had we just hit our recent shots. AJ three, Connor three, DJ three, James layup, AJ floater could've all gone in.

Dummm

Add two more to the list. We're dead tired and we've been playing a little soft today.

having augustin dribble near midcourt waiting for abrams to come around 3 screens, then not passing to him once he does come around. and i dont see the point of running pick and rolls for augustin when he can just take his man off the dribble anyway. who are we screening anyway since theyre in a zone?

are 13 of 33 combined. AJ was 4-12 from three and we were 9-27 overall from 3. That's way too many threes, and we can only hope that the shot distribution changes with Johnson's offense.

they guy has proven he can shoot spot up. We just have to somehow get the guy open on a consistent basis. Way easier said than done though.

As much as I love Rick Barnes, I think he got outcoached by Tom Izzo Tonight

Knowing that Texas lacks depth, Izzo tried to up the tempo and pushed around Texas on the offensive end and the defensive end. His team stretched the 2-3 zone and 2-1-2 zone by being patient, which resulted in a great deal of fatigue for Texas players. Our team was gassed by 15 min mark of the first half.

But I agree with most of the points people have said above.
-Augustin is dribbling the ball too much and not sending the ball to the post off of pick and roll.
-Lack of lost post presence limits Texas's offense to dribble penetration and kick out jump shots only!!
-James is getting too happy with his jumpers. We need him to be a post presence.
-I was extremely impressed with Atchley. He hustles and makes good decisions (except for the one errant pass). I think he needs to post up more tho.
-With Augustin out of the game, our offense disappears. You cant expect the starting point guard to play full 40 min. Thats absurd.

nice job Abrams not giving up. Maybe DJ should've just shot the three instead of driving or find AJ (who I assume was getting shadowed)

What are the MSU fans chanting?

... I'm not shocked we lost, but I am shocked that I again knew exactly why we would lose, and then rationalized it away in a homeristic way.  I knew AJ couldn't shoot (until the end, thanks for waiting), and I knew we didn't have any consistent shooters, but I assumed that the week off would have them back on their game.  Dumb.  I will not be confident about any other game until we get our touch back.  What is up with getting out-ran by MSU?

Also, I know everyone saw the "ESPN, only 2 things come from Texas..." sign.  WTF?  They put that on TV?  I hate them.  It is slightly avenged, however, in that all of their players and fans were so ugly.

Years ago, I saw those big MSU guys and thought UT looked a little weak in comparison.  Then James Thomas came along and I thought we were going in the right direction.  We need some bigger, tougher guys or we'll only be pretty good.