Spartans Peaking

Michigan State is playing well even though Raymar Morgan continues to battle the viral infection.  The Spartans have such a deep bench that playing without Morgan is not as big a negative as it would be for lesser teams.  Morgan’s inability to play up to full strength in the Northwestern game at East Lansing is probably one of the reasons for that home court upset.  Still, the Spartans have adjusted and having Draymond Green come up big in Saturday’s game is a sign that they are strong even without one of the bright stars in the Big Ten, Morgan.

Missing A Boilermaker

Purdue is not the same team without Robbie Hummel and, unlike the Spartans, they do not have a deep enough bench to soften his absence.  The transfer of Scott Martin to Notre Dame now emerges as a much bigger factor than it appeared to be at the beginning of the season. We do not wish Hummel any further bad luck, but one can only wonder whether he would be well-advised to take the rest of the season off and file for a medical redshirt.  He has a wonderful future and messing around with an injured back is not something that should be taken lightly.

Watch The Buckeyes

The Buckeyes have put together a couple of nice games.  And who are the Big Ten pundits now promoting as a candidate for player of the year?  Hoopraker has been a fan of Evan Turner since his high school days and he has elevated his game immensely since the season began.  Coach Matta was hoping that Noopy Crater would fill the point guard void left by Jamar Butler, but that plan obviously did not work out as intended.

So, on the fly, Turner has basically filled this void by becoming a somewhat different type of point guard- one with forward type length and very solid ballhandling skills. He is able to penetrate and create offensive opportunities for himself in the paint or handoff to BJ Mullens or William Buford for dunks or open looks.  When there is defensive pressure, he usually takes control of the ball.

The rapidly developing Buford is the second reason the Buckeyes are playing well.  Many are labeling him as the best freshman in the Conference and it’s tough to argue with that.  Finally, the Buckeyes are getting Mullens into the offensive flow.  Mullens likes the dunks and it takes a creative players like Turner, Bufford, and Diebler to give him opportunities to score.

Cats Falter

There was talk in Evanston that they might be on the brink of finally getting a shot at a NCAA bid.  That talk was seriously muffled by their lack of effort in Iowa City.  This was a must win game for the improving Cats, but they have struggled for years with some fundamental elements of basketball- rebounding and making open lay-ups.  In Saturday’s game, they were outrebounded by a poor rebounding Iowa team and they missed several lay-ups at key points in the game.  A third chronic weakness with the Cats is poor free throw shooting, but that was not a factor in the Iowa loss.

Realistically, the Cats will have to play almost perfectly for the remainder of the season to get a possible invite to the NIT.  Perfectly means that they have to beat Iowa at home and Indiana on the road.  Then they have to find two plus wins against Michigan, OSU, Illinois, Purdue, or Minnesota.  It is not impossible for them to get to a 16 and 13 record, but that’s marginal record for even a NIT bid.  With a Big Ten Tournament win, they possibly could solidify a record that would let them sneak into the NIT.

Coach of the Year Candidates

At the midpoint of the season, there has been a lot of discussion about player, freshman, and coach of the year candidates.  I already have mentioned the consensus building around Turner and Buford as strong candidates for player and freshman players of the year.  I agree with those assessments.  With the Confernce title up for grabs, Coach of the Year remains wide open.  I’ve heard whispers for Bill Carmody.  While his team has made great progress, I do not believe he earns coach of the year unless the Cats make the NCAA and I do not think they will achieve that threshold this year.

A better dark horse case for coach of the year could be for Todd Lickliter, who is doing a marvelous yoemanlike job (through injuries and academic issues) in building the Hawkeyes into the successful program achieved under the leadership of Dr. Tom Davis or Ralph Miller.  Other more obvious choices are Bruce Weber and the turnaround he’s engineered from one season ago with basically the same players (less Brian Randle and Shaun Pruitt), Tubby Smith or Ed DeChellis.

Posted by Jim Elsass on Tuesday, February 10th, 2009 at 12:23 am.