This has been a historically crazy tournament and many interesting things have happened, a 16 over a 1 seed for example. While I was impressed by UMBC’s win and Michigan’s buzzer beater I wanted to write an article on some of the less covered things that I found the most interesting.
1.What was Tom Izzo doing?
No one expected a Michigan State win over Syracuse to be earned easily. Per Kenpom Syracuse and Jim Boeheim’s feared 2-3 zone defense had the 10th best defense in the country going into the tournament. However, if any should team should have been able to effectively attack the zone it should have been MSU. The key to attacking a 2-3 zone like Syracuse’s is good passing, and MSU has been one of the best passing teams all season ranking 1st in assist percentage on sports-reference.com, and ranking 9th in overall offense per Kenpom. With 6:39 left Syracuse forward Frank Howard fouled out and MSU’s Cassius Winston made two free throws putting MSU up four points. Also both of Syracuse’s centers (Chkuwu and Sidibe) were in serious foul trouble, with four each. Over the remaining six-plus minutes of the game MSU would only score seven points, four of which came in the closing seconds when Syracuse was intentionally fouling while up three. What happened? How did Michigan State blow it?
I believe it started with a rather odd lineup choice of playing Ben Carter at power forward for much of the second half. MSU had no trouble getting Carter the ball in the middle of the zone and although he was often open he seemed afraid to shoot. In fact over the 23 minutes he played he only shot the ball twice scoring a total of two points. He reminded me of Jackie Moon in Semi-Pro who would demand a pass and then immediately toss the ball back to the passer. This led to a lot of semi-contested three-point looks for Michigan State, which they did not convert. They took 37 threes in all and made only eight of them (21.6%). Although he had three fouls I feel that Tom Izzo should’ve placed Jaren Jackson or Miles Bridges (two fouls) at power forward instead.
Another issue with Michigan State is where they were seeded, I’m not saying the committee did a bad job but I think MSU could’ve earned a better seed. All year Izzo has been sitting on what I consider a nearly perfect frontcourt pairing and not utilizing it. Miles Bridges at power forward and Jaren Jackson at center would fit together so well that it has been frustrating to watch MSU games and not see it happen. Jaren Jackson’s three-point ability would allow Bridges to drive unimpeded to the rim past the slower power forwards guarding him. Bridges has the beef to guard PFs on defense, in fact that is the position he most often guared last season. Meanwhile Jackson has the rim protecting abilities to easily be the lone big man in a lineup. I understand that Nick Ward, MSU’s season long starting center, provided experience and toughness that Izzo valued in a starter but he still could’ve found minutes for Bridges-Jackson frontcourt combo. Look at the 73 win Warriors, Andrew Bogut would start games but Steve Kerr would go to the death-lineup whenever the Warriors needed to pull away. I thought all season that Tom Izzo was just waiting for the right time to unleash the Bridges-Jackson frontcourt but he never did for serious minutes. Maybe if Izzo plays this lineup more they don’t lose to Syracuse, or they don’t come as uncomfortably lose to losing to first round opponent Bucknell, or maybe if the Bridges-Jackson frontcourt gets more time in the regular season MSU ends up with a one or a two seed and avoids such a tough second round opponent.
2. Loyola, passing.
One of the delights of this year’s tournaments is watching the Loyola-Chicago Ramblers upset their way to the sweet sixteen. Its not just the last second go-ahead shots in back-to-back games or the delightful Sister Jean, it is the way they move the ball. Every possession it feels like there are three good passes and another that makes you go “Wow, how did he see that guy?” The numbers back this up; Loyola is 21st in the country in percentage of shots that come off of assists.
3.Eric Musselman and the 6-foot-7ers.
I learned something watching Nevada’s first tournament game against Texas, they never run a zone defense. They always run man-to-man and they are constantly switching screens. They do this because out of all six of their regular rotation players all but one is 6’7”, the one exception is 6’3” Hallice Cooke. What makes college basketball so interesting is the diversity in styles and I don’t find any team more interesting from a stylistic standpoint than Nevada.
4.The hate for one-and-dones.
After the first weekend of the tournament many critics of the one-and-done system were quick to note that Arizona’s Deandre Ayton, Oklahoma’s Tae Young, Missouri’s Michael Porter Jr., Alabama’s Colin Sexton, and Michigan State’s Jaren Jackson had all been eliminated before the sweet sixteen. I am not a fan of the one-and-done system either but I felt that this criticism was unfair. For starters, Duke and Kentucky have looked dominant so far and their rosters are almost entirely comprised of freshmen who will be drafted this summer. Another point, is that I think we are criticizing players for being eliminated from a tournament that is actually very difficult to make in the first place . The past two number one overall picks did not make the field of 68. Without Colin Sexton’s heroics in the SEC tournament Alabama would not have had the chance to be eliminated by tournament favorite Villanova. Finally, I can’t believe people would get so high and mighty over what is essentially a tiny sample size, I mean we are talking about just five teams.
5.“Bad matchups”.
If you follow college basketball you will know that coaches will say that the faced a “bad matchup” following a loss. The thing about bad matchups is they usually work both ways. If an opposing player is better than yours at something, for example: post scoring, your player is probably better at something else, i.e. perimeter scoring. If the opposing player/players are better than yours in all facets of the game they are just better players. In North Carolina’s loss to Texas A&M in the second round blame could easily be placed on the bad matchup of Luke Maye and Theo Pinson having to guard the much larger and more imposing Tyler Davis and Robert Williams in the post. The problem with this reasoning is Tyler Davis and Robert Williams should not be able to keep up with Luke Maye and Theo Pinson scampering around the three-point arc when they are on offense. I would give the credit to TJ Starks and DJ Hogg in securing A&M’s victory; they scored 21 points and 14 points respectively after being relatively quiet in the first round. I think we should kill this phrase so we can focus on the players that actually decide the games.