MSU vs UCF game thread

[tcdog70]

Tako Hall a future lottery pick. Nobody on the planet can stop him from 4 feet away.

Our Freshmen for sure could not stop Him. This new deal with the fouls is not MSU friendly. We have got to learn how to defend. Ready is still a liability on defense. Q needs a touch every trip . He is our best ,why not put it in His Hands.

[msstate7]

Mizzou took #11 to OT and lost by 1. I'm sick from our performance

[smootness]

We have a sec player of year candidate, senior pg, 4* players everywhere on this roster, and we were favored... no excuse for this showing. We weren't playing a ranked team or even a good midmajor. We just got destroyed by a very average team. Pathetic

You're right...but again, this is a team full of unknowns. You just never know what a guy will be right away. There will be struggles, for sure.

[DogsofAnarchy]

Super Moon on December 14th.

It's the Gildan Invitational in Charleston, SC.

MSU is currently favored by 4 1/2. Should be interesting to watch for sure.

Game is on ESPN2 at 4:00 PM CST

[smootness]

Howland is known to be a defensive guy and we suck at defense. Makes me scratch my head because our basketball team put an effort out that our football team usually does.

We're absurdly young?

[msstate7]

You're right...but again, this is a team full of unknowns. You just never know what a guy will be right away. There will be struggles, for sure.

Really hope we bounce back strong tomorrow.

[MarketingBully]

Mizzou took #11 to OT and lost by 1. I'm sick from our performance

Lehigh took Xavier down to the wire and lost by 3. We play Lehigh our next home game. Should be interesting.

[MarketingBully]

Here's a quick question. How the hell can our freshmen even do anything when the first 5 minutes of the game the foul descrepency is 7-0. Until they get it through their skulls to listen to Coach Howland on how he wants to play defense, we will have games like this. Kegler had three of those seven fouls very quickly. Kegler was in big foul trouble quickly in the first game as well. It's a long season and they will get it. We are only two games in.

[tcdog70]

Our offense is better when we use the George Karl dribble penetration offense. But we need Q to be the trigger Man.

[BayouDawg]

Here's a quick question. How the hell can our freshmen even do anything when the first 5 minutes of the game the foul descrepency is 7-0. Until they get it through their skulls to listen to Coach Howland on how he wants to play defense, we will have games like this. Kegler had three of those seven fouls very quickly. Kegler was in big foul trouble quickly in the first game as well. It's a long season and they will get it. We are only two games in.

When we finally learn how to stop a dribble drive you'll be amazed at how the fouls decrease. when you let teams drive the lane at will you're gonna foul a lot with these tight whistles. Which is why I can't understand why we don't use that to our advantage on the offensive end. Why don't we attack the basket more? I just don't understand it.

[MarketingBully]

I think we will be fine but I think we will be something like 9-3 going into the SEC season. I think we take a couple of more lumps to figure out A) you can't play defense like you did in high school and b) we need to penetrate, drive, and dish to setup shots on the outside to get shots not just pass it around the perimeter. We will be fine by SEC season.

[MarketingBully]

When we finally learn how to stop a dribble drive you'll be amazed at how the fouls decrease. when you let teams drive the lane at will you're gonna foul a lot with these tight whistles. Which is why I can't understand why we don't use that to our advantage on the offensive end. Why don't we attack the basket more? I just don't understand it.

So you're left with a delimma then. To stop a good dribble drive, you play zone. Which is probably why we have seen mostly zone the first two games and will continue to see it. These new rules heavily favor teams like Syracuse who Boeheim has perfected his zone. Howland hates to play zone and is a man to man guy. But zone is how you stop the dribble drive. Man to man is not good at it unless you're team is really really great at man to man which we are not at the moment.

[Dawg61]

Howland is known to be a defensive guy and we suck at defense. Makes me scratch my head because our basketball team put an effort out that our football team usually does.

Can't play defense with these new rules. It has ruined college basketball. It's like holding getting called on every single play in football. Wouldn't be very fun to watch anymore would it. That's what college basketball currently has become.

[MarketingBully]

Can't play defense with these new rules. It has ruined college basketball. It's like holding getting called on every single play in football. Wouldn't be very fun to watch anymore would it. That's what college basketball currently has become.

He may have to play zone with these new rules especially bigger teams that can't shoot from the perimeter. It was dumb as shit to play man against UCF. If we had forced them to shoot from the perimeter and played a good match up zone which doubled that Taco guy, we would have won that game by 10+ points. Howland is going to have to get over himself if he wants to coach with these new rules. The days of only playing man are over.

[BayouDawg]

He may have to play zone with these new rules especially bigger teams that can't shoot from the perimeter. It was dumb as shit to play man against UCF. If we had forced them to shoot from the perimeter and played a good match up zone which doubled that Taco guy, we would have won that game by 10+ points. Howland is going to have to get over himself if he wants to coach with these new rules. The days of only playing man are over.

I think you're right about having to play zone. I'm a man to man guy but I do like mixing in zone from time. These new rules are ridiculous but I figure the refs will tone it down by January

[chef dixon]

Their big man got us off any sort of game plan we might have had with the first dunk of the game. And once he started establishing himself as dominant then the officials start to favor him. Its just the nature of basketball officiating. I'm not super down on this game though. We will get better. They were just much more crisp and experienced overall. We've got a lot of ironing out to do.

[Political Hack]

This is why setting expectations for a team full of unknowns is pointless. Howland's Year 2's are hardly better than Year 1's. Year 3 is when the big jump comes.

If he does it in 3 years after what he inherited it'll be a miracle, and I think he may just do it. I think we might be pretty good at some point this year too. This is a developmental season for sure, so as long as they continue to develop I think most people will be happy.

[preachermatt83]

If he does it in 3 years after what he inherited it'll be a miracle, and I think he may just do it. I think we might be pretty good at some point this year too. This is a developmental season for sure, so as long as they continue to develop I think most people will be happy.

This

[MarketingBully]

If he does it in 3 years after what he inherited it'll be a miracle, and I think he may just do it. I think we might be pretty good at some point this year too. This is a developmental season for sure, so as long as they continue to develop I think most people will be happy.

Well Howland did say that the biggest improvement in a player is from year one to two. If that is the case, he will definitely do it in year three. I think the biggest problem we have had period these first two games is players like Kegler and Wright have gotten in foul trouble boom within the first five minutes of both games. Both those players had three fouls in both games in the first half limiting how hard they could play on defense pretty quickly. If we can have a game where we have committed less then ten fouls in the first half, we will blow the other team out. IMO, the fouling is what is holding us back.

[thf24]

Their big man got us off any sort of game plan we might have had with the first dunk of the game. And once he started establishing himself as dominant then the officials start to favor him. Its just the nature of basketball officiating.

I feel like the fact they were letting him camp under the basket practically as long as he wanted is what killed us in regards to defending him. Double team or not, if that guy actually has to move with the ball a little, I doubt he's nearly as much of a threat.