Sunday, April 5, 2009

Dang Sparty

Make room on Michigan St. bandwagon - The Boston Globe
It doesn't matter if this were a 7-, 27-, or 107-game series. Michigan State is better than Connecticut.
I don't like arguing that the team that just lost might be the better team. Last night, to be clear, Michigan State was the better team. Over a 7 game series, or more, do I think Michigan State would have the best of UConn? No. What I saw out of UConn last night was two players who are alternately brilliant and frustrating being their frustrating selves and one player who is consistently solid, play like his inconsistent peers. Stanley Robinson and Kemba Walker are electrifying when they are playing within themselves; they were terrible last night. Robinson in particular tried to run the break like a guard and finish in traffic on his own ... which is not his game. I jumped off my barstool twice yelling for him to find Price on the break and both times I sank back in frustration as he loped into waiting defense and flailed at the basket, giving the ball back to MSU for them take it the other way for easy scores. Back breakers. Walker was much the same. Now, his game includes those elements Robinson's does not: speed, dribbling, and going to coast to coast. But he was forcing it last night. When he got the ball and ran, he had tunnel vision and tried to finish every play. I kept looking for him to leave the ball for a trailer but he never did. Walker and Robinson have these issues and we've seen this from them before so there was no real surprse there. A. J. Price is the guy who is usually more consistent but was not very good last night. He also seemed to think he needed to force plays in the lane that just weren't there. With three MSU defenders around him, arms pyramiding over him in the lane, he kept forcing it up instead of wrapping around to Thabeet or Adrien standing a few feet away -- unguarded.

The Spartans earned the victory last night and will give UNC trouble, but probably not that much trouble.

Galling. After all the Big East did this season, it's ACC and Big Televen in the Finals.

All is not lost. There is still a UConn team in a Final Four marching towards a championship. And I'm confident they'll seal the deal.
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