MSU beat Northern Iowa Friday, in a game they should have won. Korie Lucious filled in spectacularly for Kalin Lucas, Allen played more minutes, and Delvin Roe is still hurting bad, but is tougher than a two dollar steak. If Lucious can keep this up, the Spartans can win it all, but he would need more help from his teammates than Kalin would have needed.
The X factor today has to be Raymar Morgan. He has played really well from the end of the regular season to up to Friday. Then he fouled out with only 7 points. He made some big plays, but to beat Tennessee or anybody else remaining he will have to have more, and not be in foul trouble. Morgan is easy to figure out. Keep out of foul trouble and give him easy baskets to start, and his confidence matches his talent. Then he can be a real star player for us. He misses a few shots, and he locks himself down and his finishes with 2 points or something like that.
Now for Tennessee, they have beaten some very good teams (Kentucky, Kansas) and lost to some pretty bad ones (Georgia, USC). They have the talent to beat anyone in the nation, but the ability to lose to anyone, a power not many teams have. We all know Bruce Pearl is an awesome coach. They are a very deep team, and Pearl will use his bench often. They don't have a great offense, or shoot the three really well, but their defense is suffocating. Evan Turner can attest to that.
Can State win? Sure they can. They can back their way into a National Title game if they play the role of a mid major slayer next week. State should have more minutes from everyone, and Izzo will get the most out of his team. I go against Izzo too often in the tourney and he proves me wrong. He has something about him, he is too smart to fail often in March. Tennessee is a little more Cinderella now, but State can play pass this. For some reason, maybe my gut, I see MSU winning close or losing by 10+ points. I got to trust Izzo and hope the magic lasts one more game for MSU.
MSU 65 Tennessee 58
No comments:
Post a Comment