1. We beat them earlier this year. Handily.
So that’s good.
2. They’re a young team. Of the eight Jayhawks who average more than 10 minutes per game, three are freshman and three are sophomores. So it’s likely they’ve improved more than the average team has over the last 10 weeks.
So that’s bad.
3. They finished the regular season on a bad note, losing two of their final three games (including the conference tournament opener). They allowed all three of their final conference opponents to post offensive efficiency numbers above 108.
So that’s good.
4. But they’ve rebounded from the late-season funk to be pretty dominant in their first two NCAA Tournament games. They beat North Dakota State and Dayton by a combined 27 points. Sherron Collins scored a total of 57 points and 10 assists in the two games. Cole Aldrich put up 36 points and 33 rebounds (!) in the two contests.
So that’s bad.
I guess my initial impressions are a wash.
I’ll compose a more detailed game preview in the next couple days.
P.S. Some subset of the SW clan (including me, of course) will be heading down to Indy again. Anyone else going? Looks like plenty of tickets are still available.
It seems a lot of people are confident on this one based on that early season game alone. I think Kansas is a much different team from then, a young team in it’s first few hostile road environment. So I don’t think confidence should automatically be high because of that result. However, MSU is a better team now too — defensively. And they are still well matched up to put brakes on Kansas: Walton and Lucas on Collins, and Suton/Roe/Ibok on Aldrich. The balance of the remainder of the match ups should still be on MSU’s favor, no?
While it’s true they won by a combined 27 points, those games were pretty close until the end iirc.
DP99 — oh, I’m the furthest thing from overconfident about this game. National champion KU upperclassmen (Sherron Collins especially) + talented freshmen who have had 3 months to grow up since the last time we saw them + Cole Aldrich playing like a beast + general NCAA tournament anxiety = one very NOT overconfident Ben. I still think that we’re the better team, but nobody looks past the defending champions, especially one which has experience against us. I’m sure Izzo isn’t, at least. Oh, and KJ, I can’t go on Friday, but if we make it to Sunday, I’m there.
BTW, would it be a blog faux pas this time of year for me to mention that SPRING FOOTBALL PRACTICE STARTS TOMORROW? If so . . . ha, oh well.
Oh, and one more thing — the 2000 national championship game was replayed (in its entirety!) on the BTN this afternoon. Great way to kill 2 hours, obviously, but what most struck me (as someone who never watches the NBA) is just how good Jason Richardson was, even as a freshman. His finishing was flawless, and his athleticism was out of this world. Had he stuck around, he would have been the greatest player in the history of the program, and I really think we would have had another championship, with or without Zach Randolph. I know Jason has had success in the NBA, but man, it would have been amazing to keep him around for two more years.
A couple of things…one of my good friends is an uber-KU fan and his take on this game is that KU has two great players and MSU has about 7, so he expects a loss. As to Jason Richardson I remember watching him play as a part of the USA Selects against the 2000 US Olympic team in a game in Hawai’i. He was unstoppable in the first half with 6 for 6 from the international three point line. In the second half, the pros on the Olympic team put two guys on him the whole time and neutralized him. Lucky for them, no one else on the Selects could throw it in the ocean if they were standing on the beach. And I have to agree, if he had stayed it would have meant at least one more title and he would be no worse than a tie with Magic for top MSU player of all time. In Spring of ’01 I knew he was gone when GM laid off half of the rest of Saginaw that had jobs. He owed it to his family to make the kale. Good for him.
One good thing about MSU seems to be this: pick any player opposing player, and you have the chance to shut him down completely simply by Travis Waltoning him. If another team has a guy (like Sherron Collins) who is a shooting point guard who is hot, it’s very likely Walton will be on him and we will be playing against the other four starters.
One bad thing about this is that when this happens, other kids step up. Like in the USC game. Taj Gibson, non-factor. But here come Lewis and Hackett.
I think MSU matches well with KU, in that they’re an athletic shooting team. We can deal with a shooting team, unless they go Talor Battle or that skinny white kid from Northwestern on us.
The teams I’m worried about have a big dude scoring threat and a ridiculous point guard (North Carolina) or they have Blake Griffin (‘Klahoma). I’m optimistic about Kansas, and I’m optimistic about Louisville. You just have to trust that MSU is as good as they’re perceived at this point. I think those of us who’ve watched them over the season have always kind of felt that MSU was one of those unintentional pretenders. We were ranked well, but at times I felt like we shouldn’t have been.
But the season is over but for 4 more games (please), so it’s time for the doubting to stop. We’re one of the top 8 teams in the nation, and I feel like there’s a lot of parity among those teams. It’s anyone’s game at this point.
Well I think KU does have a riduculous point guard (Collins) and a big dude scoring threat (Aldrich) so I would not be over-confident. If Walton can keep Collins under wraps and Suton can do to Aldrich what he did to Taj Gibson (basically neutralize him) I think we have a pretty good shot.
One good thing is they don’t have the size advantage on the perimeter that USC had, at least when both starting lineups are in there. Reed and Morningstar (and Taylor for that matter) are pretty good 3 point shooters who are capable of going off. We will have to get out on them so they don’t heat up. Their preferred modus operandi though is to go inside to Aldrich which makes sense given that he shoots better than 60 percent from the field.
Their profile is actually a lot like ours: they don’t shoot that many threes, although they are capable of making them. They are efficient on both offense and defense, and they rebound well on both ends, although not quite as well as we do. We’re the more experienced team and I think we match up well as far as overall talent goes, but it will come down to which team plays better. Having Allen and Summers continue shooting well would be nice. I give us a slight edge, but given that the last time we played them it was at the Breslin I’m not by any means overconfident.