I generally enjoy this time of year. The Big Ten basketball teams usually play some early season tournaments as well as theme games like the ACC/Big10 matchup. Sadly, my Spartans haven't been doing that great to start the year, but the Wolverines have been killing it with some big wins over Gonzaga and North Carolina.
Last night six games of the ACC/Big10 showdown were played and both Michigan and Michigan State came out on the losing end of their match-up.
Skyrocketing from unranked to being number 4 in the nation, U of M had a tough draw having to play #1 ranked Louisville. It was a quite defensive game and the score should reflect that. The stats were actually pretty even indicating that it wasn't errors or mistakes that cost them the game, Louisville just played better than them.
Michigan State started the season in the #1 spot and has had a slow decline to the #11 spot. An early lost to Kentucky and then Arizona State followed by bowing out of the Maui tournament early has really taken a toll on their ranking. I can't remember the last time I saw Duke ranked so low and being a home game for the Spartans this could have been their chance to really shine.
Instead, they let me down once again. Stats were pretty similar in this game between the two teams as well. Normally I would have expected MSU to have an insane number of turnovers, but that just wasn't the case. Both teams were just a little over 50% shooting free throws. The stats that really stick out to me are the fact that Duke had five more blocked shots than Michigan State and they also had six more defensive rebounds. That's twenty two lost points that could have totally give State the victory.
I really hope Izzo can pull things together and get this team on the right track. Big 10 play is going to be gearing up and I don't want to have to deal with the comments from Michigan and Ohio State fans if we lose to them.
As of last night we are split with the ACC, but six more games are played tonight. Hopefully the remaining teams can tip the showdown in our favor.