It's a great place to put your starters when they aren't playing well.... Bufford and Sullinger tonight
It's a great place to find your highly rated and recruited backups.....Ravenel, Amir Williams, Weatherspoon
When you are #3 in the country and down by 12 at home, go to your bench and find a spark, do not play the whole game with 6 players, because 3 out of those 6 are playing subpar.
Matta has no clue! He has no offensive stragedy! Its the same BS every year! We will be Elite 8 at best. We will never get it done with Matta.
Ravenel doesn't deserve to have a scholarship. He is easily the worst college basketball player I've ever seen in my life. He can post up really well, but he has no clue what to do with the ball when he gets it. I agree they should go to the bench though.
Well, Ravenel at least plays physically. He's not out there crying.
BTW, GABuckeye, do you remember bill robinson or brandon fuss-cheatum? They provide winning proof against your point about Ravenel's worthlessness.
johnblairgobucks
Matt Howard and his moustache disagrees
Men of Action since 2011
I am not sold on Ravanel (SP?)
this is insane we lost because matta didnt play our (talented) bench. but matta is a great coach.
" I went for two cause I couldn't go for three."
-woody Hayes
I like Matta as our coach, but I've grown tired of watching players languish on the bench. Sullinger, Bufford and Thomas should have had 5-6 minute stints on the bench to allow themselves to refocus and to see if the bench could provide some energy. Bufford needs to be a 6th man anyways.
johnblairgobucks
Matta and Tom Izzo certainly have different philosophies when it comes to bench usage. In today's game, Sparty used 10 players and no one played more than 34 minutes; the Bucks played 7 and two guys went all 40 minutes.
Michigan State has also had much, much more success in the NCAAs, for what it's worth.
The most "loud mouth, disrespect" poster on 11W.
You guys are insane. There are 3.5 players on this team who have anything close to the offensive game needed to put up points against a team like MSU.
How is Ravenel getting all the hate tonight? I thought he did a great job defending Green, he rebounds well and blaming a guy who gets 8 minutes of playing time for that loss seems a bit off to me. Bufford is the only shooter on this team, he has to play even though it is frustrating when he lays an egg like tonight. My question revolves around Smith and Thomas. Both are one dimensional players so why is Thomas (the worst defensive player on the team) guarding the biggest scoring threat for the opposition? If Izzo had one wish I guarantee it would be that match-up. If you have Smith and are only playing him for his defense you either put him on the other teams best player or you don't play him. He served no function out there tonight besides allowing the man defending him to double Sullinger.
I agree with philipjfrye on all except the fact that OSU was getting pushed around in the paint and Williams doesn't see the floor. Why?
Does Bufford even try to get open when he doesn't have the ball in his hands?
Siebert has the confidence to shoot if Smith jr. doesn't.
Ravenel and weatherspoon would play physical defense if Deshaun Thomas was unable.
johnblairgobucks
Everyone other than Craft played like shit. No motion on offense. Terrible shooting. Sully forcing shots and turning it over 10 times. Matta is a great recruiter but a very avg. Coach.
williams and spoon should be getting mins. and they better start shooting the ball in the basket or its going to be a short run.
johnblair - the only thing buford does is come off screens, so yes he tries to get open. Once he has the ball though, he only knows how to catch and shoot. The dude cannot create for himself AT ALL.
Buford is forced to create his own shots when he gets the ball in his hands. He is most comfortable coming off of screens but for some reason we try to feed it into him in the post where he has to then create for himself. The offense is so focused on going inside that they forget to get Buford regular touches in situations where he could make something happen.
Draymond Green is a matchup nightmare for just about everyone in the B1G. Sully isn't quick enough to guard him and taking Thomas off of the floor eliminates a viable scoring threat. Ravenel would not have been able to guard Green for extensive minutes any better than Thomas. Weatherspoon would have probably been the best matchup on Green, but he is a huge wildcard on offense.
What I don't understand is why Thad doesn't pull out his zone that he seemed to never abandon a few years ago? This team, apart from Craft and Smith, are not good on ball defenders so man-to-man probably isn't the best option at all times. Zone would hide some of the issues with not communicating on high balls screens and when you're facing an MSU team that is hell-bent on pounding it inside, make them try their luck from the outside.
I agree about the zone to a point, but Thomas is going to get exposed wherever he is at on defense, best case scenario in that 2-3 match-up zone he plays the wing. If I am any team playing OSU I put my best shooter in the corner and let him go off, because Thomas doesn't have the footspeed or recovery time to help in the post as well as defend the 3pt line. Just my 2 cents.
Michigan St puts Payne/Green on Thomas side block and Thornton/Wood in the ball side corner. Two man game that exposes Thomas and Sully big time.
Michigan/Wisconsin puts Morgan/Big White Guy with Polish last name Whisky has every year with Hardway,Novak, Smotryz/Brust, Burgden on the perimeter.
Blaming this on Matta is insane.
Who would you play off our bench that would be an upgrade?
Shannon Scott? You have to take Craft off, who was our best player last night.
Sibert? Don't make me laugh.
Amir Williams? So you want to either take Sullinger off the floor or take Deshaun Thomas off and make either Sullinger or Williams guard Draymond Green? You crazy.
J.D. Weatherspoon? You want us to be MORE offensively limited?
I understand that it would be nice to rotate guys in a little more often and get our starters some rest here and there.. and I"m all for that. But it's LAUGHABLE to think that just playing those guys for a few minutes changes the outcome of this game - Our problem was consistent scoring from the perimeter and rebounding.. and our best players to make that happen were unquestionably on the court.
well sir, when the team is shooting 30% from the floor for the better part of 30 minutes, it's safe to say the bench wouldn't be doing much worse.
How do you know what a player is capable of unless he is given a chance?
What would Amir Williams @ center, Sullinger @ PF, Bufford @ SF, Craft and Seibert @ guards accomplished? We'll never know.
Matta can't be afraid to give a bench guy a chance to shine in game time, especially when his starters are having the worst offensive home game in the past 15 years.
johnblairgobucks