NCAA Tournament Playalong Thread

[King Glorious]

The game went exactly like I thought it would. MSU was playing at a pace that's too fast for them. That's what UNC does. They score so fast and press the issue that it lulls you into a false sense of thinking that this is how you should be playing too. They'll give you some open shots that you'll take early and that in turn gets them going at the pace they want. You could see MSU was playing way too fast early and turning the ball over way too much. They were taking a ton of jump shots. UNC got it from all over. The killed them inside and Ellington was big from outside. In the first few minutes of the game, all five UNC starters had scored. This was like a carbon copy of the Illinois game.

[Crown@club]

Originally Posted by King Glorious

The game went exactly like I thought it would. MSU was playing at a pace that's too fast for them. That's what UNC does. They score so fast and press the issue that it lulls you into a false sense of thinking that this is how you should be playing too. They'll give you some open shots that you'll take early and that in turn gets them going at the pace they want. You could see MSU was playing way too fast early and turning the ball over way too much. They were taking a ton of jump shots. UNC got it from all over. The killed them inside and Ellington was big from outside. In the first few minutes of the game, all five UNC starters had scored. This was like a carbon copy of the Illinois game.

Exactly what happened. I just don't get it when they slowed the pace against Louisville, picked up the pace against UConn, but not slow it back down against UNC.

[gales0678]

Originally Posted by Crown@club

Exactly what happened. I just don't get it when they slowed the pace against Louisville, picked up the pace against UConn, but not slow it back down against UNC.

how do you slow them down , no one did all year ? they had 20 points in the 1st 5 minutes and the game was over

[King Glorious]

Originally Posted by Crown@club

Exactly what happened. I just don't get it when they slowed the pace against Louisville, picked up the pace against UConn, but not slow it back down against UNC.

You slow it down against Louisville because the Cardinals are a team that has trouble scoring. They have good athletes though so you want to contain them and not let them get out on runouts and get easy baskets. You want to make them play the halfcourt game and that's not their strength. Against UConn, you don't want to slow it down because that plays to their strength which is their halfcourt defense. You have no chance consistently trying to score baskets in the halfcourt against Thabeet and Adrien so you want to force the issue with them and try to get them scrambling around and out of position. Against UNC, you don't have either option. They have size and speed. You try to slow it down but they invite you to shoot because they'll leave you open opportunities. It's reminiscent of a Paul Westhead kind of defense where he'll give you some shots just so he can have the opportunity to get the ball back. He used to preach how he'd give you a layup so that you'd take it and he'd get the ball back to shoot three's and even if you had every intention of trying to slow it down, those open looks would get too inviting. Next thing you know, you are playing at a faster pace than you want to and UNC has jumped out on one of those 12-2 or 18-4 runs and now you HAVE to up your tempo and come of out your game plan because you have score more.

[Crown@club]

Originally Posted by King Glorious

You slow it down against Louisville because the Cardinals are a team that has trouble scoring. They have good athletes though so you want to contain them and not let them get out on runouts and get easy baskets. You want to make them play the halfcourt game and that's not their strength. Against UConn, you don't want to slow it down because that plays to their strength which is their halfcourt defense. You have no chance consistently trying to score baskets in the halfcourt against Thabeet and Adrien so you want to force the issue with them and try to get them scrambling around and out of position. Against UNC, you don't have either option. They have size and speed. You try to slow it down but they invite you to shoot because they'll leave you open opportunities. It's reminiscent of a Paul Westhead kind of defense where he'll give you some shots just so he can have the opportunity to get the ball back. He used to preach how he'd give you a layup so that you'd take it and he'd get the ball back to shoot three's and even if you had every intention of trying to slow it down, those open looks would get too inviting. Next thing you know, you are playing at a faster pace than you want to and UNC has jumped out on one of those 12-2 or 18-4 runs and now you HAVE to up your tempo and come of out your game plan because you have score more.

Gales, you take your shot that's it. MSU was not doing that.

Against Louisville, they stayed under control against Louisville's full court press. They got through the press, and then slowed it down. Last night was no where near that. They pressed themselves and didn't give themselves any chance whatsoever.

[gales0678]

crown - lousiville can't score in the half court like UNC

unc scored more points in 20 minutes than louisville did in 40 minutes against msu - don't you think there is a large talent gap between the 2 teams

[Crown@club]

Originally Posted by gales0678

crown - lousiville can't score in the half court like UNC

unc scored more points in 20 minutes than louisville did in 40 minutes against msu - don't you think there is a large talent gap between the 2 teams

I know UNC has more talent. I'm just saying that as well as they've been playing the last 2 games, that they should had been able to execute their game plan against UNC. If last night was the game plan, then that was horrible. Should had been more patient with the basketball. MSU 21 turnovers. Most were from their own accord.

[King Glorious]

Originally Posted by Crown@club

I know UNC has more talent. I'm just saying that as well as they've been playing the last 2 games, that they should had been able to execute their game plan against UNC. If last night was the game plan, then that was horrible. Should had been more patient with the basketball. MSU 21 turnovers. Most were from their own accord.

What you aren't getting is that you can have a game plan but that doesn't mean that your opponent is going to let you play it. Just like in football. You may be a running team but if you fall behind early, say a fumble returned or a kickoff returned for a touchdown, you have to change your game plan a little bit. They surely wanted to be more patient. But they have no inside game against UNC so that means their entire offense was on the perimeter. UNC was all over the passing lanes and forcing the Spartan offense out further than they wanted. By overplaying the passing lanes, two things happen. They get a lot of steals and opportunities to run out. But they also get out of position often and leave you with open shots. Coaches may preach that they want you to slow things down but they'll also tell you not to pass up wide open shots. The State players got a lot of open looks but while they were open, they were also rushed. Long jumpers often lead to long rebounds and once again, the Heels were out and running. The simple fact is that they didn't have the players to impose their game plan over UNC's and once they fell behind, they had to adjust. They weren't going to crawl back from 10-15 back by working the shot clock down on each possession.

[dalakhani]

Originally Posted by Crown@club

I know UNC has more talent. I'm just saying that as well as they've been playing the last 2 games, that they should had been able to execute their game plan against UNC. If last night was the game plan, then that was horrible. Should had been more patient with the basketball. MSU 21 turnovers. Most were from their own accord.

Whether there were two seconds or twenty seconds left on the shot clock MSU wasnt going to get the looks they were getting in the other games. What difference would it have made if they would have passed the ball around another ten seconds?

The tone of the game was set early. Mich St's first bucket was a contested three pointer by their center. A few seconds later it was an air ball from the wing. Carolina was getting clean looks from their best players in their favorite spots.

MSU had a size advantage against louisville-they exploited it. They had a backcourt and speed advantage against UConn- they exploited it. Exactly where was their advantage against Carolina?

They go halfcourt and carolina is bigger and more athletic on the interior. Carolina also defends the three well. Your only hope is to go uptempo because if you dont, you cant score. Its as simple as that.