Man, we have a lot of talent on the team. And that's why Collins is a good fit for us. I continue to believe we have never seen the level of talent we've had over the last 7 years.
He drives me nuts with his decisions though. We allowed 8 points in the first 1:47. After that, our defense was competent, against an experienced and physical team. Even if our guys looked startled at times. Some of them had never seen speed like that, a team that pushes the ball down the court like that. A team that crashes the boards like that. A floor general like that. Still we crawled back to 20-23, without any player going mental as Bouie did in the second half. So not really sure what the purpose of the zone we saw on and off. We were hurt by a quick start, the zone only lead to allowing more points in the 2nd half and increasing the problems on the boards. Not like it's a secret Izzo's teams are offensive rebound minded.
Like several have stated, the rebounding was a problem. If we had rebounded better we might have won. Without Buie going off, we might not have been in it, but that's a part of the game: someone stepping up.
Overall I thought our guys showed a lot of positives, even the ones who "played poorly":
Young - I liked seeing him. He's learning how to deal with players that are more physically skilled. He had some good moves where the ball just did not go in. But were good looks. Probably rushed by the "fear" of having quicker guys around to block it. He will get used to it. Early on he was being assertive on wanting the ball and wanting to make something happen. He created good looks
Kopp - I don't think it was a coincidence Izzo mentioned Kopp and Nance first. He's a legendary coach, who preps for games, who knows other teams. And he knew those were our biggest threats. I don't know if Kopp is still weakened by having been sick. But it was clear MSU wanted to clamp down on him. And they did. Kopp is slow, makes it easier to shut him down if you really mean to do it by giving up help defense. Still finished with 9. If he understands where he can be effective, he's a 15 pt guy.
Spencer - Maybe suffering from heightened expectations her on these boards. Sure, sloppy with the ball at times. But giving us competent playing time on defense, etc. Let's not forget most of us thought he'd see none to limited minutes. And we can expect him to just get better as he gets used to the speed of the B1G.
Jones - Did not commit a single foul. Had that happened before?
Nance - Usual self, brilliant at times. Absent for periods of time. What I'm mostly impressed about is that he is less and less soft. He's being more physical, playing with a more "pissed off" attitude.
Gaines/Turner - gave us what they probably can give us. Despite both having potential to do more, I do not think we will see it on a regular basis. AJ has the tools to be so much more than he is. But I don't think he has it in him as the mental part of game is not there. He's not confident enough.
Beran - a bit of what Nance was last year. You see the potential, now he has to figure it out how to put it to good use.
Buie - Not worth adding a lot, so much already said. Just really happy a freshman can have such moxy. We have not seen that kind of freshman at NU often. A lot have the skills, but are not readily confident to play at the B1G level.
from being down big.
