Michigan State preview

BabHorn

BabHorn

10,000+ Posts
whoa! the texassports.com staff is really on the ball. Their MSU preview is up.

Nice fact that both Gail and Gale are Michigan natives. Should be a nice homecoming for both.
 
Horns (4-1) are coming off a loss to Stanford last Sunday while the Spartans (6-1) recovered from a 15 pt first half deficit to beat #14/15 Florida State on the road Wednesday. This will be the fourth meeting between the schools. And the first since the 2004 NCAA playoffs. Texas leads the series 2-1. This game is part of the Big 12/Big 10 WBB Challenge. This will be one of four games in the challenge being played Sunday.
The Spartans have four players that have started all seven games. These are: Kalisha Keane (# 32, 6-1 Sr. F), Brittney Thomas (# 20, 5-10 Sr. G), Lykendra Johnson (# 30, 6-1 RS Jr. F), and Cetera Washington (# 15, 6-0 Sr. F). Courtney Schiffauer (# 24, 6-1 RS Soph. F) started the first 4 games before being replaced by Jasmine Thomas (# 1, 5-7 Soph. G). MSU has eight players that have played in all seven games. In addition to the six listed earlier, Porsche Poole (# 3, 5-8 Jr. G) and Annalise Pickrel (# 11, 6-3 Fr. G) are the other two that have played in all seven games. Those eight all average in double digit minutes as does Klarissa Bell (# 21, 5-11 Fr. G) who has appeared in six games. MSU is missing 6-7 Fr. C Madison Williams who suffered ACL tear to her right knee before the season started during their annual Green and White game.

Keane is the main offensive weapon for the Spartans. She leads the team in scoring (19.9 ppg), assists (3.0 apg), rebounding (5.7 rpg), FGs made/attempted (46-91, 50.5%), 3pters made/attempted (21-45, 46.7%), FTs made/attempted (26-33, 78.8%), and minutes played (32.7 mpg). She is also second on the team with 17 steals and third with 6 blocks. She is the only Spartan averaging in double digits scoring. The other four starters plus Poole average between 6.3 and 8.4 ppg. Poole did explode for 18 pts against Florida State on 6-9 FGs, 3-5 3s, and 3-3 FTs. Keane pretty is doubling up everyone else in FGs made/attempted; 3pters made/attempted and FTs made/attempted. B. Thomas, Poole, Johnson, J. Thomas have taken between 40 and 51 shots. Schiffauer (4-19, 21.1%), Poole (10-19, 52.6%), Washington (5-11, 45.5%) and Johnson (6-14, 42.9%) are other 3pt threats for the Spartans. Keane’s 78.8% from the FT line leads all players that have played in all the games. B. Thomas (12-16, 75.0%) is the second best FT shooter by percentage in that group. Next to Keane, Washington (11-19, 57.9%) is the best at getting to the FT line although she has trouble converting once there. Johnson and Washington both average 5.6 rpg to support Keane in that department. Johnson leads the team in blocks (9) and steals (24).

Texas has four of five starters in double digit scoring. Chassidy (18.0 ppg), Kat (16.6 ppg), Ashleigh (16.4 ppg) and Yvonne (13.6 ppg) are the four starters in double figures. Fifth starter Ashley adds 7.8 ppg. Of the seven players that have played in all five games, four are hitting 44% on FGs or better. Yvonne’s 59% tops this group while Chassidy’s 47.5% ranks second among the seven. Five Horns have taken at least 11 3s with none making less than 35% of the treys. Kat’s 10-28 3s lead the team with Chassidy’s 8-23 3s second. Yvonne’s 50% from BTA (7-14) tops the team. Seven Horns have gotten to the FT line at least 14 times in the first five games. Five of those seven are making at least 73.7% of their FTs which contributes to a team average of 72.9%. Chassidy has made and taken the most FTs (26-35) while Kat’s 92% (23-25) from the FT line tops the squad. Ashley leads the team in rebounding (10.4 rpg) while Kat adds 10.0 rpg to her 16.6 ppg to be the only Horn averaging a double double. Chassidy is third on the team with 6.2 rpg. Four Horns have at least 11 assists led by Yvonne’s 20. Ashley has 19 blocks with three others at 3 blocks each. Nine of the ten Horns have at least one steal, with three with at least 11. Ashleigh’s 25 steals tops the team.

Projected starting lineups:


Texas Michigan Stater>Ashley (6-4) Lykendra Johnson (6-1)Kat (6-2) Kalisha Keane (6-1)
Ashleigh (5-8) Brittney Thomas (5-10)
Yvonne (5-7) Jasmine Thomas (5-7)
Chassidy (5-10) Cetera Washington (6-0)


Height wise, the Horns match up well with Michigan State. MSU is more experienced. Ashley, with a still evolving offensive post game, is a strong defensive presence inside. Yvonne has become a reliable scorer in addition to be a strong defender. The key will be to control Keane. Florida State did that for the first half before Keane went off for 20 in the second half to finish with a team leading 22 pts. MSU will have to worry about a balanced Texas scoring team although the focus is likely to be on stopping Chassidy. Both teams will use primarily an eight player rotation although MSU has 14 on their roster and Texas has used all ten players available in all but the Stanford game. Like Yvonne, Washington is a defensive player who has found her offensive game. Kat will have her hands full with Keane. Of course, the same could be said about Keane guarding Kat if that particular matchup occurs.




[pre]
TEAM STATISTICS Texas MSU
--------------------------------------------------
SCORING................. 456 505
Points per game....... 91.2 72.1
Scoring margin........ +27.2 +13.4
FIELD GOALS-ATT......... 150-335 183-416
Field goal pct........ .448 .440
FGs made per game .... 30.0 26.1
FGs Att. per game .... 67.0 59.4
FGs Att. per minute... 1.7 1.5
2 POINT FG-ATT........... 115-240 123-277
2-point FG pct........ .479 .444
2-pt FG made per game. 25.0 17.6
2-pt FG Att. per game. 48.0 39.6
3 POINT FG-ATT........... 35-95 60-139
3-point FG pct........ .368 .432
3-pt FG made per game. 7.0 8.6
3-pt FG Att. per game. 19.0 19.9
FREE THROWS-ATT......... 121-166 79-120
Free throw pct........ .729 .658
F-Throws made per game 24.2 11.3
F-Throws Att. per game 33.2 17.1
REBOUNDS................ 236 281
Rebounds per game..... 47.2 40.1
Rebounding margin..... +10.2 +4.1
ASSISTS................. 83 100
Assists per game...... 16.6 14.3
TURNOVERS............... 97 136
Turnovers per game.... 19.4 19.4
Turnover margin....... +5.2 +1.0
Assist/turnover ratio. 0.9 0.7
STEALS.................. 79 75
Steals per game....... 15.6 10.7
BLOCKS.................. 31 35
Blocks per game....... 6.2 5.0
ATTENDANCE.............. 14793 13514
Home games-Avg/Game... 4-3698 3-4505

SCORE BY PERIODS: 1st 2nd OT OT2 Total
-------------------- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Texas............... 246 210 - 456
MSU................. 233 272 - 505

Ave. Score by Half: 1st 2nd OT OT2 Total
-------------------- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Texas............... 49.2 42.0 - 91.2
MSU................. 33.2 38.9 - 72.1 [/pre]

Both teams like to shoot the ball from BTA with Texas averaging 19 3pters while MSU averages 19.9. 28% of Texas FG attempts are 3s while for MSU, 34% of FG attempts are 3s. Texas is hitting at a good rate (36.8%) while MSU borders on excellent at 43.2%. MSU has faced Baylor and lost 78-52. Live by the 3, die by the 3. MSU was 4-22 (18.2%) from BTA in that game. They were 80% from the FT line but only took 10 FTs while Baylor made 16-24 FTs. Baylor couldn’t stop Keane who had 28 pts but only one other Spartan was in double figures with 10. MSU will face the Big 12’s second best shot blocker in Ashley. MSU’s inside players were 1-11 against Baylor. Will they have similar difficulty against Texas? It will be interesting to find out which team can gain an advantage by forcing TOs and scoring from BTA. Will Keane’s teammates be able to provide the scoring support they did in their last game when four Spartans were in double figures? Will the Horns focus on shutting down Keane or her teammates? Or both?

This is a winnable game for the Horns. One that will look good on that NCAA resume. But MSU will come into this game flying high after toppling FSU in Tallahassee. They will also be looking to pick up another top 20 scalp for their NCAA resume. Horns will count on two of the top three Big 12 rebounders in Kat and Ashley to fuel their running game.

The game will be at 3 pm CST. It will be carried on the Big Ten Network. In Austin, that’s TWC 1640. KVET 1300 AM will carry the game with Carol Ross and Jon Madani as the broadcast team.
 
Horns starting to hit their shots, 18-21 MSU. Ashley is having a big game on both ends so far.
hookem.gif
 
31-27, Horns down at the half. Texas is missing FTs and started out missing shots but is still hanging around. Ashley has four blocks if I counted correctly. She also has two fouls. Anne Marie is doing very good job inside rebounding.
 
This is a winnable game, but I fear the team is not as good as I hoped. Baylor beat MSU by 20 plus. Free throws are a problem - MSU fouls a lot. AT needs to make them - 0 of 4 on the road ain't gonna do it. MSU has 10 offensive boards. The team needs to rebound. Defense is keeping TX in this games. Come on 'Horns!!!
 
Ouch, that was not good from Ashley. Can't afford from her. Time to see if Chassidy and Kat can hit some 3s. Anne Marie will need to continue to be solid inside.
 
Horns are simply having trouble hanging on to the ball. They are not shooting well but it would be good enough if they didn't have 19/20 TOs so far. FTs from anyone but Kat are also pretty iffy. MSU has done a great job on shutting down Chassidy.
 
one thing the Horns should take away from this is how to space the floor in their half court. MSU is looking very good while Texas continues to make unforced TOs.
 
Horns are simply trading points at this time. It's going to be tough to get back into it without forcing some TOs.
 
Chassidy has not scored at all 2nd half, they are losing here, just no offense, rushing shots, and SLOPPY, SLOPPY turnovers...

Not good, not good at all, sorry to say this will be a long season..."Next Year"....boy, am I tired of saying that!

hookem.gif
 
Chassidy has zero points - we are bad against any team with a pulse. Score: MSU 70 TX 52. We do not deserve to be ranked. We might make the tournament, but will lose in the 1st round again. The talent is not there - nor is the discipline and i am finally starting to question the coaching.
 
Horns go down 71-57. MSU really did a great job defending the 3, shutting out Chassidy and keeping Kat, Ashleigh, and Yvonne from getting any clean shots from BTA. Not a game I enjoyed watching but certainly a lot of teachable moments for the the coaches to use.
 
Well well well. WCBB season has started. Teams have started to expose our weaknesses which most of us already knew. We whipped the bunnies but now it looks like we might receive a few spankings ourselves.

We start 1 sr, 3 jrs and 1 freshman. Our freshman is our leading scorer and once she is shut down we can't pay for a shot. WE NEED OFFENSE! Once again we are struggling on offense. Man I wish Coach G practiced and mastered offense sets like she does her defense. Our team should be experienced at this point - since we're starting 4 upper classmen and they should be able to run sets and score. It's going to be very difficult to win w/ 4 guards and a center if we don't develop some offensive sets. Run, force turnovers, shoot and score is great however we are going to need offensive sets when this is not working.

We should fall off the top 25 and remain off until we can prove we can beat some quality teams.

I thought they played better against Stanford or maybe it was because they didn't shut down Chassidy so she was scoring. I don't know.

Longhorn fan for life but I thought maybe just maybe we had turned the corner. Good thing about preseason when it's over we can look forward to the full season. HOOK'EM HORN!!
hookem.gif
 
Probably didn’t seem like it, but the defense for the Horns was there. MSU shot worse than the Horns from the field (.378 to .383) and from BTA (.192 to .222) but the Horns self destructed with 28 TOs, at least half which looked to me to be unforced. MSU took almost twice as many FG attempts as Texas (78 to 47) and almost three times as many 3s (26 to 9) due to the Horn TOs and Texas’ inability to keep the Spartans off the offensive boards. MSU had a 18-10 edge in that category. One really has to give props to MSU and the way they defended the 3.

This was a disappointing loss because Texas came in having a good chance to win this game but was unable to find a way to pull it out. Horns won’t have much time to recoup as they face UT-Pan Am on Wednesday before Tennessee comes to Austin next Sunday.

Cynt, "preseason"? If you are talking about the preconference games, they count, not for confernce but for the NCAAs. This was a win that Texas needed outside the Big 12 to maintain position in the national rankings. Imo, They need to be in the top 45 to be assured of an NCAA invite.
 
Here we go again? Another blow out by a top 25 team. How long does the rebuilding take? I had hoped we were turning the corner. Now just a half dozen games into the season I can't help but wonder if it's happening again. Very frustrating.
 
They'll be fine in practice. It's when we play teams with winning records or ranked in the top 30 we're in trouble.
 
Agree Babhorn. That kill all the energy we were building. With C.Fussell, K.Nash and AT plus Y.Anderson all not having a good game. A lost is what you should expect.Especially playing a good team on their floor.
Hookem"
Michigan St.came ready to play and we did not
 
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