Senior guard Matt McQuaid crosses over Michigan's Jordan Poole. The Spartans beat the Wolverines, 77-70, Feb. 24, 2019 at the Crisler Center.
A Critical Switch
In the first half of No. 10 Michigan State’s 77-70 upset victory over No. 7 Michigan, the Spartans had a big problem. His name was Jon Teske, and the sophomore center stands 7-feet-1-inch tall. When Teske would screen for ball handlers in Michigan's coach John Beilein’s famed 1-5 ball screens, MSU made the decision to switch, resulting in mismatches inside.
Teske, and his front court mate freshman forward Ignas Brazdeikis, pulled down seven of the Wolverines’ eight offensive rebounds in the first half. Even when MSU defended well and forced a Wolverine miss, they were simply being killed on the boards.
So, MSU made a halftime adjustment.
“It was hard because they would switch me onto the guard, then the guard that I was guarding was shooting, so it would be hard for me to get the rebound,” sophomore forward Xavier Tillman said. “So, instead, we just had to make a switch where Kenny would help down there and get rebounds, and that showed, he had 11 rebounds in the game. So, we made a switch where, I’m still going to switch onto the guard, but Kenny is going to crash hard.”
After their first-half dominance, the Wolverines only managed three offensive rebounds in the second half. Redshirt junior forward Kyle Ahrens called it the key to the game.
“The coaches really harped on us about the offensive rebounds. That’s what we’ve been focusing on in practice is cutting out, and making sure we don’t let them get offensive boards. So, I’m just glad that it showed out there,” Ahrens said.
In addition, assistant coach Mike Garland said that they switched the screens less often. Much was made of Michigan point guard Zavier Simpson’s shooting ability. The junior came in shooting 29 percent from three, but made two in the first half when MSU got completely caught underneath screens.
“Our main goal with Zavier was to not let him get to the basket,” Garland said. “Everybody says he can’t shoot, but he’s a much better shooter than what you give him credit for. Now, we got caught trying to stay back to play his drive, and of course he took the shots. We’re not just going to let him take uncontested shots like that, no way.”
Beilein talked postgame about how the adjustment threw the Wolverines off, resulting in what he termed poor shot selection.
“We tried a whole bunch of stuff, but just they had a really good defense today and we could not get the leverage that we normally can create with certain styles of defense,” Beilein said.
Ball and bag, secured
Woody Hayes, Michigan’s great football rival, famously said that three things can happen when you pass the ball, and two of them are bad. He was referring, mostly, to turnovers.
A MSU team that came in averaging 13.3 turnovers per game faced a Michigan team that has become known this year for forcing them. It looked to be a recipe for the ball being thrown around the court. By some mystery, it wasn’t the case.
MSU turned the ball over only six times, which Garland attributed to the brilliant play of junior point guard Cassius Winston.
“We just did a tremendous job of taking care of the ball,” Garland said. “The main thing was, we had it in his hands because he was just tremendous, making play after play after play after play. I was actually surprised to see he only had eight assists.”
It wasn’t just that MSU wasn’t turning the ball over, they were also getting quality shots out of a high-ball-screen look. Goins hit three triples in the first half to keep the Spartans afloat when they were getting out-rebounded on the other end.
“I was feeling good. I told someone earlier, this is kind of like that day you’ve been looking forward to for your whole life. I’m a senior now, it’s my last time being here, and I kind of just rode that momentum,” Goins said.
The Wolverines actually turned the ball over nine times, and only recorded six assists on 23 made field goals.
“I thought we had two huge turnovers in the first half, back-to-back, and two huge in the second half, back-to-back,” Beilein said. “They were like, for no reason. Just 50-50, ‘I think I’m gonna do this,’ and you can’t do that against a really good team.”
Support student media! Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
Nobody saw MSU winning the turnover battle, but they did. Brazdeikis said this was the result of poor decision making on the part of the Wolverines.
“I feel like we could've definitely done better offensively for sure. There was definitely matchups and stuff that we could've went into and played off and I feel like we're gonna be more ready next time,” Brazdeikis said.
The next time these two will meet is 13 days from now, March 9 in East Lansing.
