B1G Game 15: Gophers Visit Michigan State (2-17-20)

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MSU's leading rebounders were guards. Joiner had 11 and Clouden 10.
The 6'3" Parks had 9 rebounds in 14 minutes.
 

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Post-Game Quotes: Minnesota - Michigan State University Athletics

Post-game quotes from MSU head coach Suzy Merchant.
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Suzy Merchant on defending Taiye Bello:

On limiting Taiye Bello…
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Well number one was we really needed to do a good job of keeping her off the offensive glass because she does score that way a lot. I'm not sure we were spectacular on that but when she caught it, if we couldn't deter her from getting it, we didn't want to completely front, we wanted to three-quarter, and if we couldn't get the tip we definitely wanted to use our post to get behind her. She really becomes a face-up guy, wirer, quick and fast. Almost becomes like a guard-like creature in there so we were talking to our kids, show your hand, move your feet, stay between her. Just wall up, show your hands, don't come down just stay between her and the basket. I thought those guys did a really good job of that because she's a tough matchup the way she plays. She can really face you up from eight feet, shoot it in your face, rip it in drive, reverse dribble. So, we were a little concerned about that, she's really good about getting people in foul trouble and we tend to do that with those young bigs. I was proud of them tonight because that didn't happen.
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Michigan State bench player Julia Ayrault scores 14 points off the bench in 22 minutes. She was not even on Iggy’s list of notable bench players. As noted, MSU bench player Taiyier Parks with 9 rebounds and 7 points off the bench in 14 minutes.

Rebounds:

Minnesota 44
Michigan State 51

Points in the paint:

Minnesota 18
Michigan State 28

Field goal percentage:

Kehinde Bello .667
Rest of Minnesota team .273
Michigan State team .368

Powell and Scalia were a combined 0-8 from deep.

Somewhat strangely, the only winning strategy against MSU apparently would have been ...

... wait for it ...

... feeding the hot hand of Kehinde every time we advanced the ball over the time line !?!?!
 

impact89fm.org

Stearns: Ayrault’s continued maturation good news for Spartans

EAST LANSING — Someone should have told the Minnesota Golden Gophers that leaving Julia Ayrault open on the perimeter was a recipe for disaster. The Grosse Pointe native single handedly...
impact89fm.org

More on Ayraults:

As cutdown says, there was an oversight. According to Merchant we'll be seeing more of Ayrault in the future.

EAST LANSING — Someone should have told the Minnesota Golden Gophers that leaving Julia Ayrault open on the perimeter was a recipe for disaster. The Grosse Pointe native single handedly buried the Gophers in the fourth by notching all of her 10 points within the final frame. When the Spartan offense went ice cold, it was Ayrault who delivered in crunch time to seal a much needed 66-54 win over the Gophers.

“I went into this year watching her and I’m like ‘this kid is going to be our starting four-man’” said coach Suzy Merchant. “Then she had all these ailments and issues, even though some of it involves roughening up a little bit.”

The last several games have been rough for Ayrault. She scored only nine points during the Spartans’ prolonged five-game losing streak. This stretch featured good players making selfish plays at the worst possible times. Young players who had not been accustomed to receiving significant minutes were suddenly thrust into the limelights in some of college basketball’s most hostile arenas, such as the Xfinity Center and Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
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Despite the constant bombardment of injuries that has threatened to thwart Ayrault’s 2019-20 campaign, the four-star recruit has stayed the course and contributed game after game in more ways than one. Even when the shots haven’t been falling, Ayrault’s ability to play strong defense, run well in transition and be a menace on the boards has forced Merchant to play her in crucial minutes.

“The kid’s IQ is off the charts,” said Merchant. “I think she is going to be an amazing four-man for us and I think that she has a chance to be an all-conference player. She just needs to figure out the bumps and bruises and some of the challenges that happen in this game.”
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There may be no player on the current roster that MSU features that has a higher ceiling than Ayrault. Despite all the things that she does well, there are certain things that hamper her from truly becoming an all-around dominant player.

“This offseason will be huge for her,” said Merchant. “She needs to spend her life in the weight room. She needs to get stronger and get her agility where it needs to be and I think the sky’s the limit for her, because she has such a great IQ for the game.”
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Ayrault’s health has taken a significant leap forward over the past couple of weeks. She will be counted on going forward to contribute in a meaningful way against Purdue on Thursday and Michigan on Sunday.
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The big ten season is taking it's toll on the legs, plus the only open looks we get these days is Bello, which is probably the game plan to let her shoot jumpers. Jp is a dynamic player, but shooting 26 times from the pg position with one assist, isn't a recipe for W's. Every time we ran a play they knew what the action was and just switched.
You can survive losing a player like Pitts initially for a few games, but now we are feeling it the most.
Hopefully we compete in these last three tough games.. but with weary legs it will be tough.
 




Shades said:
What’s going on with Shae Colley?
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In early February MSU said she had a knee injury. She was on the bench last night. The announcers said it's the first time she's been on the bench since she last played (If I heard it correctly). They also spoke about Colley taking time to make the Canada Olympic team. The mystery continues.
 

Ignatius L Hoops said:
In early February MSU said she had a knee injury. She was on the bench last night. The announcers said it's the first time she's been on the bench since she last played (If I heard it correctly). They also spoke about Colley taking time to make the Canada Olympic team. The mystery continues.
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As a RS Jr, I was hoping she might have a decent season and possibly declare for the draft. She recently turned 24. But it looks like she’s going to stick around until she’s 25. Maybe she’ll have a Masters by then.
 

MNGirlsHoops said:
The big ten season is taking it's toll on the legs, plus the only open looks we get these days is Bello, which is probably the game plan to let her shoot jumpers. Jp is a dynamic player, but shooting 26 times from the pg position with one assist, isn't a recipe for W's. Every time we ran a play they knew what the action was and just switched.
You can survive losing a player like Pitts initially for a few games, but now we are feeling it the most.
Hopefully we compete in these last three tough games.. but with weary legs it will be tough.
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There were 7 Gopher assists (with 15 turnovers) to 16 MSU assists (with 14 turnovers).

For reference, note that UConn averages 18.5 assists per game, which is 6.375 higher than its opponents on average. Against MSU, we didn’t even measure up to the average UConn opponent, let alone UConn.

Agreed that when you’re playing a double-point-guard system, and your two point guards play a total of 71 minutes between them but only have 2 assists between them (along with 3 turnovers), then it’s a pretty good bet that your team loses.

In the MSU game, Masha was shooting well but time limited by fouls, and Taiye (also limited by fouls) was pretty much facing a triple-team when she got the ball (since she was the main threat besides Powell, and MSU did a good job defending her). MSU tightly covered our 3-point shooters so they weren’t getting many open looks, and mostly missing anyway.

Under that scenario, a player like Powell feels like she’s the main option and must put the team on her back. And so she tried, but only got 15 points (including 3 free throws) to show for it. In spite of being in front of her home-town crowd, I don’t think she was being particularly selfish - just realizing she’s the main option in that scenario.

As noted, MSU adjusted well and stuffed Powell several times, plus seemingly no one to pass to when she penetrates (seriously, with a coach and three assistant coaches, nobody can devise a play to get someone open for the Jasmines to pass to?), thus only 15 points off 22 shots. (Note: That’s .682 points per shot. Maybe a tiny bit more per Powell-led possession given occasional offensive rebound. The Lynx aim for the gold standard of 1.1 points per possession.) Powell is finding herself having to be the new “Destiny Pitts” to a team that got rid of its Destiny Pitts.
 
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Not only devise offensive plays but can the coaches devise in bound plays? I find my self holding my breath every time we need to pass the ball in.
 

Katogopher said:
Not only devise offensive plays but can the coaches devise in bound plays? I find my self holding my breath every time we need to pass the ball in.
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Admittedly, it has been a trifle scary on inbounds plays, starting with last year’s Maryland game and continuing this year. All too often they end up resorting to a long pass to a guard dashing toward half-court (with fan visions of either an over-and-back or an interception for an easy fast-break layup).

There were two good inbounds plays, at least, this year though. The first was just a lucky play when Pitts found herself wide open for an 8 foot baseline jumper, so more of a fluke than a specific play really.

But the more recent one was pretty cool. See 1st quarter clock = 2 seconds in the @Wisconsin highlights video at https://www.forums.gopherhole.com/b...innesota-visits-wisconsin-2-6-20.95076/page-2 in post #40 of that thread ...

... along with comments in that thread at posts #43, #44 and my #45 in which I note that that was a good in-bounds play by Diva and Kehinde (with feed by Powell). It’s simple and effective, not complicated at all. In this particular realization of the play, it does depend a bit on the surprise factor of Kehinde being the shooter - but that’s not a requirement.

Don’t know if that was something Diva cooked up on the spur of the moment, or if it was something from the coaches that they had practiced.

Either way, that was a good inbounds play, and I see no reason why they couldn’t try it in every game.

One would think you could find 50 example inbounds plays on YouTube to try out in practice.

In a related comment, I thought the best way (among what they tried) to get the ball in play on that nasty Rutgers full-court press, was having the Bello twins (or two posts anyway) at the opponent’s wing positions. They sprint wide to get the inbounds pass, preferably before they get too close to the corner. Being taller, they have better sight lines and can hold the ball high awaiting finding a guard on the run to pass to. Better than a short guard getting trapped in the corner with no vision. Plus they have each other for a panic outlet pass cross-court (and hopefully a bit closer to the timeline by then) if needed, and they can outjump a guard to receive such a pass.
 
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