Spartan Speculations: Tale of Two Tapes

By: Charles Ranspach

5-2 in the B1G, two losses against the only two teams in the conference that I can’t stand. Most of my hatred of Michigan and OSU comes from my childhood where my brother and I were the only MSU fans in the family.

The Michigan game felt exactly the same as the OSU game. Turnovers and poor shooting resulted in letting Michigan hang around until the end when they eventually pulled away. Mo Wagner was tearing it up against our big men who look like they forgot how to play defense.

I need to take a moment to say how much I hate Wagner. Nothing pisses me off more than a white guy with swagger. Maybe it’s because MSU hasn’t had a player like that since, maybe ever, but man does it bug me, just play the fricken game! Anyway, it was a disappointing game at home after a disappointing game at home.

That being said, I think the Spartans might have their collective swagger back.

Bring in IU.

Man do I LOOOOVE beating Indiana teams. Seeing as I live in Indiana and work with IU fans nothing is better than dismantling their team. If we couldn’t do anything right against UM, the IU game was the complete opposite. Other than the stretch at the start of the second quarter, the Spartans looked hungry and they should be. Miles finally looked like he was ready to take over games and Ward seems to have figured something out. Inside, outside, transition and defense were great and Miles leading all scorers with 22 makes for a very happy fan.

Like a great navigator sailing into a storm let me guide you deeper into this Spartan team.

Miles Bridges is back:

He finally looks like he is ready to take over games. There were multiple times that you could see Bridges has unleashed his inner beast. Like THIS. From the outside in he seems to have figured out how to play the three and how he can take over when he must.

At one point in the game he had the ball on the right block with his back to the basket, he tested the defender with a fake to his left shoulder then nailed a step back jumper. Multiple things could have happened there but the skill to fake and step back shows his versatility. I can bet Miles is about to put a stretch of games together that will get him some POTW honors.

Nick Ward has figured something out:

After a game where Ward couldn’t do anything right he seems to have figured it out. Going into the UM game, teams had double-teamed him well. Michigan made him look silly and the coaches saw this. With a 6-day layoff, it seems like that is all they worked on in practice. Ward finally was passing out of the double team by dribbling into good areas. There were multiple times that he would dribble out of the double then pass to a wide-open shooter. Ward lets emotions get the better of him and I’m sick of his whining, but his skill is hard to replace. Let’s just hope he has actually figured it out.

MSU will take on the Fighting Illini in Illinois. It will be a good chance to go get a quality win on the road. The State Farm center is not an easy place to play, but the talent difference is big and Izzo will want to prove something to the recruit that he lost late to Illinois. Expect Bridges and Langford to have big games.