1. Michigan State’s Branden Dawson and Adreian Payne scuffled in their hotel room which resulted in a dented wall. The Police were called on them and head coach Tom Izzo did not start either of them against Penn State last night. When asked about the incident, Izzo said, “We’ll deal with this appropriately, and the players will willingly accept responsibility for paying for any property damage. I’ve spent my entire afternoon meeting with the players involved and they are both sincerely remorseful.” Dawson scored 5 points and pulled down 5 rebounds as the Spartans beat the Nittany Lions 81-72 on the road. Payne on the other hand poured 20 points against Penn State’s weak frontcourt.
2. Is Michigan’s game against Minnesota a “must-win” for the Wolverines? Just about a week ago, they were undefeated and received some votes as the best team in the country in the polls. After a tough loss to Ohio State on the road, there is no way the Wolverines need to win their game against the Gophers. Even head coach John Beilein laughed about it when asked the upcoming next game. Beilein said, “I’d be dead if I looked at games like that,” with a smile. The game however will be an excellent matchup with two teams who will play tough defense especially in the backcourt as the Andre Hollins matches up with Trey Burke. Beilein reiterated that the season is a “process” and you can’t single out any specific game as the most important one than the other.
3. You must have heard by now that the #2 ranked Indiana Hoosiers were upset at home by the Wisconsin Badgers. Bo Ryan‘s team stunned Indiana and dictated the game’s tempo right from the tip-off. CBS Sports’ Doug Gottlieb lists five key reasons behind Wisconsin’s stunner on the road. One of the main reasons according to Gottleib was Ben Brust‘s defense on Jordan Hulls. Hulls who shoots 50% from beyond the arc was held to just one long-range shot attempt by Brust who stifled him by not allowing him to find any opening to hoist good shots.
4. Speaking of Hulls and the Hoosiers, their loss raises a few concerns but there is no need for Tom Crean‘s team to panic. Inside The Hall lists three issues from Indiana’s loss and how they can fix them. The Hoosiers need to be more comfortable in the half-court sets because good defensive teams like Wisconsin can take away their transition game. Their main priority should be feed the post and let Cody Zeller take over the games unless he is double teamed which could result in open looks for Jordan Hulls and Will Sheehey. Speaking of Sheehey, he was held scoreless on Tuesday night, but he needs to be effective off the bench during big games especially if the starters are having trouble finding their shot.
5. Fran McCaffery‘s Hawkeyes just can’t seem to breathe in the Big Ten season. They start the season by playing three ranked teams: Indiana, Michigan and Michigan State. Then they dominate Northwestern on the road but they need to get back to the grind as they await a very hot Badgers team on Saturday at home. The Hawkeyes prefer to push the tempo of the game (70.3 possessions per game) can’t afford to let Wisconsin dictate the overall pace of the game. With three freshmen in the starting lineup, they may not be very successful in scoring in the half-court sets unless Roy Devyn Marble (15 points per game) steps up for McCaffery.

Deepak Jayanti (270 Posts)

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 17th, 2013 at 7:00 am by Deepak Jayanti and is filed under big ten, microsites, morning 5. Tagged: adreian payne, branden dawson. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.