Michigan & Michigan State square off Friday in battle for Great Lakes supremacy

Yahoo

19-02-2025

Caroline Fenton, Jason Fitz & Isis Young discuss this Friday's matchup between the #12 Michigan Wolverines and #14 Michigan State Spartans in men's basketball. With the Spartans just a game back in the Big Ten standings, Fitz worries that their inconsistent 3-point shooting could be their biggest weakness heading into the home stretch of the season.
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And then I get Michigan State at Michigan on Friday night in the men's game.
Michigan State just, uh, as I referenced earlier, Izzo just set the all-time winning record.
Michigan State's interesting to me, guys, because for years, my argument against Michigan State in the tournament particularly has been they don't have, like, ever since they didn't have Cassius Winston, they haven't had that guy that's like, hey, I need a bucket, I get a bucket.
This Michigan State team is interesting to me cause they got a couple of guys that I think can do that.
But my God, they can't shoot from the outside.
Like this is just a wildly inconsistent three-point shooting team.
So to me, one of the nice things that we start to get over the next few weeks is a real indication of who a team is in the tournament.
So now you've got Michigan State, Michigan taking each other on, and I've got to see a better, like, I think Michigan State, if they could shoot the ball consistent from the outside, could be a dangerous Final Four type team in this year's tournament.
But The problem is, we saw a little bit of that.
They got hot in December, January, didn't lose.
Everybody's like, yes, this is it.
And then we hit February and it's like, oh yeah, they can't shoot.
I, I, these are the games that just to me are so proven and important to Michigan State's ability to in offensive sets, generate points.
Not talking about transition basketball.
I'm talking about like, everybody knows what's coming.
Can you generate a basket when you need it?
I'm, I'm worried about that for Sparty, so I think this is a big game ice for Sparty to prove themselves.
Uh, I totally agree with you.
First, rivalry games.
I mean, it just means something different too when you've got Michigan and Michigan State on the floor together.
So I, I think it says a lot about their pride going into this game and your point about, you know, their offense scoring, not just.
In transition is really just what's necessary when you're preparing for the tournament.
Like I feel like you can't stress it enough just winning in different ways.
Um, I also think though that that's where coaching is really challenged.
Like if you know your team can't score in the half court consistently.
You have to have the best quick hitter package I've ever seen in my life.
Like you need to be running all the miss decoys, all the staggers, all the backdoors, all the lob options, because you know that naturally that's not what your team excels in.
And so I also think it's a challenge on the coaching staff to be prepared to have some quick hitters to go when they need it down the stretch.
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