SB Nation - Mark Titus

340 and Counting: Michigan State 90 Valparaiso 60

KJ@theonlycolors — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 03:46:32 -0000

Record, all-time wins by head coach, Michigan State University: 340 (tie), George Melvin Heathcote and Thomas Izzo (pictured).

Browse more photos »

[Note: Another disjointed viewing experience: Listened to first half on the radio live (Matt Steigenga's becoming a really good color guy, BTW), watched second half live, went back and watched first half on DVR.]

Michigan State puts together a complete 40 minutes: 18-point halftime lead, stretched to 30 at the final buzzer. Straight to the player bullets (official box score is here):

Chris Allen is playing with as much confidence as he's ever had: 22 points on 10 FG attempts.
Delvon Roe is good to go: 10 points, 17 rebounds (7 on offense), 4 blocks.
Korie Lucious: 9 assists, giving him 23 for the season vs. just 3 turnovers. Man, did he drop some dimes today. Best pure passer of the Tom Izzo era?

Raymar Morgan: 9 points, 6 rebounds, 3 blocks, and most importantly 28 minutes played. With four more days to get healthy, he should be pretty close to 100% for the Gators on Friday.

Kalin Lucas is Kalin Lucas: 15 points on 8 FG attempts, 3 assists, 2 steals.

Durrell Summers: 10 points, 1 scary moment.

Even when Draymond Green has a quiet game, he stuffs the stat sheet: 8 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 turnover, 1 block, 1 sheet. He's the anti-Mark Titus: he tries to fill every column in the box score.

We won't hit all of the other 7 guys to play in this game (none in double-digit minutes, as Izzo stayed pretty small throughout the game vs. the undersized Crusaders). It does look like Tom Izzo is making a conscious effort to give Austin Thornton a chance to earn a spot at the bottom of the playing rotation. 8 minutes and 4 FG attempts (only 1 made) today. They ran a set play for him off the timeout with a minute left in the first half, but he missed the open 15-footer.

This was a 68-possession game, so the offense was more spectacular than the defense--particularly when you consider that the Crusaders hit only 4 of 23 three-point attempts, missing some pretty good looks off bad MSU defensive switches/hedges along the way. Four factors graph:

NCAA Basketball Stats

MSU beat Valparaiso handily in all three of the factors besides turnover percentage. The execution against the Crusader zone was particularly good, resulting in a 2pt FG% of 61.0% and a 3pt FG% of 41.2%.

And the Spartan TO% of 19.1% was acceptable. No MSU player turned it over more than twice. Generally, it's encouraging that a higher percentage of our turnovers seem to be of the trying-to-create-something variety (as opposed to the no-purpose-brain-freeze variety) this season.

Minor gripe: The defense on in-bounds plays under the basket could use some work. Valparaiso got easy looks going down the lane several times today. Does having the defender guarding the in-bounds passer turn his back to try double team cutters really work better than just having him pressure the ball so the passer can't get a good passing angle to a player in the lane?

Next up: The actual whether-you-win-makes-a-difference-in-who-you-play-next phase of the Legends Classic. Atlantic City. The Florida Gators. Friday at 8:00. HDNet (check here to figure out if you get it or to find a sports bar that does).

The NBA Hates Blogging Ballers: Blogger Blockade Continues

Scott Schroeder — Mon, 04 May 2009 09:01:55 -0000

If this dude doesn't belong in the NBA, who does?

View full size photo »

Mark Titus, a 6'4" shooting guard, plays at Ohio State. As far as I can tell, his game resembles Blake Ahearn, as does his face. Anyway, for reasons I'm unsure of, he declared for the NBA draft. However, the NBA told him he couldn't, kind of.

The conversation I had with the DOBO (Director of Basketball Operations) basically featured him telling me that the NBA had called the Ohio State basketball office and requested that I take my name out of the draft because they feared that I was making a mockery of the process. He claimed that it wasn't all that serious, but as a precaution I should not talk about the draft on my blog any more. I kindly obliged.

Okay. Lame. The NBA doesn't want a kid that started as team manager to blog about his NBA draft prospects. Here's his Ohio State bio. His highlights, as a sophomore include connected on 2nd career 3-pointer in win over Presbyterian College. Why would the NBA worry about this kid? It shouldn't. But it did.

And it kept worrying. (Side note: Is the NBA an 'it'? If not, what is the NBA?)

Today, (no this isn't an FML) Dobo again approached me, only this time his face suggested that either the situation with the NBA had escalated or he found out that I was the one who spread peanut butter underneath his car handle door. [...] The NBA had called back and this time they demanded I pull my name out "or else." I assume the "or else" meant they were going to make me do an NBA Catalog commercial like Larry Bird did in 1987. Despite the fact that I would have loved nothing more than to do a similar commercial, I realized that maybe the NBA isn't an organization to be messed with and I pulled my name out.

Thus, I'm here to do my part. When we buy the Bakersfield Jam, we will sign this kid. Nobody can stop us. Not the NBA, not no one. We're unstoppable, baby.

This Has Nothing To Do With Kirk Ferentz, The Cleveland Browns, or The Iowa Hawkeyes

Oops Pow Surprise — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 21:54:17 -0000

And yet I am uncontrollably compelled to post it.

Besides, it had been days since we last used the "gratuitous wwf" tag, and I am not about to let the new year ring in with a prolonged dry spell.

[Terrorist Fist Jab: Mark "The Shark" Quinn, Ohio State benchwarmer and owner of Club Trillion, the finest college basketball blog EVER.]