Shootout in State College

Neither of Penn State nor Michigan State's strengths are on the defensive side of the ball, so it's no surprise that this one featured plenty of offense. While the Nittany Lions made it close there at the end, the Spartans won 78-73 in a 67 possession game. Both teams shot equally well (51.7 eFG for MSU, 51.9 eFG for PSU), and both teams got the the FT line frequently (each team had 27 attempts). The outcome of this game depended on whether Penn State could hold onto the ball well enough to offset MSU's second chances because of offensive rebounding. The Spartans had 10 more offensive boards, and only four more turnovers. Advantage Michigan State. Raymar Morgan led the green and white with 17 points on 9 shots, to go with 5 rebounds. Jamelle Cornley and Talor Battle combined for 46 points on 26 shots (each played the entire game as well). Box score.

Tom Izzo summed up my thoughts about this game pretty well:

"I am disappointed that we're still not finishing, you know? We're still not finishing, and probably some of the reason is that these teams are good. There's a lot of good teams in this league. When I hear people say there are eight or nine (Big Ten) teams with NCAA possibilities, I believe that."

This league is good, Tom. I don't think this is a "disappointing" win by any stretch - Penn State is a squad that's good enough to compete for a NCAA Tournament birth. Road wins against teams of that quality do not come easily.

One thing that might hold the Nittany Lions back from that goal is depth. DeChellis played his big 3 (Cornley, Battle, and Stanley Pringle) a total of 112 minutes last night, and this wasn't out of character. Are these guys going to have anything left in the tank in March?

Meanwhile, Illinois is proving to be the class of the conference, defensively, in the Big Ten. The Fighting Illini prevailed over Michigan, 66-51 in a 60 possession game. Michigan has been held to under a point per possession all of three times this season - against Duke and UCLA in New York, and now against Illinois in Champaign. Last night's 0.86 mark was the second-lowest figure for this Wolverine squad all season. Beilein's squad shot just 36% from inside the arc, and only 27% from 3 point land, and that kind of shooting isn't going to put many points on the board.

The Wolverines were also on the wrong end of a Pittsnoggling at the hands of Mike Tisdale. The big man finished with 24 points on just 12 shots, to go along with 3 blocks. Tisdale can be a load on offense, but he's not going to be All-Big Ten material until he starts getting it done on the boards. Despite playing 34 minutes in this one, Tisdale grabbed just 2 rebounds. It didn't really hurt Illinois last night, and Michigan isn't a great rebounding team, but Illinois needs more than guard-like work on the boards from its center. Box score.

Tonight, Purdue visits Northwestern while Minnesota takes on Wisconsin in the Kohl Center.