The Final Four Is Not On The Schedule - A Podcast Discussing Michigan State Basketball.

December 21, 2022: The Spartans faced perennial pest, Oakland University and beat them for their 21st straight win against the Horizon League team. Although it was an uninspiring game, Michigan State showed some glimpses of smooth offense, transition game, and connected defense. Head Coaches Tom Izzo and Greg Kampe both decided to wear ugly sweaters and at times their team's games matched their garb.

Joey Hauser led the way for the Spartans in scoring with 16 and was augmented by a career high 15 from Jaden Akins who also played a career high 25 minutes coming off a preseason injury. Overall, MSU shot 49.5% from the field and 45.5% from 3 in a game that was close in the first half until they went on a 30-5 run extending over half time into the early second half to put the game away.

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December 18, 2022: Michigan State's players are done with finals and will prepare for their perennial matchup against the Grizzlies from Oakland University. Head Coach Greg Kampe usually brings in very competitive teams into the contest. Oftentimes, Oakland has a pro or very high level player. This year, is not like others.

Oakland is struggling this year coming in at 2-9 (we recorded before their game against Boise St.) and have one of the 5 worst defenses in all of college basketball. Almost as bad as their overall defense is their ability to rebound the ball where they are terrible on both sides of the ball. This is certainly a game where MSU might be able to get some things going on the glass.

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December 15, 2022: Assistant Coach Thomas Kelley joined the Michigan State staff this June after Dwayne Stephens left to take over the Western Michigan program. Kelley played for MSU from 1994-1999 under both Jud Heathcote and Tom Izzo. After playing professionally in Europe for 15 seasons he returned to East Lansing to take a graduate assistant position in 2016.

Although Kelley never played in the NBA, he has years of experience playing as a professional where the pressures were different than in the United States. Aside from the differences in rules, experiencing the fans was totally unique where he tells stories of playing with stands full of lit fireworks and the need for plexiglass to protect the opposing players. He feels that many of the lessons he learned about being a pro translate into things he can bring as a coach with young players today.

We also discuss what it was like coaching on the aircraft carrier, the things most important for the team in this light stretch of games before January, and why being a player led team is so important.

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December 10, 2022: Brown came calling to East Lansing to serve as the book end to MSU's brutal November schedule where they traveled over 10,000 miles and played 11 games with very little rest in between. Fortunately for the Spartans, the Brown Bears didn't have a ton of rest (like most of their previous opponents) and were able to prevent the Ivy team from getting anything going offensively the entire game.

Brown came into the game averaging about half their shots from behind the 3 point arc but managed a third of their shots for 3 and hit only 20% of them. The Bears also came into the game as the top defensive rebounding team in the country at only 18.9% but surrendered nearly 33% of MSU's misses on the boards as the Spartans showed a little vintage play tonight. Also of note was that AJ Hoggard played another great game and Joey Hauser led the team in scoring with 22 points and personally surpassed 1000 career points.

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December 8, 2022: Michigan State returns home after a successful trip to Happy Valley with a quick turnaround again but this time their opponent won't have a rest advantage. The Brown Bears of the Ivy League visit on Saturday coming off a tight one point win over in-state rival, Rhode Island and carry a five game winning streak into the Breslin. Led by MSU assistant coach Doug Wojcik's son, Paxson, the Brown Bears will look to pull off an upset over the Spartans.

Despite MSU being a 16 point favorite, there is a lot for the Spartans to work on in this game. They will need to carry over their solid defense and improved play from AJ Hoggard to win this game in a comfortable fashion. But rest assured, MSU will be tested by a Brown team that can score from behind the arc and leads the nation in defensive rebounding allowing only an 18.9% offensive rebounding percentage from opponents. Mercifully, after this game MSU will have 11 days rest before their next game.

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December 7, 2022: Michigan State got the game it needed from AJ Hoggard as he led the Spartans to a 67-58 win over Penn State in Happy Valley. Hoggard led the team in scoring with 23 points and 6 rebounds on 6-6 clutch free throw shooting and 1-2 from 3. Joey Hauser chipped in with 12 points and 15 rebounds.

Most impressive with the Spartans' defensive effort was limiting Penn State to only 9 three point attempts in the second half after giving up 7-18 shooting in the first. By the end of the second half, the Nittany Lions were left to try and catch up to MSU by going inside and away from their game.

In addition to recapping the game, coach Garland gave us some insight into whether MSU has made a strategic decision to de-emphasize offensive rebounding, how to improve shooting, and why the team wasn't as successful beating Michigan until they stopped focusing so much on the one game.

Also, you still have a few days left to order t-shirts before the order goes out on December 9. To order, go to https://www.tffinots.com/merchandise to see the shirt and order yours today.

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December 5, 2022: Michigan State heads into Happy Valley to take on the Penn St. Nittany Lions in their second Big Ten matchup of the season. Penn State is 6-2 going into this Big ten opener for them despite being a team without a lot of size. The Nittany Lions have relied heavily on the 3 point shot with over half their field goal attempts coming from behind the arc.

The Spartans will again be without Malik Hall but fortunately, Jaden Akins seems to be ready to go. Can the Spartans match the fierce energy Penn State has been bringing this season and contain their outside shooting? MSU really struggled against Northwestern off ball screen and they will likely be tested again with this guard heavy team.

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December 4, 2022: Michigan State for the second straight year drops a game at home to the Northwestern Wildcats. This time it is the season opener and came at the hands of an inability to stop the 'Cats on defense. Northwestern shot 21-24 from the free throw line to hang on and defeat the Spartans.

One positive note was the return of Jaden Akins from injury who got to start the game but was clearly limited at times with his conditioning. AJ Hoggard came off the bench and played one of his better games but it wasn't enough as the Northwestern guards of Boo Bouie and Chase Audige proved too much for MSU's perimeter defense. Next up for Michigan State is a date on Wednesday at State College against Penn State.

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December 2, 2022: Michigan State prepares for its Big Ten opener against the Northwestern Wildcats at the Breslin Center Sunday night. After going 5-3 in the extremely difficult early non-conference stretch versus high level competition (and down two of their best players) MSU will attempt to begin its assault on another Big Ten title for Tom Izzo.

The Wildcats come in struggling on offense ranked #174 in KenPom but survive on the defensive side of the ball by mucking things up. They rank first in 2-point defense and #25 overall with a strategy of clearly keeping games low scoring. MSU will try to move the ball in transition and crash the offensive boards. This also might be one of the rare games where they have a turnover advantage over another team (when is the last season we said that?)

Expectations are that Jaden Akins will suit up and play some minutes while Malik Hall rests his foot for another week or two. Of some interest is the probable addition of Keon Coleman to the team once again and discussion that he might play a bigger role than we anticipated. This is somewhat helped by the injuries and the fact that he will have about an extra month with the team this season since the football team didn't make a bowl game.

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November 30, 2022: Perhaps it was inevitable that MSU would run into a team that got hot while their legs were out of juice. After playing 3 games in four days in Portland, OR the return late on Monday allowed for little rest before traveling to Notre Dame. The stretch of non-conference games that looked so daunting before the season began proved that way tonight especially as the Spartans were down two of their best players - Malik Hall and Jaden Akins.

Notre Dame began the game with a blistering shooting performance in the first half leading to a 24 point lead which MSU was only able to cut to 18 by half time. Although, AJ Hoggard tried to bring the Spartans back in the second half the team just didn't have enough in the tank to make it close and fell to Notre Dame 70-52. They will now head back to East Lansing to prepare for the start of the Big Ten season against Northwestern on Sunday.

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