Pregame: Illinois at Michigan State, Saturday, February 7th, 7:00pm CT, FOX
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Curbelo Fanboy
BERTBALL IS LIFE
This would be a good time to have a end of the bench like Jakstys available. I know he is out for the year. We need a guy on the bench ready to go blow for blow if needed. I hate ball being played that way but if one of the MSU guys tries to pull the Ayo type !!!! on us Brad needs someone to go in the game right then & pay it back. It's time to call Izzo on his BS.
Izzo is a great coach historically speaking but since about 2015 or so he has just basically coached thug ball & has become a Coach K level ref baiter. A shell of what he used to be IMO. The thugball needs to be responded to but I don't want it done with a guy that could get suspended that is a valuable player on the team.
I know that may sound harsh, but it's eye for an eye kind of stuff. And I'm a guy that is still pissed at the Bears 40 years later that they never paid back Green Bay for the dirty hit on McMahon. I never advocate that stuff but if the other side goes there it should be responded to in kind immediately. That's the best way to stop it.
Failing all that maybe our Soviet bloc connections on the roster have some old Russian mobsters we could call in. LOL!
Izzo is a great coach historically speaking but since about 2015 or so he has just basically coached thug ball & has become a Coach K level ref baiter. A shell of what he used to be IMO. The thugball needs to be responded to but I don't want it done with a guy that could get suspended that is a valuable player on the team.
I know that may sound harsh, but it's eye for an eye kind of stuff. And I'm a guy that is still pissed at the Bears 40 years later that they never paid back Green Bay for the dirty hit on McMahon. I never advocate that stuff but if the other side goes there it should be responded to in kind immediately. That's the best way to stop it.
Failing all that maybe our Soviet bloc connections on the roster have some old Russian mobsters we could call in. LOL!
Agree, riding a 2 game losing streak no way Izzo uses our game as a teachable moment. Izzo has shown himself to be ruthless and win at all costs, including ignoring/downplaying sexual assault and breaking our best players face to keep his tourney streak alive. Fears’ antics are actually small in comparison. Whatever it takes to get that W on Saturday, Izzo will do it.
I liked this one:
"Jeremy Fears is quietly performing at a historically elite level this year. Not good. Not great. Not elite. Historically elite. Believe it or not, there is not one single Bob Cousy (Point Guard of the Year) Award winner over the past 15 years who has put up numbers anywhere near what Fears is putting up this year. Not Ja Morant. Not Kemba Walker. Not Shabazz Napier. Not Payton Pritchard."
Had to double-check those stats here, but I think the comparisons may be a bit of a stretch. It's shocking to me that there are other fan bases' boards out there that can truly let it fly like that totally unchecked.
Believe it or not fellas.
Looking at MSU, they are deeper and balanced on their scoring. We need to run them off the line like Minny did the first half last night. Gotta keep them off the boards. Their half court offense isn’t as strong as they have been in the past. Limit their second chance possessions and slow their transition offense and we should win. Their best defense is having the refs call ticky tack fouls against us. We are the better team and we need to show up and play like we have the last few weeks. We need to switch out defenders against Fears. Keep him guessing. I say we put Jake on him. No need to put Wags on him. Davis is taller and longer. Shut down the passing lanes and they will start jacking threes. Let’s frustrate the hell out of them. If Fears drives, have Z hit him with a hard but clean foul.
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RabidDawgClassic
- Los Angeles, CA
Go in boys and stay together!!! Hit them hard and fast... Then when they are there gasping for breath, begging you to let up.... End them put them down!!!! ILL
The video team needs to create clips of Fears dirty plays throughout the year and send them to B10 Officiating office to ensure the crew for this game will be observant.
MSU fans mantraI liked this one:
"Jeremy Fears is quietly performing at a historically elite level this year. Not good. Not great. Not elite. Historically elite. Believe it or not, there is not one single Bob Cousy (Point Guard of the Year) Award winner over the past 15 years who has put up numbers anywhere near what Fears is putting up this year. Not Ja Morant. Not Kemba Walker. Not Shabazz Napier. Not Payton Pritchard."
Had to double-check those stats here, but I think the comparisons may be a bit of a stretch. It's shocking to me that there are other fan bases' boards out there that can truly let it fly like that totally unchecked.
View attachment 47239
Believe it or not fellas.
blackdog
- Champaign
I liked this one:
"Jeremy Fears is quietly performing at a historically elite level this year. Not good. Not great. Not elite. Historically elite. Believe it or not, there is not one single Bob Cousy (Point Guard of the Year) Award winner over the past 15 years who has put up numbers anywhere near what Fears is putting up this year. Not Ja Morant. Not Kemba Walker. Not Shabazz Napier. Not Payton Pritchard."
Had to double-check those stats here, but I think the comparisons may be a bit of a stretch. It's shocking to me that there are other fan bases' boards out there that can truly let it fly like that totally unchecked.
View attachment 47239
Believe it or not fellas.
Braden Smith right now is averaging more points and rebounds with the same assist and steals numbers....
Yeah Fears is maybe the 3rd or 4th best PG in his own conference, let alone the country.
If you want some entertainment and instruction in the delusional mindset, check out this gem of a thread concerning Fears on MSU's Red Cedar Message Board:
My personal fave is the post fulminating at "the University of Michigan controlled media."
In case you don't have time, I'll bottom-line-big-picture it for you: he's just as God made him, the greatest guard in CB in the past 20 years at the very least, and Dusty May is either a whining simp or Machiavellian genius.
Oh, and everyone does it. You know: "it." Fears just gets picked on.
There is a lot of gold to be mined on that thread. The one that makes me smile the most (And I gave up before reaching the end of the first page.)
"I am a very analytical basketball observer. I have been honest about my assessment and skewered on here, and then also praised. So hopefully these evaluations mean something because they are honest from me:
- Fears is a foul baiter. Nothing wrong with that. He is a dude that was taught to play Point Guard at an age most of us were learning the alphabet. He sees the floor and knows every nuance of the game of basketball at a level that I don’t think I have ever seen. He has been taught to exploit defenses being out of position. Sometimes via the pass. Sometimes via the drive to the hoop or the shot, and sometimes via drawing the foul. That is what his Dad taught him. He does it at as high of a level as I have ever seen.
- Fears is not a flopper. I believe strongly in this one. I have seen Fears hit cleanly hard countless times and he plays on. When his is hit softly, but the defender was wrong, because the defender was out of position, he tries to sell it (baiting). But it isn’t flopping. Because he only does it when the opposition is clearly making a mistake. Honestly, the refs miss way more fouls against Fears than Fears has sold that shouldn’t have happened.
- Is Fears dirty? This has gotten a little murky. Fears has made some borderline dirty plays. I mostly don’t care, because this happens from many player every game, most of whom don‘t get the attention for it. But Fears is now the attention getter for this, mostly because of the University of Michigan controlled media and his recent success and his importance overall to MSU. Fears also hasn’t reacted well to what should have been an easy-to-see-coming counter attack by Big Ten teams to be more physical with him with his in the face defense and foul baiting. He hasn’t handled it well. That was the nature of Izzo’s post-game comments and Fears needs to improve.
Summary: I love Jeremy Fears. He sees the game at a level that I can’t really say I have seen exactly before. Maybe Draymond, but to see a guy do it from Point Guard is amazing. Draymond level IQ about the game on both ends of the court. We want a guy like Jeremy leading our team. We need the others around him to take some pressure off of him and allow him to thrive in what he does and get rid of the extras."
Watch this in slow motion. Incredible!
IQ must stand for Injury Quest.
With May making the dangerous play statements just one game ago, Fears comes out and blatently shows how right Dusty was! Eyes are watching and Izzo knows that. Izzo is also on the hook if he allows more of it. Timing is good. I do not expect to see Fears pushing the diry crap for a third time in a row.
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Naysayers, don't fret if we lose the offensive rebounding battle.
Not many opportunities when all your shots are falling!
ILL !!
Not many opportunities when all your shots are falling!
ILL !!
I predict Izzo will bench Fears...for like 2 minutes or until the under 16 timeout. He's a master of claiming the high ground even when the high ground is a molehill.
I can see a negotiation with BIG behind the scenes. It’s a big game, our tv partners will not be happy- Waiting to under 12 tv timeout is more than we should agree to, but in this case more than fair fellas, and I really shouldn’t even agree to this because he did nothing wrong.
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
It really is solid gold. I just checked in again at lunch and the morning entries are real, and they're spectacular. Several of them are analyzing the video clips like it's the Zapruder footage of JFK's assassination, and arguing that the groin kick resulted from the MN player pushing Fears forward. Because of course when I was pushed from behind years ago when playing I reflexively kicked like a donkey.
Then, among all of them, is this voice of reason in the wilderness, replete with exsellent Spartan speling lol:
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Draymond Green School of “Basketbrawl”
mattcoldagelli
- Script Illinois Enthusiast
This board does this too, except - even more pathetically - with Northwestern.
NASchamp
- Atlanta
Absolutely no way Izzo does anything of substance with Fears that may hurt MSU's chances. Maybe he doesn't start Fears for the first 2 minutes, but that's about it. Number #5 Illinois coming into MSU with MSU dropping the last 2 games is wayyyy too big of an opportunity for a super competitive coach like Izzo. He will still want to win at all costs. Just doesn't want it to appear as dirty as it has the last two games. We just need to escape with no injuries and hopefully pull out a win.
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
Oh, I'm well aware of that. However, they are Chicago's Big Ten team.
On that topic, I happened to notice a St. John's women's hoops game on an adjacent monitor as we were watching the Purdue game. Their court, named for Lou Carnesecca, has emblazoned along each baseline "WE ARE NEW YORK'S TEAM."
I thought to myself, per the Mildcats marketing, that if you have to proclaim such, you probably aren't.
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