[NU Sports] RE: MSU-Butler

[Tom Maycock]

> It's having a team that swept the Cats in State College, PA
> that bugs me so much...

Yeah, the PSU thing is frustrating, but I figure it's largely an anomaly. 

Leaving aside PSU for a moment, in the games I watched, there were only two teams against whom the Cats were really outmatched--MSU and OSU. Both teams were pretty clearly Final Four caliber teams, and MSU easily could have won it all, particularly if they hadn't suffered so many injuries.

I didn't see the Butler game. It sounded like we were pretty outclassed there as well, but the team hadn't had much time to adapt to the loss of Coble and Ryan at that point, so we might have fared better later in the non-con season. 

All that confirms what I think most of us saw this year in the Cats--a team that was much, much more talented and competitive than we have seen in a very long time. The gap to the top has been closed significantly. 

I do think there is an extremely good chance of making the tournament next year *if* everyone stays healthy. I think you'll see Coble and Shurna on the floor together a lot, along with Thompson, Crawford, and Luka. If Luka improves like I hope he will, that's a pretty stout lineup. We saw some nice minutes from Marcotullio, Curletti, and Capocci throughout the season as well. If the new recruit can spell Thompson for some significant minutes, we should see a nice improvement from this year to next overall.

The team should be competitive in just about every Big Ten game next year, as they were this year. The key will be if they can be a few points better on offense and defense to tip more of the close games in their favor, and avoid the mental let-downs against some of the lower-tier teams. 

Tom