Here We Go Again With Fucking Tom Izzo
This fucking guy man. Now we have to sit here and listen to January, February, Izzo, April, May. Michigan State was DEAD, they were going to nowhere and were a complete disaster. They couldn't run any sort of offense. They were 8-7, 2-7 in the Big 10, hell they even lost 2 more games and scored less than 60 against Iowa. Iowa! But here we are. Indiana choked at home and let Michigan State win a game. Then they beat Illinois and now Ohio State. Yes, I fully understand Ohio State didn't have Kyle Young and we'll get into the game but this is about fucking Tom Izzo figuring it out again.
Now let's talk about the two biggest non-calls in the game. The no call on the Duane Washington drive here:
That's a foul. That's a pretty brutal missed call, but not shocking since college refs are complete dogshit. There's a reason Chris Holtmann decided to get ejected at the end of the game. You can't miss this call. It's not even one of those 'it's the end of the game, don't blow the whistle.' It's just a foul. I also never understood that entire line of thinking. You don't refuse to call a foul just because it's the end of the game. If it's a foul 5 seconds into the game, it's a foul 5 seconds left. Then there was the baseball pass at the end of the game with OSU down 3. To me that was even a more clear foul considering EJ Liddell couldn't lift his arm. Again, two BRUTAL and flat out wrong calls. But that's not why Ohio State lost.
It's wild that Michigan State is back in the tournament talk. They still have work to do. They still are just 68th in the NET and 58th on KenPom. But they now have 5 quad 1 wins. They end with Maryland, Indiana and two against Michigan. If they can somehow split with Michigan and go 2-2, they're pretty damn close to the bubble. So what's been happening?
Aaron Henry finally turned into the go-to guy that so many people have thought about - 27 against Indiana, 20 against Illinois and 18 against Ohio State. Guys like Joshua Langford, who didn't play for two years, is coming in and filling his role as a shooter and experienced guard perfectly. Not to mention he goes and gets 16 rebounds against Illinois. Weirdly it has nothing to do with Joey Hauser - a guy that everyone kinda thought would be the No. 1 or 2 option for the team. They've gone to this more small ball lineup with Henry, Brown, Lanford and Watts around Marble. It's working, especially offensively.
This fucking guy man.