Sometimes things go bad…and when they do…you accept your fate…and move on!
Such was the case last night. The Spartans lost one of the less memorable games of the Big Ten season to Illinois 42-41 last night in Champaign. Yes indeed…not a misprint…83 points total. If the Spartans didn’t play sooo poorly then Illinois should have lost this game because they were equally as miserable…but the Spartans did play that poorly. They shot a miserable 14 of 58 (24%) from the field…3 of 14 (21%) beyond the Arc…and stumbled their way to 16 Turnovers.
On the other hand, how bad was Illinois? Bad enough to allow the Spartans to get 26 Defensive Rebounds and a whopping 49 Rebounds total.
Let’s give credit to Illinois, they beat Ohio State a couple weeks ago…they have good talent…and the Illini are well coached…but not this game! Perhaps you could give credit to the respective Defenses who ‘shut’ down’ most chances, but I think I’ll give credit to where credit is due…a bad night for both teams! Did I mention Illinois shot 53% from the stripe?
At any measure, the loss is in the record books but there is a bigger issue for the Spartans. It was a bad night for Draymond Green! Green was hampered by the Flu prior to the game and was clearly out of sync but uncharacteristically challenged a foul so he got pulled from the game…then he got in the ‘doghouse’ when he challenged Coach Izzo for the pull…so Izzo withheld him from the start of the second half…then Green injured his knee shortly after Izzo put him back into the game.
So, by any measure, it was not a good night. Green logged 16 minutes and got a meager 5 points. For a player like Green who ranks in the Top 10 (prior to the game) in Big Ten Scoring…Rebounding…Assists…Blocks…and flying the team Airplane…his injury is a major concern.
Hopefully, Green will recover quickly because the Spartans hope to hold serve when Michigan visits Breslin next Sunday!
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