Let's beat MSUck tomorrow!!!!

Hey team,

I've watched a few of MSUck's games. In short, they are a great team. They have some definite strengths and weaknesses. The key for the GozagS is to capitalize on their weaknesses...whilst avoiding their strenghts (of course!)

MSuck's strength, as usual, is their defense. They play man-to-man and they're simply all over the ball. One way to get around this is to pound it inside. As long as Sacre doesn't take too long (the MSUckers collapse quickly on the bigs inside), this will work. A better strategy is to slash and then kick it out for the three, but neither Stockton nor Pargos has done much of this in the games I've seen. Still I know that Pango at least is quite a slasher - and I'm not talking about horror movies1 (yuk yuk yuk!!!!!)

Compared to Illinois, MSU's offense is not as good - they just don't have the same kind of shot- and play-makers like Leonard or D.J. Richardson. The main exception is Draymon Green; dude's a beastmaster who knows what side his bread is buttered upon (IF you know what I mean!). MSUck is best at moving the ball and pounding it inside, so the GOZAgs shold make sure to guard against this, especially since MSU doesn't have great three-point shooters (with the exception of Trice, who's usually on the bench). Izzo of course is the wild-card: never can predict what he will do (thank goodness)

Another thing the goZags struggled with against Illinois was transition defense - probably lost 10 points this way. This could be a HUGE problem as Appley, MSUck's point guard, is great at pushing the ball. Yet I ahve confidence that Few will prepare them to "deal" with this potential problem. In short, it is clear that the path ahead of Gonzaga leads to victory...if they will only follow it.

My prediction after the jump:

I've made a lot of guarantees in the past, and I'm sure you remember that they've all been validated. In this case, in order to maintain my tradition I personally guarantee a low-scoring, hard-fought game. My only concern is that Gonzaga might lose, but deep down I hope we will win. As a Catholic this would be very important to me.