Sports Illustrated basketball reporter Seth Davis spoke with an anonymous coach from the Big Ten to get a sense of each team's vulnerabilities as we hit the stretch run of the college basketball season. Here's what one Big Ten coach had to say about Michigan State:
“Obviously, losing [senior guard] Eron Harris hurts. He was the one guard they had who could hurt you making a play as well as making threes. This puts a lot more pressure on their role players—[senior guard] Alvin Ellis III and [sophomore guard] Matt McQuaid especially. [Freshman guard] Josh Langford is really one-dimensional. If those guys suck—and they can suck—then they’re gonna lose. [Freshman guard] Cassius Winston is a huge key because [junior guard] Tum Tum [Nairn] can’t score. Winston is good but he turns the ball over too much. Tum Tum takes better care of the ball, he plays good defense, he pushes the tempo, he finds people. [Freshman forward Miles] Bridges is a gamer. He doesn’t coast. On a bad day he’s gonna get 17. It’s a one-man show there. He looks to be a really good kid. You’d want to make him guard a good stretch-four man. [Freshman forward Nick] Ward has come back to earth a little bit. He’s a one-trick pony. He scores over his right shoulder. That’s it. He can’t play a lot of minutes because he gets tired. If you can take away their transition and rebound, you are going to beat them.”
http://michiganstate.247sports.com/Bolt/Michigan-States-Eron-Harris-Ill-be-back-51384019
“Obviously, losing [senior guard] Eron Harris hurts. He was the one guard they had who could hurt you making a play as well as making threes. This puts a lot more pressure on their role players—[senior guard] Alvin Ellis III and [sophomore guard] Matt McQuaid especially. [Freshman guard] Josh Langford is really one-dimensional. If those guys suck—and they can suck—then they’re gonna lose. [Freshman guard] Cassius Winston is a huge key because [junior guard] Tum Tum [Nairn] can’t score. Winston is good but he turns the ball over too much. Tum Tum takes better care of the ball, he plays good defense, he pushes the tempo, he finds people. [Freshman forward Miles] Bridges is a gamer. He doesn’t coast. On a bad day he’s gonna get 17. It’s a one-man show there. He looks to be a really good kid. You’d want to make him guard a good stretch-four man. [Freshman forward Nick] Ward has come back to earth a little bit. He’s a one-trick pony. He scores over his right shoulder. That’s it. He can’t play a lot of minutes because he gets tired. If you can take away their transition and rebound, you are going to beat them.”
http://michiganstate.247sports.com/Bolt/Michigan-States-Eron-Harris-Ill-be-back-51384019