Izzo troubled by MSU’s rebounding
MSU has led the Big Ten conference in rebounding for the nine of the past 11 seasons but currently rank third in the Big Ten in that category. Steve Grinczel of MLive.com reports that what’s troubling for Tom Izzo as he heads into Saturday night’s matchup at Northwestern is that several teams are getting more offensive rebounds than MSU when they face the Spartans.
“This is the worst rebounding team I’ve ever had, and it’s cost us a couple games already,” Izzo said. “Even though the stats show us as being pretty good compared to some, compared to what our standards used to be, it’s really below sub-par.”
So even though wing Shannon Brown, of nearby Maywood, Ill., will become the third current Spartan, and 11th under Izzo, to score 1,000 career points if he gets 21 against the Wildcats, Izzo is preoccupied with his team’s deficiencies.
“It’s kind of a nice honor for the person, but I’d like to get somebody who can check (guard) somebody and maybe get 10 rebounds,” Izzo said. “That would be a better scenario right now. We’re getting to be a little white-collarish, and that ain’t so good.
Joe Rexrode of the Lansing State Journal thinks that despite the Spartans shortcomings on the boards, they should still be able to handle the Wildcats on Saturday night. He expects Maurice Ager to have a strong outing.
This is a big night for Ager, who typically burns the Wildcats’ zone defense. Ager is averaging 16.3 points a game in six contests against Northwestern, shooting an incredible 70.8 percent (34 of 48) from the floor and 83.3 percent (20 of 24) from 3-point range.