Much like Roy Munson's flirtation with greatness at the $500,000 Reno Open, the Iowa Hawkeyes saw some positive glimpses in St. Thomas but left with a sour taste. Fran McCaffery's team played a terrible second half and finished the tournament with a 78-72 loss to Dan Monson's Long Beach State squad. The second half saw the Hawkeyes rebound like they had prosthetic hands--LBSU grabbed half of their misses on the offensive glass, leading to 1.20 points per possession after intermission. Iowa's offense also played better in the second half, making 57 percent of their twos, but it would not be enough to keep up with The Beach. 

Bryce Cartwright wasn't shy, scoring 17 points on 16 shots, while Eric May was more selective in putting up 15 points on just 6 shots. Long Beach State had five players in double figures, including a 14-15 double-double for junior T.J. Robinson.

Penn State jumped out to a 9-0 lead on Central Connecticut State and never looked back, leading by as many as 29 points in a 77-61 win. The Nittany Lions shot 60 percent on twos and maintained a nice 15 percent turnover rate, resulting in 1.18 points per possession. So far, this is Penn State's best offensive showing of the young season. Unfortunately, the Nittany Lion defense allowed their highest efficiency of the year too (0.94 PPP), but this was mostly due to buckets scored in garbage time. CCSU was only scoring 0.81 PPP when walk-on Steve Kirkpatrick entered the game with five and half minutes remaining, a number more in line with the good defense Penn State has played this season.

Jeff Brooks continued his torrid start with a nearly perfect night: 7 for 7 from the field, 6 for 6 from the foul line, 21 points, and just one turnover. Penn State was +26 when Brooks was on the floor, a number bested only by point guard Tim Frazier (+32). The full +/- data follows:

This table is showing (from left to right) how much each player played, the plus/minus for that player, how many points his team and the opponent scored while he was on the floor, the team's efficiencies and efficiency margin (EM) while he played, and the tempo of the game while he played.

The defensive efficiency column illustrates just how well CCSU was able to score when the deeper members of Penn State's bench were in the game, skewing the final numbers. Likewise, the Penn State offense was very impressive when the team's best players were in, but some scuffling over the final 4 minutes dropped the efficiency. Clearly, Penn State is not deep at all, so Ed DeChellis figures to continue his tendency to use very little bench.

In Maui, it wasn't all luaus and Mai Tai's for Tom Izzo's Spartans. Michigan State came in as 30 point favorites over DII host Chaminade, but they found themselves trailing by five points with 16 minutes remaining. Michigan State then reeled off 18 points on their next seven possessions to surge into a 10 point lead that they would nurse to an 82-74 finish.

The Spartan offense was in fine form, logging 1.19 points per possession, but the defense was certainly a concern. Allowing a DII team to score 1.07 points per possession is pretty bad, and it might be even worse to get outrebounded by that same team. Three games into the season, Michigan State isn't looking like the same rebounding team they were last year, but I'd expect that's more due to small sample size than anything else. Raymar Morgan was a good rebounder, but Tom Izzo's roster is filled with guys that can go get the ball. It would be a big surprise for rebounding to end up as anything but a big strength for this team, but it's worth watching. The bigger concern for the Spartans--turnovers--wasn't really an issue on this night.

Here's the plus/minus data for the Spartans:

Kalin Lucas had a career night with 28 points, but it took him 20 shots to get there. That's a shot diet of a whopping 48 percent, the most aggressive shooting game of Lucas' career. Sometimes having one guy shooting that much can be counterproductive--the Spartans actually scored a little better when Lucas was on the bench.

Tonight, Big Ten teams are involved in a barrage of games. The biggest matchup is Michigan State vs Connecticut, which will be a real test of the Spartans' defensive rebounding. Ohio State faces Morehead State and Kenneth Faried, the nation's best rebounder. Illinois takes on a Yale squad that just won at Boston College, while Indiana hosts offensively-challenged North Carolina Central. Purdue matches up with road-weary Austin Peay, playing their fifth away game in 12 days.

Feast Week, indeed.

- Posted by Mike Portscheller