On The Horizon

Jim Squire

The Morning Dish – Thursday, February 5, 2015--Hoopville

Side Dishes:
...
The Horizon League is developing into a terrific four-team race between Valparaiso, Cleveland State, Wisconsin-Green Bay and Oakland. Those four are separated by one-half game, with Valpo (78-70 over Detroit), CSU (73-60 against Youngstown State) and Oakland (91-77 at Illinois-Chicago) all winning Wednesday. Corey Petros had a massive game for Oakland with 34 points and 13 rebounds.

Late Night Snacks: Purdue wins fourth straight, Providence completes season sweep of No. 24 Georgetown--CollegeBasketballTalk

STARRED
...
2. Corey Petros, Oakland

Petros scored 34 points and grabbed 13 rebounds in the Golden Grizzlies’ 91-72 win at UIC.
...
NOTABLES
...
Three of the four teams atop the Horizon League standings with two losses apiece picked up wins, as Cleveland State (8-2; beat Youngstown State) and Valparaiso (8-2, beat Detroit) won at home and Oakland (7-2) won at UIC. Green Bay, which is 7-2, was off Wednesday night.

Valpo, Cleveland State Atop the Horizon League Standings--Mid-Major Madness

Defensive lapses still hurting Michigan State basketball--The Detroit Free Press

Likewise, with U-M down 66-61 and less than a minute to play in regulation, MSU's Bryn Forbes and Javon Bess got mixed up on a ball screen, allowing U-M's Spike Albrecht enough space to drill the deep three that made overtime possible. It's mental lapses like these that Tom Izzo continues to lament as the Spartans (15-7, 6-3 Big Ten) prepare for Saturday's home game against Illinois (noon, ESPN).

"They've got to learn that these little things matter more, and we're not doing as good of a job of getting that through," Izzo said after the game. "I said all along I love my team, I love the guys. But when a couple guys make the errors that we made on a switch (on a ball screen), I had to inform them that there were many (former MSU) players in the crowd that in front of 15,000 people would have grabbed somebody and made sure that he knew. And we're just not getting that yet, you know?"