Thanks to the wonder of the internet, I got to watch most of last night’s season-ender for the MSU Spartans, and at the conclusion of the game, I was really down on MSU:
Just a horrific performance in the MCLA first round by Michigan State. SPARTY NO lives on.
Watching the game, they appeared to be the more talented squad, and probably equally athletic to the Seminoles. However, they didn’t come out hungry to play a full 60 minutes, and that ultimately led to their untimely demise in the MCLA Tournament. Nice season, Spartans, see you next year.
There were a couple areas that really struck me as poor yesterday:
- Ground Balls. It’s such a cliche to dog a team’s effort, but it seemed like almost every contested ground ball had Seminoles surrounding it, with maybe a Spartan here and there. Though I don’t think the overall GB numbers were thaaaaat skewed in FSU’s favor, the ones that were contested all seemed to end up going to Florida State.
- Team Offensive Play. Though there were some nice goals yesterday, too often it seemed like the entire MSU offense was built around a dodge/re-dodge attempt by Patrick Nemes, Connor Bush, or Josh Nemes, and if there wasn’t an opening, the Spartans pulled it out, passed around the perimeter, and started the whole thing over again.
- Defensive Slides. Ugh, this was the #1 factor, in my eyes, that led to the Spartan loss. Although that’s tough to say in a relatively low-scoring game (by MCLA standards, at least), most of Florida State’s first-half goals – and many in the second half, including the dagger – could have been prevented by better defensive communication. It seemed like every Michigan State defensive slide was late, if it came at all, and the Seminoles were given too many chances to finish at point-blank range.
I’ll have much more on the season as a whole, and the outlook going forward, at the conclusion of the MCLA Tournament. I definitely wasn’t expecting to have the MSU season finish this early.