Minnesota Sports Forum

The second of three games Michigan and Michigan State played in 2013. Stauskas and the Wolverines won 79-70. Here's a breakdown of impact (positive/negative) plays that Stauskas was involved in directly. You can watch the game and skip to these plays to know exactly what I'm talking about without wasting your time watching the others.

YouTube link of the full game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpwDxYZwPRY

* (YouTube counter) -- Game clock -- What happened?

* (5:56) -- 18:20 -- Stauskas give and go, cut, used screen from Morgan to get wide open layup.

* (8:27) -- 17:05 -- Stauskas nice bounce pass into the paint for Morgan; blew layup.

* (12:04) -- 14:33 -- Stauskas nice backdoor cut for easy bucket. Fooled Harris.

* (14:14) -- 12:34 -- Stauskas P&R pass-to-assist. Right basketball play.

* (16:40) -- 11:10 -- Swing pass to the corner. Correct basketball play.

* (28:12) -- 4:51 -- Dribble-drive and shuffle pass for easy layup. Creating offense.

* (40:25) -- 0.03 -- Heads up play. Chest pass from half to half to open three-point shooter.

End of the first half.

* (43:05) -- 19:47 -- Stauskas drive past Harris. Beating him easily.

* (45:15) -- 18:53 -- Pull-up jumper is good. Nice elevation. Free throw range.

* (46:50) -- 17:41 -- He gets beat off the dribble on defense.

* (47:47) -- 17:09 -- Nice dime to the flashing GR3. Perfectly timed.

* (52:13) -- 14:18 -- Pull-up three is money.

* (54:59) -- 13:07 -- Strong drive left. Out-muscled defender.

* (56:15) -- 11:51 -- Nik shows off that pull-up jumper again. Mid-range.

* (58:40) -- 11:07 -- Beats his defender off the dribble, gets fouled. Free throws.

* (1:01:11) -- 10:03 -- Pull-up three ball over Harris is good. Using his height advantage.

* (1:02:50) -- 9:19 -- Turnover. Miscommunication with Morgan on the slip.

* (1:05:42) -- 8:46 -- Another pull-up three. Nik's feeling it.

* (1:07:45) -- 7:51 -- Nice help defense by Stauskas. Protects the paint, waits for his teammate to get back.

* (1:14:51) -- 4:37 -- Stauskas feeds Morgan an easy bucket out of the P&R.

* (1:17:05) -- 3:47 -- Nice assist to the screener. Showing his feel for the game.

* (1:18:18) -- 2:35 -- Dribble drive, Payne steps up, Nik throws the soft lob to the cutting wing player. Easy dunk.

* (1:18:33) -- 2:21 -- Bad turnover by Nik. Tried to do too much with the outlet pass. Should have ran clock instead.

End of the second half.

Stauskas was far more impressive than his lottery counterpart, Gary Harris. Nik took over the game with his shooting, penetration and facilitating. Defense was solid. Won't make the big time defensive plays, but doesn't get beat. Was there to help on a couple occations. Showed his improved strength when attacking the rim. Harris couldn't shut him down. Izzo actually switched Harris off of Stauskas and on to LeVert in the second half.

Great showing from Nik. Final stats: 25 points (9-13 FG, 3-5 3P), 5 ast, 2 TOs and the win.

Why have we not heard of this dude before?

I was very excited to see Nik play from the beginning of the year this year. The first whole game I watched was their loss to Duke. Check out his line there. Afraid to shoot, completely shut down in a loss. I think the only guarantee that you have with Stauskas is that he will be an accurate spot up shooter. Based on a one game analysis, it is very likely Nik will have trouble creating his own shot with real athletes guarding him, as Duke showed.

Tough to draw any conclusions based on one game. I think Stauskas would be a solid pick at #13, but I have no clue how he'd ultimately perform in the NBA. I like the fact that he can hit 3's in volume and with accuracy - and he's done it for two consecutive seasons. Otherwise, it's tough to see him being much of a defender or slasher against NBA opponents. We'll see....