SPARTAN STARTERS HAVE MISSED MORE GAMES THAN MITCH McGARY

Wolverine fanatics have been propping up the recent success of their team by pointing out how many games they have had to play without their "starter", Mitch McGary, who stepped away from basketball in December for back surgery. They use his absence to counter-point comments by Tom Izzo about his players being so injured so much of the time. They want you to think that Izzo is a "crybaby", on the grounds that Beilein has not been talking much about McGary.

One reason is that Michigan has done much better without McGary in uniform. They had four losses in ten games with him, and only two without him over 13 contests. Why would Beilein complain about that?

Another reason to not lament the loss of McGary is that he is not actually a starter for his team. In nearly 50 career games played, McGary has only actually started 12 games, meaning that 75% of the time he comes off the bench. John Beilein has lost only two "starter-games" to injury this year.

But in any case, the Spartans have lost more player-games to injuries to their starting five than UM has lost with McGary out of action. McGary has missed 15 games, while the five MSU starters have missed 20 games. And counting.

Every loss by Michigan State this season has come with at least one starter on the bench with at least one injury. The Spartans are literally UNDEFEATED when all five starters are fully available to play without injury.

Of course, injuries happen, they're part of the game. Just pointing out that injuries have been more of a negative factor for the Spartans than they have been for the Wolverines.




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