One Shining Month for Michigan State

Duke. Kentucky. Wisconsin. Michigan State.

            The list reads like a who’s who of future Hall of Fame coaches, a list of the most storied programs for prospective players, a collection of college basketball meccas for diehards and journalists, bloggers and alumni, fans clad in body paint and in band uniforms alike. But this year, that assortment of teams reads more like a which-one-doesn’t-belong question, a group with one glaring aberration.

Kentucky has been this year’s Goliath, an undefeatable band of seven-footers trying to make history. Pegged as the favorites since pre-preseason, the one-and-dones, along with a couple two-and-dones and the occasional three-and-done, haven’t failed the experts yet, not so much making it to the Final Four as waltzing in.

Duke, lead by 1000-win Coach K, has also lived up to the hype, showcasing probable top-5 picks Jahlil Okafor and Justice Winslow. Chosen by most to make it out of the South region, Duke hasn’t disappointed.

Wisconsin was another preseason favorite, after Frank “The Tank” Kaminsky, the AP Player of the Year, chose to forego the draft and return for his senior year with the sole purpose of getting back to the Final Four, the caveat being that this time they planned on winning a championship. The lanky buzzcuts from up north have also kept experts looking smart, losing only two regular season games and tearing up the West region en route to Indianapolis.

With predictable giants occupying 3 spots, the fact that Michigan State, a team normally in the same group as those giants, managed to win the East region, is even more amazing. After getting the star treatment last year as a popular Finals pick (even President Obama jumped on the bandwagon and picked Sparty as his tournament winner), expectations for the team quickly fell after they bowed out in the Elite Eight. The Spartans graduated Adreian Payne and Keith Appling, and star shooting guard Gary Harris defected to take his chances in the draft, where he currently is on the Nuggets. Expectations for the Spartans in 2014-2015 were cooled, to say the least, and journalists and Spartans personnel alike expressed this opinion.

“Everyone knows we didn’t have the kind of team we normally had,” Izzo said after the Louisville game, enjoying the splendor of making his 7^th Final Four. “This team probably had the least chance to get there [the Final Four].”

“What does a Michigan State down year look like?” was the question ESPN posed on October 1^st, in their college basketball team previews. “This might be the season we find out.” ESPN projected them to finish 5^th in the Big Ten a year after winning it. They began the season as they were expected, winning the games they were supposed to win, losing the games they were supposed to lose against their touted opponents of Duke, Kansas, and Notre Dame. Going into Christmas however, riding a win streak against some mediocre competition, the team suffered an embarrassing loss to Texas Southern, the type of team Tom Izzo schedules purely to put a tally in the W column. The unprecedented loss threw the team off to some extent, going up and down as the conference schedule began in two losses to Maryland. Bad losses continued to plague the team, dropping two to the underachieving Nebraska and Illinois.

By this point, Michigan State was at an all-time low. Players were frustrated, Izzo’s changes didn’t seem to be working, and some experts even had them out of the tournament. “This Spartans team is mediocre,” stated ESPN analyst Jeff Goodman. The Spartans managed to string some wins together after that, but then lost to a poor Minnesota team at home. Going into the Big Ten tournament, the Spartans sat at 21-10.

Collectively, Michigan State is a bit of an odd bunch. There’s no player above 6’9’’, certainly no All-Americans or AP Player of the Years like their Final Four counterparts. But there’s something about this band of sort-of-misfits that fits together in a way that’s not so much tangible as it is emotional. There’s the 5’10’’ freshman point guard whose nickname is ‘Tum Tum’. The senior trying to be more than the role player he’s been asked to be the last three years. The big guard/forward with a mean streak. The temperamental forward with a ceiling higher than Karl-Anthony Towns’ vertical reach but a questionable work ethic. It’s a collection of former role players and undersized big men, players who make up what they lack in talent with effort and players who make up what they lack in effort with talent. They’re not the type of people that make up a stereotypical team, no typical Hollywood roles. Kentucky knows who they are: an NBA futures team, a group of guys who consider college as a stop along the way. Duke knows who they are: players in it for the Duke experience, a chance to learn from Coach K and enjoy the ride. Wisconsin knows who they are: standouts on the court and in the classroom, tall white dudes with buzzcuts who are friends on the court and off. But Michigan State? They don’t fit a mold. Nothing defines them: until they choose to define themselves as a group of guys who finally decide that they really, really want to win.

Going into the Big Ten tournament, Michigan State first got a classy W against a decent Ohio State team. Against Maryland, a team that bested them twice in the regular season, the Spartans finally got their long awaited win. At the final in Chicago, going against the undisputed best Big Ten team, Wisconsin, they put up a better fight than any team in the tournament has done so far. Michigan State didn’t just keep pace with the class of the Big Ten, they lead by as much as 11, before a couple critical mistakes down the stretch were their undoing. Losing in overtime, the team received a seven-seed going into the tournament. Izzo could have tried to motivate the team by saying they were disrespected in their seeding, but he knew this wasn’t the case. “We were respected getting into the tournament,” he acknowledged.

As everyone knows, March Madness is a time for leaders to step up and for people to seize moments. To some extent, that guy has been Travis Trice, the senior shooting guard with a soft stroke and high basketball IQ, who’s overcome everything from having to come off the bench earlier this season to having a freaky rare disease last year. Trice has certainly lead the charge this March, with a huge game against #2 Virginia and being named the East Region’s Best Player. However, it’s been more than just Trice that has been the difference. Nearly every player has stepped up. Denzel Valentine has taken a larger leadership role, stepping up to take big shots and just generally being smarter with the basketball. Bryn Forbes has transformed from shooter to absolute sniper, hitting nearly every corner three. Branden Dawson, known for his tendency to disappear during games, has made sure to always stay relevant on at least one side of the floor, amassing huge rebound totals and coming through in the clutch, as he did against Louisville with a game-changing tip. Gavin Schilling, Alvin Ellis, Tum Tum Nairn, Matt Costello: they’ve all upped the intensity tenfold, contributing to Michigan State’s magical March.

Drawing the 7-seed in the East, MSU’s first matchup was against a touch Georgia team that had hung with Kentucky earlier in the season. Despite being down early, the team rallied, and with some crucial halftime adjustments (these ended up becoming a trend throughout the tournament), they took the lead off of some big shots by Trice and the big men, and their knack for creating turnovers and capitalizing on them. Despite allowing Georgia to come back to some extent at the end, (“We keep y’all interested,” joked Izzo) Michigan State advanced to a daunting matchup with #2 seed UVA. Last year, the Spartans had knocked them out in the Sweet Sixteen, but of course as critics had made everyone well aware, this was not last year’s team. As it’s turned out, that’s worked out in their favor.

Before the game, Izzo, known for his riveting and enigmatic personality, gave a much more toned down speech than as is custom, with a simple message. “60 minutes of hard work, 60 years of memories,” he told his team. The mantra worked, as State jumped out to a 15-4 lead, with Trice scoring most of those points, utilizing the fast break and the outlet pass so well that I’m sure Wes Unseld was smiling somewhere. Unfazed by the slow tempo of Virginia’s offense, State refused to allow them to get a good shot selection, forcing UVA to shoot only 29.8% from the floor. When UVA inevitably came back, Travis Trice took over. Whether it was making improbable 3s as time expired, getting to the line or creating 3-point plays through working the line, or expertly using the kick-out off of the dribble drive, he did all virtually flawlessly. Putting the team on his back, MSU closed out in the final minutes to take the victory. This was their first upset, and it would turn out, nowhere near their last.

Oklahoma, their Sweet Sixteen opponent, played in a style that was decidedly not Virginia’s. Fast breaks, creating turnovers, and an up-tempo style of play characterized Lon Krueger’s team, the 3 seed. In the beginning, Oklahoma seemed to have the upper hand, seizing a decisive lead behind the shooting of point guard Buddy Hield and strong post work by forward Tayshuan Thomas. On the other end of the floor, Michigan State seemed unable to make their shots, taking ill-advised threes and not crashing the boards. They made a little run as the half expired to be down by 4 at halftime, a score Izzo clearly thought to be miraculous considering the poor effort his team had displayed. For the second twenty minutes, the Spartans were a different team. Instead of poor shot selection, they passed around to get open looks for Trice and Forbes. Denzel Valentine and Trice particularly excelled, catching fire and harnessing it to the tune of 42 combined points. The game went back and forth, with 5 lead changes, but the Spartans took control at the end, taking care of business on the defensive end by posting up against Tayshaun Thomas, and not allowing Buddy Hield to get open looks. Dawson got some critical rebounds, finishing with 11. When the dust settled. Michigan State had won by four, setting themselves up for an Elite Eight matchup with Rick Pitino and the Louisville Cardinals.

The game started as a back-and-forth effort, with Michigan State hitting shots and Montrezl Harrel just generally being a beast in the frontcourt. Towards the end of the second half though, Louisville began capitalizing on an abundance of Michigan State turnovers, taking an 8-point lead into the half. This boded well for the Cardinals, as they had won 96 in a row when going into halftime with at least a 6-point lead. Keyword: had. Again, the Spartans came out of halftime with newfound energy. The centers, Gavin Schilling and Matt Costello, took on Harrell, running him ragged and tiring him out, and he didn’t score from the floor for 29 straight minutes. Dawson found new life on the offensive end, getting the ball in the paint and posting up with such success that Dwight Howard would be proud. Trice and Valentine hit shots, and Forbes made 4 corner threes. Going into the final stretch, the teams changed leads they were going out of style, trading baskets and misses at nearly identical clips. Gavin Schilling and Matt Costello, the two centers, were being counted on to stay out of foul trouble. Costello fouled out, and then in a nervous moment, Schilling fouled out as well. With the game on the line, unproven role player Marvin Clark Jr. came into the game. Maybe it was fate, or maybe just luck, but with about a minute remaining in regulation, Clark hit a difficult bank shot that will certainly be on highlight reels for months. However, with 22 seconds left and a one-point lead, Clark got to the line and missed both free throws, a trend that has haunted Michigan State throughout this whole season. With 4.7 seconds left, Louisville center Mangok Mathiang was fouled, with a chance for two. In a moment excruciatingly stressful, Mathiang hit the first after a lucky bounce in which the ball went so high it seemed it wasn’t coming down. He missed the second, Trice missed the halfcourt attempt, and the game went to OT. The two teams traded baskets for a minute or two, but the true turning moment was when Brendan Dawson made a flying tip-in, showcasing hyper-athletic ability. MSU won the game by 6.

Of course, making the Final Four is nothing new for Tom Izzo. With the exception of last year’s seniors, every four-year player for Izzo has made one. But this one will “go down as the best one, just because of what we went through this year,” Izzo said in a post-game interview. The scene after the Louisville win was the definition of jubilation. Players hugged and laughed and cried and screamed, thanking God and Izzo and their teammates. This wasn’t just another Final Four for Izzo; that much is clear. “I’d like to tell you I thought five different times this year we were good enough to get to a Final Four, but I’d be lying to you. I can’t even say I did. I just wasn’t sure we had enough size, enough talent in certain areas,” an emotional Izzo stated.

Izzo is certainly Hall of Fame bound, but if anyone had any doubt, this Final Four run had to have quieted it. “There’s not one All-American on that roster … that’s not a knock to the kids, {Izzo’s} doing it without having a team full of All-Americans, he’s getting it done. So the kids are playing great, but that’s definitely got to the best coaching job,” explained former Spartans star Mateen Cleaves. What makes it even more impressive is that Izzo and this group of non-All-Americans were able to make their run in a year in which all-Americans and the one-and-done system seem to have won out, judging by the other teams in the Final Four.

So tonight, when you’re watching the games, appreciate the Spartans. You may be tempted to get caught up in the flashiness of the other teams, the big names and the bigger paychecks they’re certain to get when the draft rolls around. While those players have been impressive, for me, nothing beats the fact that this Michigan State team has made it into the Final weekend. Whatever the result tonight, Michigan State has truly had a run for the ages. They’ve overcome all sorts of odds, completed more upsets than ever thought, taking a bunch of no-name guys and made them superstars, at least for this one glorious month. Isn’t that what March Madness is all about!? Whatever one shining moments occur, Michigan State can go home, whenever that may be, knowing they’ve had one shining month. As Tom Izzo eloquently stated in the locker room before the UVA game, “60 minutes of hard work, and 60 years of memories.” These Spartans, their fans, and college basketball fans everywhere, will certainly have great memories about this team for years to come.