Michigan State lost last night’s game 66-62 and with impending jetlag and OMG Kansas, he’s probably going to lose on Tuesday. MSU loses games in November like they win games in March, consistently. While I admit my fan card for basketball is much less decorated than my football fan card, I find myself asking why anyone is surprised? This is what MSU basketball does, it’s not a slam on hoops, it’s just the truth.
KJ raises the obvious counterpoint:
Second, yes, this always happens, and Tom Izzo usually finds a way to get the team in position to succeed by March. This isn't football. There's no sense panicking over a single bad performance. Still, losing in November is not a prerequisite for winning in March. In fact, establishing a higher baseline level of performance in November might actually lead to more success in March if the team can improve by the same amount from the higher baseline.
Second, yes, this always happens, and Tom Izzo usually finds a way to get the team in position to succeed by March. This isn't football. There's no sense panicking over a single bad performance.
Still, losing in November is not a prerequisite for winning in March. In fact, establishing a higher baseline level of performance in November might actually lead to more success in March if the team can improve by the same amount from the higher baseline.
It’s hard to say, mostly because it’s been so long since MSU won these kinds of games. Even in the year MSU won the national title they went 2-2 against top 25 Non-Conference teams. It isn’t conjecture or mislabeling, MSU is just not good in November.
Other famous programs are not their coaches (Kentucky, UNC, Kansas) but MSU basketball is Tom Izzo and the two are inseparable. And Tom is a man with his eye on what’s important. Winning the Big Ten is important. Winning non-conference games is not important. Winning in March is important. Winning the Big Ten tournament is usually not important(last year seemed to be an exception).
It’s this ability to identify what’s important that drives our love for the guy. Yesterday, MSU played a game for the Wounded Warriors in Germany, a year ago it was playing a game for the Armed Forces on the carrier. In addition to providing a game for an audience mostly the troops, he gets a chance to teach these players that basketball is just a game and how lucky they are. Sure MSU gets some pub off it, there are other, much less positive, significant and cheap ways to get that pub, I won’t crap on anyone for that.
Tom Izzo knows who he is. We know who he is too and sometimes that’s a tough pill to swallow in November. But if these non-conference losses are the cost of all of those great Big Ten and March Memories, I’m damn glad Tom Izzo takes a month or two to figure out who he is each year.
Derrick Nix was arrested for possession of Marijuana early Tuesday morning and has been suspended indefinitely. Derrick Nix, why yu no like succes? Nix, who really was exhibiting some leadership characteristics towards the end of the season and burned it down last night with this arrest. A conviction will send him packing and position MSU as ISU’s Official Basketball Feeder Program. “Hey kids, too talented and straight-laced to be a cyclone? Go to MSU and be a dumbass/make Izzo mad/drive drunk/have weed and then get sent packing. We’ve got a home for you waiting in Ames.” It just frustrates me so much I want to punch something.
The most frustrating thing of all was how far Nix had come in the past couple of years. From nearly quitting the team in 2010 because of a lack of playing time to dropping Tommy LaSorda amounts of weight to playing some great inside-outside in the tourney Nix was a man on his way up. So now, that’s all up in smoke.
If Nix leaves, expect additional playing time for Payne and Gauna, but we simply do not have anyone that will fill the gap at the 5 the way Nix can. Anyway, let the courts bear it out and we’ll see where we are in a few months. No rush since there’s no hoops for six months.
Bonus Bits
The Little Brother Blog done growed up and became a part of Bloguin today. Important to note, http://www.thelittlebrotherblog.wordpress.com takes you to the old site, the new site is http://www.thelittlebrotherblog.com. Go there, Mike is a friend of SLS and I’m excited for him he Bloguins his way to fame and fortune.
Tons of recruiting chatter that MSU hosted kind of a Spring Break recruiting day today. DB Antonio Allen, a top 250 guy from Isaiah Lewis’ High School was on campus today as well as OG Nate Jeppeson, OL Poet Thomas and ATH Berkley Edwards. Berkley Edwards is the brother of Braylon Edwards. Dion Sims is hurt again and will be having surgery again, starting to think that Sims days as a Spartan of Consequence are numbered. I misread Rexrode's post as Sims is not healthy when he in fact is. Hooray Sims! Stay Healthy My Friend!
It never even occurred to me that MSU might not beat Louisville tonight. MSU was going to win the 2012 National Championship, this was an indisputable fact. Draymond Green was the best Spartan to lace up his shoes since Magic Johnson, both the numbers and the heart, the big ebullient heart of Draymond bore this out. Not only that Draymond made all of the other players around him better. It didn’t seem possible that they could be derailed by Louisville, North Carolina or even the Miami Heat. This NCAA tourney belonged to MSU and everyone else was just allowed to earn a participation medal. This is exactly how I felt right before the Big Ten Title Game.
That cold December night in Indianapolis, the ref threw the yellow flag after Isaiah Lewis ran into Brad Nortman and I punched my friend Rob in the arm. I’m not a violent person, it just happened that way. After the penalty was assessed we sat for the first time in two and a half quarters, we waited two minutes for that idiot man-child to officially win the game. The PA announcer asked everyone to stay to watch the “Inaugural Big Ten Title Trophy Presentation”. In retrospect, I wish I had. At the time I just wanted my superpower to be the ability to scorch earth in a five foot radius. As we were walking out, some Wisconsin fans were offering to buy ticket stubs at five dollars per, presumably so they could sell them to other Badger fans who couldn’t make the trip. I gave them the finger as I walked by, again, not me, but this is a special kind of pain. We exited Lucas Oil Stadium and got turned around trying to find the car I insulted everything about Indianapolis from the architecture to the citizens to the lack of city grid planning in the area surrounding Lucas Oil. A very kind Badger fan explained herself as a citizen of Indianapolis and helped us find our car, I apologized three times for my frequent use of the f-word. Really I was apologizing because I had spent the last 20 minutes completely shell-shocked, acting like a terrible person and she was kind enough to help us find our car.
So obviously, as I watched MSU struggle to play basketball, let alone MSU basketball, my heart broke all over again. At the end of the first half it seemed obvious, when had MSU asked Appling to engineer a plan to break a game long full court press? Every single aspect of ball movement against Louisville was conducted unnaturally for MSU and Louisville didn’t let up defensively for a moment. They didn’t miss a chance to swipe a ball away or force a bad shot. Louisville played savage, opportunistic defense and earned this win.
My heart is all sad panda tonight and this MSU team deserves a proper and fitting euology of their wild and unexpected success in the 2011-2012 season. It’s not time yet, I still can’t believe what just happened.
MSU Are The Biggest Monsters Ever
MSU sidestepped a bullet from a very underrated Saint Louis squad today to advance to the Sweet 16. Saint Louis played a great game collecting better stats than MSU in Offensive Rebounding, Offensive Rebounding Percentage, Free Throw Rate, Points from the Line, Steals and Turnovers. MSU led the entire game by just a few points and finished out with the win.
Other Bullets
For MSU, lots of rest tomorrow and game prep for Louisville this upcoming Friday against Al Pacino Rick Pitino and with some luck the winner of Marquette and Florida.
Last night, MSU eeked out a win against OSU 68-64 to give MSU their first Big Ten Tourney title since 2000. Those other two teams were the Big Ten Champs too, but we got the 1 seed. So there's that. Draymond Green was named the Big Ten Tourney MVP but Brandon Wood and Derrick Nix were the ones who won yesterday's game. There was much rejoicing in East Lansing, a car was flipped over by the Jimmy John's on Collingwood, because apparently that's what we do?
MSU was "rewarded" with a 1 seed in the West region, playing their first game on Friday night at 9:50 against LIU. I say "rewarded" because there are 7 top 20 teams according to KenPom. This includes MSU playing the winner of the St. Louis(15)/Memphis(9) matchup in the second round on Sunday. But, MSU beat the number two team yesterday(OSU) and is 5-2 against the KenPom top 10. So bricks == not shit yet. Also, Izzo is like 431-2 in the second game of the NCAA tourney weekend.
Like I said yesterday, I believe. This team has it in for New Orleans, they know it, I know it. It feels like a certainty, this is a way I haven't felt about MSU hoops since 2000. This is their tournament to win.
