Do's and dont's

Through a roller-coaster ride of a season, the MSU men’s basketball team has found ways to win and ways to lose. They’ve shown flashes of brilliance in games against top-10 teams and floundered against cellar-dwellers. Now, with everything on the line in the NCAA Tournament, here are three things the Spartans should and should not do to better their chances for a postseason run.

DO:

1. Get consistent play from the frontcourt

Junior center Goran Suton is the Spartans’ most consistent double-double player while senior center Drew Naymick has elevated his game three-fold this season, and junior forward Marquise Gray is almost a perfect indicator of how MSU will fare if he plays well. MSU head coach Tom Izzo has said it may be utopia for all the big men to play well, but the truth is, it’s more of a need than a want.

“I think consistent play from every guy who is 6-6 and over needs to be a focal point this week,” Izzo said.

2. Shoot free throws

Free throw percentage is one of the keys to an NCAA Tournament run for any team. Fortunately for the Spartans, they have the best free-throw shooter in MSU history (senior guard Drew Neitzel at 86.1 percent) and finished the Big Ten season in second place from the free-throw line.

3. Dictate the pace

The Spartans have the capability to run and gun with just about anybody in the country (22 fast-break points in an early March rout of Indiana) and have dozens of set plays with down screens and picks and rolls they can run to perfection.

DON’T:

1. Get in foul trouble

It seems obvious, but it’d be wise for the Spartans to not allow four of their five big men to foul out in an NCAA Tournament game. MSU has shown prominent bench depth throughout the season, but the Green and White would be much better off if they don’t have to test it. In the team’s last four losses, they’ve averaged nearly 20 team fouls.

2. Turn the ball over

Golden rule of basketball — hold onto the rock. Throughout stretches of the season, it seemed as if Izzo applied butter to his team’s hands in the locker room before the games. Now, it looks more like that butter turned into super glue. Dating back to the Feb. 16 loss at Indiana, the Spartans are averaging more than 14 turnovers per loss and just about eight per win.

3. Play to the level of competition

Sparty fans remember Iowa and Penn State — a pair of games where MSU looked like a high school team, which is the level the Hawkeyes and Nittany Lions play at. If Temple or a future opponent completely struggle against the Spartans, MSU will have to find a way to play at the level the team is capable of.

Published on Wednesday, March 19, 2008