Butler, MSU take part in open practices

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Indianapolis — Brad Stevens knew his players were unaccustomed to shooting in a massive stadium, so he compared it to something similar he knew his Butler team had been doing its entire life.

“Yesterday, I didn’t think it was a big deal to shoot in the dome,” the Butler head coach said Friday. “Bottom line is you’re shooting on 10-foot goals, all the lines are the same and everything else. We tell our guys, if you ever shot outside, there’s a bigger backdrop than this, so it’s not a big deal.”

The Bulldogs took the court first on Friday in open practice at Lucas Oil Stadium in front of thousands of hometown fans. As doors opened to the public, the lower bowl of the stadium was filled by noon.

“The atmosphere was awesome,” Butler guard Ronald Nored said. “The people in Indianapolis are definitely the ones to thank for this.”

Back from business

Although Stevens now is a rising star in the college coaching world, it was just a few years ago that he was a rising star in the business world.

He left his job at Eli Lilly, a global pharmaceutical company based in Indianapolis, where he was a marketing associate to become a basketball coach. Now, at 33, he’s led the Bulldogs to their first Final Four.

“I didn’t care what level,” Stevens said of his passion to get back into coaching. “I wanted to be around really good students who could challenge for championships. I don’t know that in my wildest dreams we would have been sitting here, even when I started at Butler.”

Final Four…guaranteed

The streak continues — every four-year player to play under MSU head coach Tom Izzo has made it to a Final Four. Now, freshman centers Garrick Sherman and Derrick Nix are guaranteed theirs.

“Every year from now on, I’m not going to know what to expect but this,” Sherman said. “If we come up short, I won’t know what to do. This is all I expect. The least we can do is get to the Final Four since we’ve been doing it for so long.”

Sophomore forward Draymond Green said it’s a great tool Izzo has any time he recruits a player.

“When someone tells you something like that, of course its going to catch your attention,” Green said. “But I don’t think that was what he really sold on us. I mean, you can look at his track record and just figure it out for yourself. He’s going to win. He’s going to get you to places where you want to go.”

Injury update

MSU junior guard Chris Allen said this week at practice that he hoped the torn ligament in the arch of his right foot to be “80 or 85 percent” by Saturday’s game.

“It’s definitely feeling better,” Allen said Friday. “There’s on-and-off type pains, but for the most part, it’s been consistently not hurting and I’ve been able to walk normal and put a lot more pressure on it now. So it’s definitely coming around.”

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