Despite foul finish, Spartans exceed expectations
Junior guard Durrell Summers lies on the court after being defeated by Butler 52-50 Saturday in the national semifinal game in Indianapolis.
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Indianapolis — On Easter Sunday, I sat in a Lucas Oil Stadium that had all the Green and White sucked out of it and thought about faith — believing in something that, in East Lansing, is religion.
I thought about MSU basketball.
The NCAA Tournament is a funny thing in that all the buzzer beaters and out-of-body experiences change the way you think about the game.
It reaches a point when seeds are thrown out the window and everybody — especially in a season that reflects more parity than any in recent memory — is on an even keel.
Everybody gives you something to believe in.
“These guys, for the most part, did an incredible, incredible job hanging in there,” MSU head coach Tom Izzo said after Saturday’s 52-50 Final Four loss to Butler.
Photo: Sophomore forward ...
“This team, meaning Michigan State, played about as hard under the circumstances we were put in as any team I’ve ever coached here.”
What kind of belief does it take for a coach to have in an always talented, but inconsistent wing like Durrell Summers to give him a second chance in the Big Dance?
After sitting Summers in the loss to Minnesota, many thought the book on the junior guard was written.
He couldn’t defend, didn’t look for his shot, didn’t get up for big games and his talent was wasted. Maybe he didn’t believe in himself, but Izzo did. Summers averaged 16.1 points per game in the tourney and was named the Midwest Regional’s Most Outstanding Player.
What does it say about this group that Izzo had faith in two former walk-ons — Mike Kebler and Austin Thornton — to combine for 19 minutes in a competitive Final Four game?
And what kind of belief does it take for a team to go to battle with a backup point guard like sophomore Korie Lucious, who had never led the Spartans to a victory while calling plays — but then managed to lead them to Indianapolis?
MSU was on life support. Izzo still says we don’t even know how much pain these players endured.
He half-joked that sophomore forward Delvon Roe would have surgery “on the way home” from Indianapolis on Sunday.
When junior guard Kalin Lucas went down against Maryland, the national expectation for MSU to reach the Sweet 16 — let alone its second straight Final Four — vanished.
No one outside East Lansing gave the Spartans a fighting chance in any of their consequential games. That’s the way it is when you take the floor in Mid-Michigan and your conference still is viewed by some as a mid-major.
But that’s the funny thing about the NCAA Tournament. The number of eyes focused on games is infinitely larger than the number of people who really make a difference.
If everyone outside that Breslin Center locker room picked MSU to lose every game but 15 players, a few coaches and a handful of managers believed, guess which matters more?
If I told you MSU would be playing in a Final Four without its best player, its best perimeter defender and its most talented pure frontcourt player, you’d jump on me like I made a petition to change the Spartans logo.
But they did it with less physical firepower and more psychological will and now they think they can get back. And you know what? They can.
Believe it.
Joey Nowak is a State News men’s basketball reporter. He can be reached at nowakjo2@msu.edu.
Commentary
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Holy crap
(04/04/10 11:47pm)Report
Generally the SN’s title-writer has sucked – and I mean SUCKED – in my observations over the last six years.
But this article’s title is perfect in every way. Thanks to whoever wrote it, whether it was Joey or one of the editors.
Argh grammar
(04/04/10 11:47pm)Report
Grammar fail. “Thanks to whomever…”
Fan
(04/05/10 7:33am)Report
Let’s start wiuth the positive……..great run by the Spartans and a great job of getting maximum effort out of the guys by the coach. Six trips to the Final 4 in 12 years is a great testament to the kind of program that Izzo runs. Truly a joy to watch and great to be part of the Spartan faithful.
Now for the ugly……this basketball team has the “Cubs and the Schembechler syndrome”….meaning they can’t finish the job. One championship in six trips to the Final Four makes one wodner if they know how to go for the jugular! Forget about the adversity…we all have that in life. The reality is that it’s all about results!
My hats off to all the guys and the coaching staff. It waws a great run but would have been so much more pleasant though to see Sparty and the gang on the court tonight for the final game!
GO GREEN
Matt Bell
(04/05/10 8:33am)Report
As an alumni living in… ahem… Tarheel Country, I have to say that I am SO proud of Izzo and the boys.
NO ONE can ever question their talent, their heart, their dedication, or their class.
A Final Four season is a good season, no matter what. Throw in some adversity and it’s even sweeter.
Great job, guys, and we’ll see you next year!
Phil Cornell
(04/05/10 11:31am)Report
As a long time Spartan, I’ve seen many of the ups and downs over the years… from Rudy Benjamin to Kalin Lucas, I’ve seen a lot of players give their all for the Spartans. And I am here to tell you today that the coaching job done by Tom Izzo this year is far and away his best coaching job ever. He took a nomadic team with no focus at all and guided them to the Final Four.
Regardless of who they played and how lucky they were that the #1, 2 and 3 seeds were all knocked out, it still was a phenomenal coaching job Izzo did this year. This team was in total dissension in January. In spite of the good start they got off to in the Big 10 and how it looked on the outside to the general public, they were a complete mess.
Izzo found a way to pull everyone together, get a share of the Big 10 title and get this team to the Final Four. And truthfully, Draymond Green actually was fouled on that play and they easily could have been in the championship game tonight. But no matter, it was a good season.
Only one thing concerns me. As another poster conveyed earlier, I am very worried that, even though he does have one championship in 2000, Izzo will start being portrayed and perceived much as Bud Grant and Marv Levy and others have always been, as someone who could get their team up the mountain but could not get them to the pinnacle when it came time to play the big game for all the marbles. And that would be wrong on so many levels, because half of those teams would not have even made it to the Final Four if it wasn’t for their soon to be Hall of Fame coach.
Grat job Coach Izzo!!
Shame
(04/05/10 1:17pm)Report
drop the turnovers from 16 to 10 = shoot the ball 6 more times x 43% fg = 2.58 more points = win. looked like they did in january. 42 FGAs? that’s moist.
Steve
(04/05/10 1:49pm)Report
Or still play carelessly and just make 3 more free throws.
bob
(04/05/10 4:26pm)Report
we are winning it all next year.
appling is the shit.
WOLVERINE
(04/05/10 9:29pm)Report
The University of MICHIGAN is still the overall best college in the state.
Hail, hail, to Michigan…!