Sports: Izzo Continues Quest for Championships
At last, Izzo will be able to field players in their natural positions, rather than have to adjust for unforeseen departures.
Tom Izzo is quietly optimistic going into his 10th season as MSU head coach. The reason? “This year,” he believes, “we can put round pegs in round holes, and square pegs in square holes.
Unexpected player departures had forced some players out of position the past couple of seasons, a situation made worse by Izzo’s nails-tough scheduling. The results—two early NCAA departures and just one Elite Eight appearance—might be deemed good by some programs, but not MSU, where success is now measured by trophy hardware (combined with an 80 percent graduation rate).
The 2004-2005 MSU team boasts a good mix of experience and youth and the luxury of not having to force square pegs into round holes. And although a gauntlet of foes like Duke, Stanford, and UCLA still lurk, at least they are not bunched like last season, when, Izzo notes, “they came one right after the other.”
MSU will be led by seniors Alan Anderson, Tim Bograkos, Chris Hill, and Kelvin Torbert, a group that Izzo describes as “unfairly maligned, even by me.”
“”They will go down as one of the best classes academically ever,” says Izzo. “I hope they can find a way to win a championship. Our program is at a point where we’re measured by that.”
Last season, they came within a couple of free throws from winning MSU’s fifth Big Ten championship in seven years. “How I’ll judge these seniors is how they bounced back after having been rocked, socked and rolled over, with all those early losses on national TV,” says Izzo. “I’ll use this as a reminder.”
The year before, despite not having a pure point guard, they advanced to the NCAA’s Elite Eight, beating Colorado, Florida at Florida, and Maryland, before succumbing to Texas in Texas. And as freshmen, they had to put in 30-plus minutes of playing time as MSU had dwindled to seven scholarship players.
Helping them will be junior forward Paul Davis, who has bulked up to 265 pounds and, Izzo says, “has been very, very focused, working every day on his day and acquiring a love for the game.” Junior Maurice Ager and sophomore Shannon Brown, two athletic perimeter players, have “looked great” in individual workouts. Power forward Delco Rowley was a strong rebounder for the Big Ten team that traveled to Europe in the summer. Sophomore center Drew Naymick endured a shoulder injury over the summer, but Izzo expects him and Rowley to play significant roles on defense.
“We need someone to set picks, defend, rebound and just bang,” says Izzo. “That might be a role for Naymick and Delco. The strengths of this program have been defense and rebounding, and we need to improve in these areas. Ironically, we were last on defense statistically but led in four offensive categories—field goal percentage, free throw percentage, three-point percentage and scoring. It was the first time in Big Ten history a team led in all four offensive categories.”
Incoming freshman Marquise Walker, an above-the-rim type inside player, is also expected to help immediately, as is fellow freshman Drew Neitzel, a nifty ball-handler who, says Izzo, “can see the court with the back of his head.”
“We definitely have enough good players this year (to win titles),” says Izzo. “The keys are finding a running mate for Davis, stabilizing our comfort zone at point guard, and staying injury-free.
“We have some depth to where maybe we can run every time and wear opponents down. We need to keep coming at people. That’s what we did in our national championship year. We rotated and kept coming at people and nobody cared who started.”
Tom and his assistants, Doug Wocjik, Mark Montgomery and Duane Stephens, have their work cut out. The Big Ten is going through yet another cyclical rise in strength.
“The Big Ten will be way up from last year,” predicts Izzo. “Your have four teams that everyone will pick in the Top 25—Illinois, MSU, Wisconsin and Michigan. Iowa and Indiana have a chance. Northwestern will have its best team ever. And you can never count out a Purdue team coached by Gene Keady. Minnesota, Ohio State and Penn State are question marks because there are some unknowns there.
“A couple of teams have a legitimate chance to make the Final Four.”
Obviously, Izzo believes MSU will be in the mix. “My job is to put us in position to win championships,” he explains. “And in the past seven seasons, we’ve had a mathematical chance to win the Big Ten coming into the last week (of regular season play).“
Expect the knocking on the door to get louder in 2004-2005.