Sports: Preseason Cagers "Run" Into Top 20
With a slightly friendlier schedule, MSU unleashed a devastating fast break enroute to an 8-2 preseason record and a Top 20 ranking.
A year ago, the MSU cagers entered the Big Ten season with Tom Izzo having to “scrape them off the floor,” in his words, to rebuild their confidence. Not only had MSU scheduled a gauntlet of perennial heavyweights—including Duke, Oklahoma, Kansas, Kentucky and UCLA—but some of the games came back to back. MSU lost them all, but to its credit, battled back and eventually came within a missed free throw from another Big Ten title. MSU earned its seventh straight trip to the NCAA tournament.
This season, the schedule was a bit less cavalier. MSU did book Stanford, UCLA and Duke, as well as a tournament that included Maryland, but those tests were more spread out. The 2004-2005 cagers came out of the gate with a relentless fast break and exploded for more than 100 points three times, winding up 8-2 in the preseason, ranked in the Top 25, and brimming with so much confidence Izzo may have to scrape them off the ceiling.
Conference play would, again, be a challenge; Big Ten teams had won 70 percent of their nonconference games, which included 16 foes in the Top 25. Illinois was ranked No. 1 and Iowa No. 16; Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio State and Northwestern all boasted strong winning preseason records.
Key to MSU’s early season productivity was the play of the point guards, senior Chris Hill, one of MSU’s alltime three-point shooters, and freshman “Mr. Basketball” Drew Neitzel. MSU averaged 18.6 assists per game, 13th in the nation. Hill led the league with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 3.29-to-1, which, as Izzo noted, was better than the ratios mustered by such Spartan greats as Mateen Cleaves, Mark Montgomery, Scott Skiles and Eric Snow.
Selfless play at point guard often translates into offensive production and balanced scoring, and MSU was outstanding in both areas, with six Spartans averaging in double figures—double last year’s number—and with the team shooting 50.1 percent overall and 41.2 percent from the three point stripe. Junior Maurice Ager led the team with 14 points per game and junior Paul Davis piled up some double doubles. Incredibly, MSU’s offensive stats were better than last year’s, when MSU led the Big Ten in every major shooting category—field-goal percentage, three-point percentage, free-throw percentage, and scoring offense.
The Spartans continued to perform at the free-throw line. MSU averaged .795 as a team, 5th in the nation and tops in the league. Three Spartans led the Big Ten 1-2-3: Shannon Brown (90.9), Kelvin Torbert (87.5) and Alan Anderson (84.6). MSU has made more free throws (178) than its opponents have attempted (171), a stat “that we keep our eye on, and shoot for,” Izzo says.
Per Izzo’s emphasis, MSU improved in rebounding, its preseason margin of 8.8 leading the league and ranking 15th in the nation. MSU was also grabbing 12.7 offensive boards a game, 3rd in the league. The Spartans’ rebounding prowess received a boost when football wide receiver Matt Trannon joined the team; against University of North Carolina-Asheville, he grabbed 7 caroms in about 10 minutes. Rebounding margin had been an Izzo trademark; MSU led the nation in that category when it was going to Final Fours.
MSU WOMEN RANKED 6TH IN THE NATION
Pssst . . . don’t tell anyone, but in the preseason MSU’s women’s cagers crushed defending national champions UConn 67-51—at Hartford—and leaped to No. 6 in the nation.
Yes, 6th in the nation, the team’s highest ranking ever in history.
At 10-1 entering conference play, fifth-year coach Joanne McCallie’s team was performing like a juggernaut.
“I’m just proud of our team with the schedule we have,” said McCallie after MSU beat two other nationally-ranked Big East teams, Boston College and then third-ranked Notre Dame.
The Spartans were led by senior playmaker Kristin Haynie, considered by some teammates as the best point guard in the nation. Haynie is the only Big Ten player who ranks among the league leaders in scoring, rebounding, assists, steals, free-throw percentage and assists-to-turnovers ratio. She was the MVP of the Spartan Classic, averaging 15.5 points, 7.5 rebounds, 5.5 steals, 3.5 assists while shooting 58.9 from the field and 1.000 (8 for 8) from the charity stripe.
Other key MSU players include senior center Kelli Roehrig, who was averaging 16 points and 8.4 rebounds; junior forward Liz Shimek, a tough inside player; and junior shooting guard Linsay Bowens, a sharpshooter who mustered 33 points against TCU. All four players could reach the 1,000-point career mark this season.