Sports: MSU Favored To Win League

            Tom Izzo, who led MSU to four Final Fours in seven years, could do so again this season.

            Four Final Fours in the last seven years.  Five Elite Eights in the last eight years.  Eight straight NCAA appearances.

            No men’s college basketball team in America can match the program that Tom Izzo has built this past decade.  Duke and UConn have had only three Final Fours, and each of them had non-NCAA seasons in that period. 

            The good news is, Izzo wants more.  He says he feels re-invigorated after an eventful summer, during which he coached a U.S. Army team to a title in Kuwait, played golf with Tiger Woods, and coached at Michael Jordan’s fantasy camp in Las Vegas.  Not to mention, he and his staff landed verbals from two blue chip recruits, solidifying the program’s future.

            No one is surprised that the preseason magazines have ranked MSU among the nation’s top eight teams.  One major publication, the Sporting News, picks the Spartans to win it all.

            “Are we a Final Four team?” asks Izzo rhetorically.  “No, not yet.  But I’m comfortable (with the high preseason rankings) because it shows respect for the program.  We have as good a chance as anyone to make it.”

            With the return of four starters from a Final Four team—senior center Paul Davis, upper class perimeter players Maurice Ager and Shannon Brown, and sophomore point guard Drew Neitzel—MSU does look good on paper.  But, cautions Izzo, there might be “a couple of negatives.”

            One negative is the lack of perimeter depth, which could hurt MSU in the event of injuries.  The other is the power forward position, which Izzo admits is “an unknown.”  Candidates abound, but two of them, junior Drew Naymick and sophomore Marquise Gray, have lost extended practice time due to injuries.  Other prospects include much-improved junior Delco Rowley, freshmen Goran Suton, who Izzo labels “a poor man’s Erazem Lorbek,” and Ibok Idong, a shot-blocker boasting a huge wingspan.  Izzo says it could be “done by committee.”

            At point guard returns sophomore Drew Neitzel, who as a freshman started on a Final Four team, despite playing the latter part of the season with a hernia injury.  “He did what he was supposed to do,” notes Izzo.  “He delivered the ball to our many great wing players.  He took care of the ball, and he played better defense than we expected.  He’s a great shooter.  Now his weight has gone from 157 to 176 pounds—that’s 18 pounds of mostly muscle.”

            Joining Neitzel in the backcourt will be “fellow gym rats” Ager and Brown.  “They can run the fast break and are great finishers,” notes Izzo.  “Ager is a great shooter, and Brown has become a great shooter.  They’ve improved their defense and they’ve improved their passing.  All we need is to get them to rebound like (Charlie) Bell and (Morris) Peterson.

            “Both are preseason All American candidates and deserving of that,” says Izzo.  “We’ll have as good a backcourt as anyone in the country.”

            Of course, MSU’s pivotal cog is Davis, who won the team’s MVP award as a sophomore.  “Paul was phenomenal in his last 12 or 13 games, and he was very impressive in our NCAA run when be averaged a double double, rebounding like I know he can.  He’s changed his body and weighs 263 pounds with just 11 percent body fat.

            “But what’s impressed me the most is that he’s taking on some leadership,” Izzo says.  “He and Ager and Brown are looking at this team as their team, and that’s exciting to me.  It’s better for players rather than coaches to run the team and to own the team.  It’s a good thing when you finally have players who want to win more than the coaches.”

            Graduation saw the loss of four seniors who had been mainstays of the program, MVP Alan Anderson, Tim Bograkos, Chris Hill and Kelvin Torbert.  But the incoming class boasts two promising freshmen—Travis Walton, of Lima, Ohio, and Maurice Joseph, of Toronto, Canada. 

            “Walton is strong and tough and can defend anyone in the country,” says Izzo.  “He’s not a great shooter, yet.  He needs to work on ball handling.  But he will have to play a role for us. He reminds me of a young Eric Snow.”

            Joseph, by contrast, “can flat out shoot it,” notes Izzo.  “He needs to get stronger, but he comes from a very well-coached program.”

            Most media pundits rank MSU high.  For example, Mike DeCourcy of the Sporting News writes:

“I was able to see ultra-athletic wings Shannon Brown and Maurice Ager streaking up the court in fastbreak drills, with point guard Drew Neitzel pushing the ball up the court and center Paul Davis ready to finish off any dunks Brown or Ager missed.  As if.  This will be an exciting team to watch.”

            A third negative, however, has to do with schedule.  Once again, the Spartans face one of the toughest gauntlets in the nation—beginning with a trip to the Maui Classic, where MSU could face the likes of Kansas, UConn, Maryland, Gonzaga, Arkansas and Arizona. Then they face teams like Georgia Tech and Boston College.  Assuming the preseason rankings are somewhat accurate, MSU has by far the worst conference schedule in the Big Ten.  The Spartans will play the top-ranked six teams twice apiece, the bottom-ranked four teams just once.

            On the plus side, however, Izzo believes he has a terrific staff.  Mark Montgomery, in his fourth season, and Dwayne Stephens, in his second, are both former Spartans who continue to improve as coaches.  And new assistant Jim Boylen, who previously coached at MSU, brings instant credibility.  “He’s coached four of the 50 greatest NBA players ever,” notes Izzo.  They would be Charles Barkley, Scott Pippen, Akeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler.  “Plus he’s won back to back NBA championships (with Houston).”