Sports: MSU Hoops Aim for Big Dances
MSU’s men’s and women’s basketball teams are in the thick of league races again and aim to excel in the NCAA tournaments.
Last season was a special one in MSU history, with both the men’s and women’s basketball teams making the NCAA Final Four, hoopdom’s equivalent of the “Promised Land.”
Despite major losses to graduation, both teams are back in the thick of league races and each is expected to contend in the post-season.
Tom Izzo, a football fan, can thank the MSU football team for providing wide receiver Matt Trannon, who brought toughness to the post-Aloha mix as he earned a starting position at power forward. Joanne McCallie, last year’s National Coach of the Year, boasts a stellar freshman class to make up for the losses of point guard Kristin Haynie and center Kelli Roehrig.
Ranked in the nation’s Top Ten, the men’s team opened its 2005-2006 season in Hawaii and promptly was upset by the unranked Rainbows. Two games later, in the toughest Maui Classic field ever, MSU lost to Gonzaga in triple overtime. It was an early-season classic that showcased the kind of firepower Maurice Ager could muster, as the senior swingman from Detroit made clutch shot after clutch shot.
With senior center Paul Davis, junior swingman Shannon Brown and sophomore point guard Drew Neitzel established at point guard, each preseason game provided yet another opportunity for someone to emerge at power forward. Redshirt freshmen Goran Suton and Marquise Gray showed some early season offensive flashes, along with Drew Naymick, Delco Rowley and Ibok Idong. But eventually Trannon, who seems to have a natural flair for rebounding and a high basketball I.Q., emerged as starter. The team cruised to 10 straight wins—over the likes of Boston College, Georgia Tech, Arizona and Wichita State—in the preseason.
When Big Ten play began, it became obvious that MSU was dealt the most disadvantageous schedule in the league. MSU was scheduled to play the four lowest-ranked teams just once each, and the top teams twice. Moreover, MSU faced the six top-ranked teams right away, four of them on the road. All six opponents ended up being ranked teams.
The Spartans were able to win one on the road, beating Ohio State 62-59 in double overtime at Columbus. Illinois was the only other team able to secure a road win against one of the ranked teams. Although Ager, Brown and Davis were productive offensively—each averaging over 17 points a game, the only trio in the nation to do so—the Spartans were routinely out-rebounded. At mid-season, Izzo was determined to correct this weakness.
Like Izzo, McCallie does not shy from tough opponents in the pre-season, as she faced the likes of LSU, Maryland and Rutgers, as well as powerhouse Tennessee in the Virgin Islands tournament.
As expected, senior All-America candidates Liz Shimek and Lindsay Bowen have paced the Spartans, each surpassing the 1,600 points in career scoring. In mid-season, Shimek ranked third in the Big Ten in scoring (18.6 ppg) and second in rebounding (8.7 rpg). She led the conference in offensive rebounds (3.6 pg) and was fifth in field-goal percentage (55.7). A dominant force, Shimek was named Big Ten Player of the Week four times this season and mustered eight double-doubles in league play. She also made the mid-season John Wooden Award list.
A Wooden Award finalist, Bowen was averaging 14 points a game while shooting 43 percent from beyond the arc. She led the country in three points made (275) and led the Big Ten in all-time, three-point shooting accuracy (41.2). She also ranked third in the league in assists.
Such excellence, within McCallie’s high-power offensive system and ferocious match-up zone defense, has attracted more fans. Midway in the season, the women averaged 6,694 fans a game at Breslin Center—a nice jump over last year’s “record” 6,143. Four of the women’s top nine crowds in program history were within this season, including 12,088 on Jan. 1 vs. Michigan, the second largest crowd ever.