Sports: Back to Basics, Back to Winning

            Izzo got back to basics—meaning defense, rebounding and toughness. Lo and behold, winning ensued.

            On the very day MSU lost to George Mason to end last season, Tom Izzo made a public pledge that he would get back to enforcing Izzo basics—things like defense, rebounding and toughness, the staples of his championship teams.

            By the end of the 2006-2007 men’s basketball regular season, it became evident that those vintage Izzo “brass tacks” were back, as was winning.  A national television audience saw the Spartans stage a magnificent, four-game-winning home court stand at the Breslin Center, during which the Spartan cagers  showed renewed toughness, defensive intensity, and maniacal rebounding, along with outbursts of offensive genius from junior point guard Drew Neitzel and rising freshman forward Raymar Morgan. 

            Here are some “footprints in the sand” this team achieved during its four-game home court stand:

• Earned its 10th consecutive invitation to the NCAA tournament, thus joining Duke, Kansas, Kentucky and Arizona as the only teams to have gone to the last 10 or more tournaments.
• Beat talented archrival Michigan, crushed a good Iowa team, upset No. 1-ranked Wisconsin—MSU’s first such upset ever at home, and second in history—and manhandled a tough Indiana team.
• Played its best team defense since the 1999-2001 Final Four teams.
• Hosted ESPN’s Gameday, setting a new attendance record.
• Staged its most iconic win (64-55 over the Badgers) since the double-overtime defeat of Kentucky in Austin, TX, two years ago.  Here Izzone members were able to rush the court and celebrate the win with the players.
• Proved that you can never count out an Izzo-coached team, no matter what the ranking or talent differential.
• Restored order around the state’s water coolers, as Spartan fans were able to reassert their rightful sense of in-state superiority.

            Izzo attributed MSU’s turnaround to several factors.  “Improved play defensively, which was even better than it was considering what we’re holding opponents to shooting percentagewise and scoringwise,” he noted.  “The emergence of Raymar Morgan as a true second option on offense.  (Sophomore guard) Travis Walton deserves a lot of credit not only for the points he scored but also for the assists and his defense.  And (junior center) Drew Naymick has improved his defense.”

            Unsaid by Izzo, because it was too obvious, was the emergence of Drew Neitzel as a bona fide superstar.  A three-time selection as Big Ten Player of the Week, the diminutive point guard was reminiscent of former MSU star Scott Skiles in his offensive productivity, his heart and his “take charge” skills.  Neitzel almost singlehandedly beat Big Ten champions Ohio State by scoring 24 points in the second half at Columbus, bringing MSU back from a 20-point halftime deficit to within a last-second trey to pull the upset.  In the upset of top-ranked Wisconsin, he erupted for 28 points—nearly half the Spartan output.  In the 66-58 win over Indiana, he scored 15 second-half points despite being “sicker than a dog” with the flu.  "I've never seen a kid who could go almost away from the basket and turn his body and get balanced and still put a great stroke on the ball like him," marveled Hoosier coach Kelvin Sampson, a former Jud Heathcote assistant.

            Another factor Izzo credited was the Breslin advantage.  The Izzone rocked with energy and re-emerged as perhaps the most discombobulating spirit group in the land.

            Izzo is never totally satisfied, and one area he bemoaned was the lack of consistency.  Isaiah Dahlman, Ibok Idong, Maurice Joseph, Marquise Gray and Goran Suton all showed flashes of excellent play, but were not able to sustain those moments on a consistent basis.  Other areas Izzo believes needed work were turnovers and team free throw shooting percentage.

            Nonetheless, it is an understatement to say the season was successful.  MSU started the season having lost three high NBA picks in Maurice Ager, Shannon Brown and Paul Davis, plus Matt Trannon, a sturdy defender who prepared for the NFL draft, and many fans were wondering whether this year’s team could compete.  The catchphrase became “rebuilding year.”  As Neitzel noted, 99 percent of the fans did not believe this team could get it done.  But fortunately, the members of the team—and Izzo—did.

            MSU was able to make the Big Dance again, beating ranked or league championship teams like Wisconsin, Texas, Brigham Young and Bradley along the way.  Interestingly, a study by the University of Central Florida showed that MSU had the top graduation rate of men’s basketball players—75 percent—among all the public schools in the NCAA tournament.  

            The team faced plenty of adversity, including mid-season injuries to key perimeter players, ill-timed flu outbreaks and the league’s toughest schedule.  Jim Comparoni, editor and publisher of Spartan Magazine, ranks this year’s coaching job by Tom Izzo among the best in his career—keeping in mind that Izzo has won National Coach of the Year honors four previous times.

            In Winston-Salem, NC, MSU earned the NCAA’s first upset by beating higher-seeded Marquette 61-47, but then lost to No. 1-seed North Carolina.  But MSU’s feisty performance has fans salivating in anticipation of next year.  All key players return along with several fresh new horses who will help out with the running game and with perimeter depth.  Red-shirt 7-0 center Tom Herzog will be activated, joined by Top 50 players Chris Allen, Kalin Lucas, and Durrell Summers, plus Austin Thornton, a versatile player from Cedar Springs who chose to walk-on at MSU over a number of Division I scholarship offers. 

            Assistant coach Jim Boylen will become head coach at Utah, Izzo’s seventh assistant to become a head coach.  Assistants Mark Montgomery and Dwayne Stephens both return.

            After the final game, Magic Johnson spoke to the team and told each player how they need to improve.  The 2007-2008 season has begun, and as Detroit News columnist Bob Wojnowski put it, the North Carolina loss “was the Spartans’ season in capsule form, an admirable show of guts, and in the end, it felt more like a prelude than a conclusion.”

            MSU SPORTS MOMENT—Mateen Cleaves saw his jersey retired on Feb. 3 before the Ohio State game.  Cleaves, a three-time MSU captain and two-time Big Ten Player of the Year, led MSU to the 2000 NCAA championship and was named MVP of the Final Four. He is the school's only three-time All-American.  He is the eighth Spartan basketball player to have his jersey retired.