Sports: Izzo Leads MSU to March in March

            Tom Izzo guides MSU to the NCAA Elite Eight—his fourth in five years—after overcoming youth, injuries and adverse scheduling.

            Call Tom Izzo “Mr. March.” 

            He proved it again at the NCAA tournament, where he boasts the best winning percentage among active coaches with at least 10 games.  He took a 7^th-seeded team to Tampa, FL, and thrashed Colorado and Florida.  At the Elite Eight in San Antonio, Texas, MSU beat defending national champions Maryland before finally bowing out to the No. 1-seed hometown Longhorns.

            It was MSU’s fourth Elite Eight in five years, the first to not advance to the Final Four.  Upping his NCAA record to 19-5 for .792, Izzo made this year’s unlikely run in the face of early-season problems.  Once again, he has solidified MSU as an elite program—just as a banner proclaims in Breslin Center. 

            The 2002-2003 Spartans had to muster a winning streak at season’s end just to make the Big Dance.  MSU won 8 of its last 10 conference games by sticking to its success formula of rebounding, defense, fast breaks and guard play.

            The strong finish may have seemed unlikely earlier in the season, when  tremendous adversity struck.  The unexpected departure of Marcus Taylor, who led the Big Ten in both points and assists in 2002, created a vacuum at point guard.  While trying to manufacture a replacement, Izzo faced an inordinate amount of injuries—Kelvin Torbert (ankle), Paul Davis (hand), Chris Hill (groin and fainting spells), Alan Anderson (hand), and Tim Bograkos and Rashi Johnson (stress fractures).  Senior Adam Wolfe made a valiant comeback from his freakish hamstring tear last season, but could not sustain consistency.  With five newcomers to his system, Izzo struggled to establish a regular rotation on which to build.  Team chemistry suffered.

            Not helping was a schedule that proved to be the toughest in the Big Ten, both in conference play and also overall.

            Nonetheless, a slimmed-down Izzo, invigorated and animated, pulled off another coup in a young career that’s destined for the NCAA Hall of Fame.   He orchestrated what resources he had like a maestro, manufacturing positional changes, fielding line-ups like a hockey coach, and always riding the players hard—“too hard,” complained some uninformed fans.  But by season’s end, the genius of Izzo’s coaching emerged.  Suddenly, all the coaching and teaching, and screams and hollers, began to seep in.  The freshmen became sophomores, the sophomores became leaders.  Team chemistry blossomed.

            The first indication that Izzo and the coaching staff would have their work cut out was at the Great Alaska Shootout, where sloppy losses to Villanova and Oklahoma State exposed MSU’s youth and inexperience, especially at the point guard position.

            The Spartans rebounded at home with a solid 82-75 win over Virginia in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.  Things seemed back to normal, momentarily.  MSU played like veterans of the War Drill.  Cavalier coach Pete Gillen harrumphed in the postmortem, “They were holding us, grabbing us and mugging us . . . “ 

The mirage of “normalcy” continued when MSU sallied forth to Kentucky and upset the highly-ranked Wildcats 71-67 in Rupp Arena, with walk-on defensive specialist Tim Bograkos sealing the victory with a trey.  “He was the 6^th options out of five guys,” Tom said sheepishly.

            In retrospect, those wins were rabbits Izzo pulled out from somewhere.  MSU’s youth and inconsistency became more apparent in an unlikely 81-76 loss to Toledo, coached by former MSU assistant Stan Joplin.  The previous year, MSU had blown out the Rockets at Breslin Center by 45 points.  The home upset ended MSU’s 36-game winning streak against nonconference foes, a string dating back to 1997.

            With a penchant for not ducking the nation’s top teams, MSU faced both  No. 1-seed Oklahoma away and No. 3-seed Syracuse at home.  Although the Spartans lost both games by a combined total of three points, the thin margin proved that they could stand toe to toe with the nation’s best teams.

             MSU’s early Big Ten schedule was made not by a madman, but worse, by a computer.  MSU was forced to play four league games—three of them away—in nine days.  MSU beat Ohio State at home but lost three straight at Iowa, Purdue and Minnesota.  After a home win against cellar-dwelling Penn State, MSU ventured to Ann Arbor, where Spartans in recent years got used to winning both on the court, pointwise, and in the stands, decibelwise.   At the end of a nip-and-tuck battle, the Wolverines hit the last shot to prevail 60-58.

            Some media commentators hailed the result as an apocalyptic change of some kind.  It was, but hardly in the way they envisioned.  MSU proceeded to win 8 of its next 10 league games, including a sweep of Indiana, last year’s Final Four contender.  Despite a hiccup at Illinois, MSU won its final four conference games as the offense averaged 73.5 points per game. 

            Sophomore Chris Hill, who set a Big Ten record with 10 treys against Syracuse, made third-team Academic All America and was named the team’s co-MVP (with fellow sophomore Alan Anderson).  He was often double teamed and the attention freed things up a bit for inside players, like seniors Al “Guts & Glue” Anagonye and Adam Ballinger, two solid mainstays of the program.  Ballinger, who made third-team all conference in 2002, suffered a mysterious slump through much of the season but the Indiana native made some key plays, especially a last minute trey against the Hoosiers.

            Sophomore Kelvin Torbert regained the athleticism that had made him a MacDonald’s All American after having a spur removed from his ankle.  MSU’s toughest defender also began to click on the offensive end and received the team’s Most Improved award.  Co-MVP Anderson emerged as MSU’s vocal leader and took over the reins at point guard midway in the season.  Junior Jason Andreas and sophomore defensive specialist Tim Bograkos contributed as role-players, as did junior ball handler Rashi Johnson.

            Freshmen Maurice Ager, Paul Davis and Erazem Lorbek emerged as “Diaper Dandies,” in the vernacular of announcer Dick Vitale.  They accounted for 39 of MSU’s 76 points against Texas.  Davis and Lorbek made the South Regional All-Tournament Team.  Ager showed the ability to hit key baskets and has improved on defense.

            Credit goes to Izzo and assistants Brian Gregory, Mike Garland and Mark Montgomery, as well as grad assistant Matt Ishbia.  And next year, with the addition of two MacDonald All-Americans guards—Shannon Brown and Brandon Cotton—plus the state’s top post player, Drew Naymick, MSU’s future looks very bright, if not blinding.