Written By Sam Ekstrom
On Thursday, the 26th of February, the Gophers traveled to Michigan State for what many assumed would be a Spartans’ cakewalk. Minnesota – losers of three straight, going nowhere in the postseason, undergoing a major slump in Richard Pitino’s “sophomore” coaching season – hadn’t won in East Lansing since 1997 when the Gophers were committing academic fraud.
As a nine-point underdog, Minnesota trailed by five points at halftime and seemed doomed when trailing by six with just over 30 seconds left. But then Carlos Morris made a 3, Joey King got fouled on a 3-point attempt and sunk three free throws, and Morris punctuated the comeback with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to tie the game and send it to an overtime session that Minnesota would dominate.
On Morris’s game-tying shot, he was fouled and sent to the line for a potential game-winning free throw. Though he’d eventually miss the freebie, you can hear the vitriol in this Breslin Center crowd video once Morris’ prayer sunk through the cylinder – and it wasn’t angst directed toward Gavin Schilling, the inexplicable fouler. It was aimed at Izzo – the man who’s engineered the third-longest active streak for NCAA tournament berths.
“[I]f guys would do their [expletive] job and do what they’re supposed to do, we wouldn’t have been in that position anyway,” said Izzo that night.
“It’s a sickening loss,” the coach continued following the 96-90 defeat, which only added fuel to the talk that Michigan State was experiencing a down season after losing Gary Harris and Adreian Payne from the 2013-14 team that earned a NCAA tournament No. 1 seed.
Many green-clad doubters inhabited “The Izzone” this year – Izzone being the slang term for Michigan State’s student section, ironically named for the coach undeservedly facing scrutiny. Early-season losses to Duke, Kansas and Notre Dame didn’t elicit too many panic button-mashers, but an overtime slip-up against Texas Southern of the SWAC put East Lansing on red alert.
Skeptics wondered how the Spartans could function without any top-notch NBA talent; how Izzo could lead a team to glory that was giving meaningful minutes to Schilling, Marvin Clark Jr., and Lourawls “Tum Tum” Nairn Jr. Most of their losses came against quality competition with the obvious exceptions of Texas Southern and Minnesota, but none of their wins were impressive enough to be considered signature. Only victories against above average Big Ten teams Iowa, Indiana and Ohio State might have caused a selection committee member to raise an eyebrow.
Sports Illustrated’s Brian Hamilton even featured the Spartans’ struggles in an early February piece that deemed Michigan State as “underachieving” and “ordinary.” Hamilton wrote, “To achieve the success to which it is accustomed, Michigan State needed players to make leaps they have not made, and believing that will occur over the final month and a half of the season is a leap of faith.” Hamilton also pointed out that the Spartans hadn’t lost their eighth game until the month of March each of the last three seasons. This year, they’d lost their eighth game on Feb. 7.
But for every over-reactor, there’s an antidote – Matt Hoeppner of theDetroit Free Press, in this case – who reminds us that Izzo’s teams have long dealt with premature critiques and repeatedly forced writers and radio personalities to swallow their pride and recant their doubts.
“The calendar turned over to the month of March, and as has happened so many times before, the Spartans started playing their best basketball of the year,” wrote Hoeppner, who points to 12 Sweet 16s, eight Elite Eights and six Final Fours as evidence for why Izzo should not be distrusted. Those numbers now sit at 13, nine and seven after Michigan State’s remarkable run – as a No. 7 seed – through the NCAA tournament’s first four rounds.
So how did the Spartans get to this point from Feb. 26 when they left their home court stunned by lowly Minnesota?
For one, the defense improved. Since nearly allowing the Gophers to hit the century mark, the Spartans have allowed opponents to score 70 or more points just twice in the last 10 games – and both those instances came in overtime games.
Senior Travis Trice has reached another level as a go-to offensive player after faltering against Minnesota with seven missed free throws. In the 10 games since, Trice has only scored fewer than 15 points once and has shot 76 percent from the charity stripe, including 89 percent in four tournament games.
As a team, the Spartans have gotten better at playing defense without fouling – presumably a point of emphasis after the team’s two costly fouls late in regulation against Minnesota. The squad’s 29 fouls against the Gophers that Thursday night set a season high. Michigan State has committed fewer than 19 fouls per game since then – a stark contrast from the undisciplined outburst against the Gophers.
But arguably the biggest reason for the Spartans’ turnaround is that nothing ever really changed. Sure, Izzo took his lumps with a handful of inexperienced players and fewer superstars to lead the way, but the same model of coaching consistency that engineered 15 of 18 20-plus win seasons was still in place.
Izzo teams subscribe to the marathon-not-a-sprint philosophy. Izzo teams play beefy non-conference schedules to prepare them for March; not January and February. And Izzo teams aren’t intimidated whatsoever by the lights of the NCAA tournament.
Since their unexpected loss to Minnesota, Michigan State has only been defeated by one team, Wisconsin, who beat them twice: once in the regular season and once in the Big Ten tournament in a thrilling overtime championship game. If Sparty can overcome a Duke-sized hurdle on Saturday (and Wisconsin can leap over a Kentucky-sized one later that night), there’s a chance that Izzo’s club will get a crack at taking down Wisconsin in their third and final battle of the season. It would be an unheralded all-Big Ten matchup that pits two coaches against each other with very similar philosophies.
Izzo and Wisconsin’s Bo Ryan aren’t always going to draw the nation’s best talent to the Upper Midwest, but with a formula for success firmly in place, they are going to put their team in a position to succeed. Every. Single. Year. Even in a “down” season, a team like the Spartans can take the tourney by storm because of their leadership. They can take a bad loss – like the Feb. 26 game against Minnesota – and use it as a launching pad instead of letting the wheels fall off.
Good work, Minnesota. You beat a Final Four team this year.
Sam Ekstrom is a staff writer for Cold Omaha at 105 The Ticket and a play-by-play broadcaster in Burnsville, Minn. Hear him on 105 The Ticket Sunday mornings from 8-10 a.m. on “The Wake Up Call.” Follow him on Twitter @SamEkstrom for further insights.