At the end of January, Michigan State looked like a very good basketball team. The Spartans were 19-2, had a big win over Texas on their resume, and seemed like a group of players who were going to be an awfully tough out in March.
And now it's March, and the Spartans don't look like a good team anymore. They went 3-4 in February, with home wins against Northwestern, Penn State and Iowa -- arguably the three worst teams in the Big Ten -- and losses at Penn State, Purdue, Indiana and Wisconsin.
And that means that, to the extent that there are must-win games in the early days of March, today's game against Indiana is a must-win. The Hoosiers have actually responded very well to the Kelvin Sampson mess and are riding a five-game winning streak. An Indiana win today would make it crystal clear that there are three solid teams in the Big Ten, and the Spartans aren't one of the three.
The Spartans are still 16th in RPI, so it's not like they're in any danger of missing the Tournament. But if this team has aspirations of more than just getting to March Madness, it's time for Michigan State to start playing like it.
This week, FanHouse is taking a way too early look at the top teams heading into 2007 with a BlogPoll decided on by our college hoops bloggers. It's a time-honored filler for the off-season, and who are we to buck tradition? Today we look at teams 10 through 6.
In terms of pure talent, Tom Izzo had one of his worst teams last season. And yet the Spartans, despite getting off to a rocky start to the Big Ten season, ended up in the tournament and even won their first-round game.
Don't expect many rocky times this season. With every major contributor to last year's team returning, there's no reason the Spartans shouldn't be a Sweet 16 team, and maybe quite a bit better than that.
The best and most important player is guard Drew Neitzel, who does everything for the Spartans. He's a good shooter, a good passer and a good leader. But he's far from all they have. With a couple of 6-foot-10 players up front in Goran Suton and Drew Naymick and a great rebounder in 6-foot-8 Marquise Gray, the Spartans will have the kind of physical inside presence that Izzo loves.
Although I wrote yesterday that I thought basketball coaches consider Kentucky an extremely attractive job, I'm not sure Izzo would want to leave. Michigan State pays Izzo a ridiculous amount of money (Izzo made more than $7 million in 2006), so it's hard to imagine he'd leave for financial reasons. And Izzo has turned the Spartans into one of the sport's elite programs. And the incoming recruiting class is strong. I understand why Michigan State fans are concerned, but I don't think Izzo is going anywhere.
Tyler Hansbrough put another page in the book which will be his North Carolina legend. The sophomore center ditched his face-mask in the 1st half of Carolina's game with Michigan State ... then went on to score 33 points and grab 9 rebounds to lead his Tar Heels to a 81-64 victory and a spot in next week's Sweet 16.
Hansbrough began the game with the mask on and made two of his first three shots of the game. He took his normal time to sit for a second, but re-entered the game with about 12 minutes left in the first half sans mask. He immediately went to work, hitting his first shot attempt, then attacked the rim with a few missed shots that he'd rebound and then was fouled. That really set the tone for this game. Hansbrough would hit 7 of his last 10 shots, hit 13 of his 17 free throws and kept Michigan State rotating foul-ridden big men to try to hold him down.
And it isn't all just stat stuffing he did. The Spartans were running Drew Neitzel off screens to great effect early on. Well, Hansbrough did an outstanding job showing on those screens and forcing Neitzel from putting up a good shot [if he even attempted one]. He also was a key member of a front line that limited easy baskets for the Spartans.
All that was made all the more bigger with frontcourt mate Brandan Wright hobbled with foul problems and just bad play.
The Tar Heels will play the winner of the tomorrows Texas-USC game next Friday.
Michigan State coach Tom Izzo's defense is patterned after another Michigan team. Former Detroit Pistons' coach Chuck Daly used the 'Jordan Rules' defense in the late 1980s-early 1990s en route to back-to-back NBA Championships. The defense was designed to limit Chicago Bulls star [and UNC alumn] Michael Jordan from driving the ball on them by physically beating him up. If it worked on Jordan, imagine what it did to the rest of the league's top wingmen.
Michigan State uses a strategy called "six eyes" to "shrink the gaps" in its defense and prevent dribble penetration. Izzo will leave shooters open on the perimeter because he believes a dribbler in the heart of the defense creates more havoc than an open jump shooter.
The Spartans have used this method to be one of the best defensive teams in the nation. They've allowed more than 70 points just twice this season and held Marquette to just 5 two-point baskets on Thursday night. It will be interesting to see if Michigan State can use this to slow down the high flying Tar Heels, who are one of the highest scoring teams in the nation.
The Tar Heels have struggled at times in the half court sets, despite having a point guard who can break nearly anyone down, premiere shooters in Wayne Ellington and Reyshawn Terry, plus a tall, deep frontcourt. One key for Michigan State will be their own offense. If they let UNC leak out and use their lethal fast break ... Michigan State will have no chance in winning.
Michigan State's is 11-1 under Tom Izzo in the second game of a weekend with one day of preparation.
Here's the headline from this morning's Durham Herald Sun previewing today's Michigan State-UNC matchup: "MSU a Team Full of Tylers." Yeah, I don't know if that should worry the Tar Heels or not.
The Spartans, always known as a tenacious rebounding team under coach Tom Izzo, takes "Psycho" to a new level when it comes to cleaning the glass:
Some coaches demand that their players go hard to the glass, but Izzo leaves his players no choice. Izzo said he invented the rebounding drill as a way to help his teams compensate for poor shooting.
"You know, five guys on the perimeter and five guys underneath," [point guard Drew] Neitzel said, explaining the drill. "Basically, it's full contact. There's no fouls and no out of bounds. You just go after it, and it's every man for himself. Sometimes we strap on football pads and things like that.
This self-made toughness has served the Spartans well, and the Tar Heels have a reputation for not being tough enough during their losses this season. Izzo's not so sure about such generalizations:
[Izzo] likens his current team's "war drills" to "powder puff football" and "kiddie cartoons compared to what it used to be" in past years. And to hear him tell it, sophomore Tyler Hansbrough is "a smashmouth player" who gives the Tar Heels all the toughness they need.
Fair enough. Hansbrough's been accused of a lot of things, but lacking toughness isn't one of them. But after "Psycho T," there aren't any UNC players who can impose their will in a goon-like fashion. That said, one Hansbrough -- masked or otherwise -- has been more than enough for the Tar Heels this season.
The CBS cameras stayed focused on Ibok's misshapen elbow long after it was clear what had happened. Commentator Jay Bilas had already diagnosed the injury as a dislocated elbow, and play-by-play man Dick Enberg said, "I think we've seen enough of that already," but CBS wasn't done showing it. Between closeups of the elbow and a subsequent replay, I think CBS may have made some viewers lose their dinners.
From the looks of his elbow, Ibok (pictured guarding Wisconsin's Alando Tucker in the Big Ten Tournament), who typically plays about 10 minutes a night, is almost certainly out for the rest of the tournament.
The Winston-Salem pod of the NCAA tournament will have quite the collection of teams this weekend. Whenever you can play host to North Carolina, Michigan State and Georgetown ... well, things are going pretty good. But bigger than the schools are the coaches that will be roaming the sidelines at the LJVM Coliseum.
UNC's Roy Williams, Michigan State's Tom Izzo and Texas Tech's Bobby Knight have won a combined five National Championships and 14 Final Fours. Add in Marquette's Tom Crean for another Final Four trip. Boston College's Al Skinner and Georgetown's John Thompson III are no slouches themselves. Belmont's Rick Byrd has won over 500 colliegate basketball games in his career in the NAIA and NCAA.
All this has to make Jeff Neubauer, the 36-yr old coach of Eastern Kentucky, in a bit of awe as a relative newbie on the scene. However, Neubauer was an assistant coach with West Virginia when they made their magical trek to the Elite Eight in 2005.
With Bobby Knight, you have the winningest coach of all time. With Roy Williams you have the coach with the highest active winning percentage and his teams have won at least one NCAA tournament games in 18 straight seasons. Wtih Tom Izzo, you have the guy who is 23-8 all time in the NCAA tournament, 3rd among active coaches. With Tom Crean, you have an Izzo disciple who is building something pretty great at Marquette.
It also sets up some great coaches newconferences that you could only get in a Final Four type setting. Imaging clearing out the room as the "aw shucks" Roy Williams leaves and the, well, let's say fiesty Bobby Knight moves in? And how will the Izzo-Crean love fest go as they've worked together before and recruit in the same area?
Conference: Big Ten Record: 22-11, 8-8 in conference RPI: 23 How They Got In: At large.
Mascot: Spartans. Sparty the Spartan appears at weddings and bar mitzvahs, and he was voted "buffest mascot" by Muscle & Fitness magazine.
Big Wins: It was the Spartans' victory over Wisconsin last month that clinched their spot in the tournament. They also beat Texas on a neutral floor in November.
Notable Loss: A 62-60 loss at Iowa in the Big Ten opener is the only particularly bad loss on the Spartans' schedule. Player You Should Know: Junior guard Drew Neitzel does everything for the Spartans. He's a good shooter, a good passer and a good leader.
Outlook: In terms of talent, this is one of Tom Izzo's worst teams. But Izzo is a good enough coach that even in down years, he manages to get his team to play well. The Spartans have a good chance of winning their first-round game, but advancing to the Sweet 16 is probably more than we can expect.
We've all just been assuming that Michigan State is a lock to make the tournament ever since the Spartans beat Wisconsin in February. But look a little closer at the Spartans' season and try to get into the heads of the members of the selection committee. Can you say for certain that Michigan State is in?
Consider, for instance, that the Spartans went just 8-8 in the Big Ten this year and lost in the second round of the Big Ten tournament. The Big Ten was a good but not great conference this season. Is a .500 record and a second-round tournament exit in a good but not great conference a guarantee of a spot in the NCAA Tournament? Purdue and Illinois both went 9-7 in the Big Ten and are both still alive in the tournament, and they're both considered on the bubble, although Michigan State drew a tougher Big Ten schedule than either Illinois or Purdue.
Also consider that after yesterday's loss to Wisconsin, Michigan State has now lost seven of its last 12 games, while Illinois and Purdue are both playing their best basketball at the right time. And Purdue crushed Michigan State in the one game the teams played head-to-head.
Michigan State played a good non-conference schedule, and the Spartans' RPI, at 21, is solid. That's why no one is talking about Michigan State as a bubble team. But maybe we should.
At the end of January, Michigan State looked like a very good basketball team. The Spartans were 19-2, had a big win over Texas on their resume, and seemed like a group of players who were going to be an awfully tough out in March.
This week, FanHouse is taking a way too early look at the top teams heading into 2007 with a 
In East Lansing, folks seem a bit concerned that Michigan State coach Tom Izzo could bolt for the vacant coaching job at Kentucky. Neither school is talking about it publicly, but 
Tyler Hansbrough put another page in the book which will be his North Carolina legend. The sophomore center 
Michigan State coach Tom Izzo's defense is patterned after another Michigan team. Former Detroit Pistons' coach Chuck Daly used the 'Jordan Rules' defense in the late 1980s-early 1990s en route to back-to-back NBA Championships. The defense was designed to limit Chicago Bulls star [and UNC alumn] Michael Jordan from driving the ball on them by physically beating him up. If it worked on Jordan, imagine what it did to the rest of the league's top wingmen. 
Here's the headline from this morning's Durham Herald Sun previewing today's Michigan State-UNC matchup: 
Michigan State sophomore Idong Ibok suffered an ugly elbow injury in the first half of the Spartans' NCAA Tournament game against Marquette. The injury had to remind anyone watching of 
Conference: Big Ten
We've all just been assuming that Michigan State is a lock to make the tournament ever since the 
