Survive and advance: Michigan State 65, Saint Louis 61

I'm watching the end of the Purdue/Kansas game and rooting on the Boilers.  They've outplayed the Jayhawks and deserve to win this one.  I hope they can hang on. (After leading the entire game, the Boilermakers couldn't hang on and lost to Kansas, 63-60. Coach Painter and the Boilers appeared to lose their heads a bit in the last minute and fell apart. Robbie Hummel, a kid for whom I have tremendous respect, played his heart out. Purdue's loss was a major bummer--but still great that 25% of the Sweet Sixteen is from the Big Ten.).

What an ugly game played today between MSU and Saint Louis.  The Billikens make Wisconsin look like the "Showtime" Los Angeles Lakers.  Saint Louis was methodical, plodding, and defensive-minded, with a style of play that could charitably be called "extremely physical".  In short, it was not a fun game to watch.  The last 40 seconds of the game were particularly excruciating, but thankfully the Spartans managed to hang on for the victory.

It's a testament to how great Tom Izzo is as a coach that MSU, in the space of two days, was able to go from the "track meet" style of LIU hoops to the slog-it-out sludge of Saint Louis.  It's that type of flexibility that has allowed MSU basketball to be so successful throughout Izzo's tenure.

And even though Saint Louis' style was hard on the eyes, credit is due to Rick Majerus.  That guy is able to wring every last drop out of whatever minimal amout of talent he has.  The Billikens may not have the best players, but they certainly play hard.

My drink of choice for this particular MSU game, as I know you're all dying to know, was one bottle of Blue Moon consumed during the second half.  A few f-bombs were hurled as well.  Certainly the expletives shouted by yours truly in this game far exceeded those in Friday's LIU game.  Now, I need to get the blood pressure down for a few days in preparation for MSU's Sweet Sixteen game against Louisville on Thursday night.

It's nice to see that with these two tournament victories, MSU has evened its all-time record against both LIU and Saint Louis.  The Spartans are now 2-2 against LIU and 1-1 against Saint Louis.

So the Louisville Cardinals are MSU's next opponent. Louisville was a middle of the pack Big East team, but have been playing extremely well as of late.  They've won six straight with two impressive victories over ranked teams: 84-71 over Marquette and a 64-50 decision against Notre Dame.  Unlike some of the run-and-gun Louisville teams of the past, this one wins with defense and a full-court press (which has been Pitino's signature throughout his coaching career) that wears out many opponents. The Cardinals are led by speedy point guard Peyton Siva, and also have a somewhat flaky guard from New York named Russ Smith who has, shall we say, a complicated relationship with coach Rick Pitino.  Here's an interesting article about Louisville that appeared in today's New York Times.

I don't know if I'll be posting anything on this blog until Thursday, but we'll see.  In any case, lets all get some rest for a few days and I'll see you again on Thursday, March 22.  I'm now gonna unwind with the last three minutes of a hotly contested game between Cincinnati and Florida State.

A crazy day in the tournament

First off, so much for that LIU preview.  Life and work got in the way, plus the fact that my two kids seem to always be on our computers, so I wasn't able to get online. Not that it matters, if you really wanted a preview you should read Joe Rexrode in the Lansing State Journal or any number of other professional sportswriters who really know what they're talking about.

Could yesterday have possibly been more perfect from an MSU Spartan fans' point-of-view?  The afternoon really reached high drama early when the official "sexy" Final Four pick, Missouri, went down at the hands of Norfolk State.  I watched almost the entire second half of that game, and I was scratching my head wondering why Missouri was so highly lauded.  Not only did they play poorly, but they played stupidly.  I just don't understand teams that jack up three-point attempts early in the shot clock and have so many wasted possessions. Missouri is a quick team and did a good time of kicking the ball out to their wings, but otherwise I was not impressed with the way they approached the second half of that game.

Later on in the evening, Michigan lost to the real "Ohio", Ohio University--and within moments of Michigan's loss, Duke was defeated by (underrated) Lehigh.  Two of my most hated schools go down in flames within a half-hour of each other, I don't think life could possibly get sweeter from my perspective as a sports fan.

Finally, at 9:30, I poured myself a glass of the (highly unmanly) moscato, parked myself immediately in front of the television, and dug in for the MSU/LIU game.  As expected, the experienced Blackbirds gave the Spartans a battle and did a great job of hanging with the Spartans for the first half, and the initial couple minutes of the second half, but MSU's defense stiffened in the second half--and LIU had absolutely no answer for MSU's big men, Nix and Payne (and I'll throw in Draymond Green, as well).  According to their roster, LIU doesn't have a player taller than 6' 7", and MSU has six players taller than 6' 7".  MSU took advantage of that mismatch and it seemed that LIU just gave up trying to defend the paint as the game progressed.

I have two brackets going: one for what I think will happen, and one for what I hope will happen. I went 25-7 in my "intelligent/analytical" bracket and 28-4 in my "emotional" bracket.  Isn't that the way it always goes?

Next up for MSU: Rick Majerus and the St. Louis Billikens.  The Billikens are a bigger team than LIU and play a much slower style.  They sound similar to Wisconsin.  It should be an interesting tussle between MSU's big men and those from St. Louis.