Ready or not, here comes the postseason

With a 23-8 regular season record and a 12-6 third place finish in the Big Ten, it's strange to say that this has been a disappointing season for Michigan State mens basketball--but it has been.

Where does one start to explain the nature and full extent of this disappointment? Let's go down the list:

Injuries. Injuries were certainly an issue and not an excuse, no matter what critics may say. Adreian Payne, Keith Appling, Matt Costello, Branden Dawson, and Travis Trice (am I missing anyone?) all missed significant time this season, and mainly when it was the most felt--in the conference season. The constant injury problems made it impossible for MSU to get a rotation going or to develop any chemistry on the floor.

That other school down the road. Michigan won the Big Ten title, and that makes this third place finish even more difficult to swallow, certainly from a fan's perspective. If any other Big Ten team had won the title, it wouldn't be nearly as painful. But not only does it kill me that Michigan won the title, but they swept the regular season series from MSU.

Unfulfilled expectations. This reason for this particular strand of disappointment is tied very closely to the injury situation. Before the bottom fell out health-wise, MSU had an 18-1 record and looked for all the world like the front-runner for Big Ten champion and a national title run. This is what many expected before the season and these looked like very approachable goals.

Occasional lapses in focus and/or energy. This has been a problem all season, dating back to nonconference games against teams such as North Carolina and Cornell. Sometimes, for whatever reason, the Spartans seem to lack energy and focus. They just don't get after it with dogged determination of previous MSU basketball teams. This continued in lackluster performances against Georgetown, Nebraska, and Illinois. I doubt that there is a switch that can be turned on to make these guys play with 100 percent effort every game, but if there is, it needs to be found immediately.

So now the Big Ten tournament has started, and I have somewhat low expectations for MSU. It's not that I don't think the Spartans could have a great conference tournament, and a great NCAA tournament, it's just that the likelihood of this happening seems slim. The flicker of light comes from the fact that the team is finally healthy and at full strength from a personnel standpoint. But I don't know if the team has had enough time to gel as a unit. Chemistry, more than raw talent, is the most important aspect of basketball and I question whether MSU will be able to achieve chemistry in time for a successful postseason run.

One last parting shot. If any coach in America (besides Mike Krzyzewski, perhaps) can get a basketball team rolling in the postseason, it's Tom Izzo. I've learned that one can never count out the Spartans as long as Izzo is at the helm. One dismisses or forgets about Coach Izzo at ones peril. And would there be anything much sweeter than an MSU win in the Big Ten tournament, defeating the likes of Wisconsin and Michigan along the way? Only a national title could be better.

Maybe this team has a pulse? (and some other stuff)

The Spartans won a pivotal game last night at Breslin, a game that I contend they HAD to have. Granted, the victim was Iowa, a team that has been struggling mightily of late, but so have the Spartans. Iowa and MSU traded baskets for most of the first half, but the Spartans completely dominated the second half en route to locking up a bye in the Big Ten tournament and clinching at least a 12-6 record in conference play.

Now, I've heard some people downplay MSU's win over Iowa, and while I won't argue that the Hawkeyes have a great team, consider the alternative. A loss last night, in the final home game of the season, on senior day--for a team that is already struggling--would have been potentially devastating.

So I guess the question is, where do the Spartans go from here? It finally looks like the team is reasonably healthy and is at least in the process of gelling as a unit, which has been impossible for the last several weeks with all the nagging injuries this team has endured throughout the conference season. But how far MSU basketball goes from this point is impossible to say. Maybe it will help that, to a certain extent, the Spartans have fallen off the radar. Perhaps the pressure to succeed won't weigh too heavily on them. Also, maybe the difficulties and disappointments they've experienced this season will actually help to strengthen them heading into the postseason. Who knows? I wouldn't be surprised to see MSU make the Final Four, yet on the other hand I wouldn't be entirely shocked to see them bow out in the first round.

***

Coaching in the Big Ten this season is as good as I remember it being since at least the 1980s, when Jud Heathcote, Gene Keady, Lou Henson, and Bob Knight were prowling the sidelines. John Beilein may be the best Michigan coach since Johnny Orr and has done a brilliant job with the Wolverines. Tim Miles has brought a youthful vigor to Nebraska and has done marvels with that program. No matter who his players are, it's almost a guarantee that Bo Ryan will have the Wisconsin Badgers in the upper half of the Big Ten, defying everyone's expectations. And what more is there to say about what Tom Izzo has done over the last 19 years at Michigan State.

But the list of great Big Ten coaches goes on: Thad Matta always has Ohio State competing at a high level, Tom Crean has reinvigorated Indiana (though I'm sure he, along with nobody else, will ever equal Bob Knight in the eyes of Hoosier fans); Minnesota's Richard Pitino may look a lot like Chatsworth Osborne III from the old Dobie Gillis show, but he's an up-and-coming coach who employs the full-court press with the same fervor as his dad; and newer coaches like Pat Chambers (Penn State) and Chris Collins (Northwestern) have taken bottom feeder programs and at least raised them to the level where a game against them isn't practically a guaranteed win. So what I'm getting at, in a long-winded fashion, is that it's more difficult to win in the Big Ten than it has been in a long time.

Congratulations to Suzy Merchant and the MSU women's basketball team

Suzy Merchant has been a head basketball coach in the collegiate ranks for 19 years, coaching Saginaw Valley State (1995-1998), Eastern Michigan (1998-2007) and Michigan State (2007-present) . In that span, her teams have never had a losing record in either overall record or conference play. That is an impressive record (which coincidentally is matched by Tom Izzo).

Last night, her MSU Spartans won a share of the Big Ten regular season title. It is Coach Merchant's second conference title with the Spartans and the fourth conference title of her impressive career. (She won two Mid-American Conference titles with EMU in 2004 and 2006. Her first Big Ten title with the Spartans was in 2011).

I spend an inordinate amount of time hand-wringing about the MSU men's basketball team, but not enough time discussing the great job Suzy Merchant has done here in East Lansing. Coach Merchant, along with her great senior leaders Annalise Pickrel and Clarissa Bell, and dazzling freshman Aerial Powers (perhaps the greatest sports name in history) have had a sensational season and I am here to sing their praises. Best of luck to them in the Big Ten tournament and the NCAA tournament.

Resignation

I haven't posted since before the Michigan game, and things have gone downhill since then, reaching a nadir when MSU inexplicably lost to Illinois at home.

 

I don't know where MSU hoops is headed the rest of the season, but at this point the immediate future looks bleak. I don't want to completely give up hope, because there is still time left in the season, there are still games left to be played, and the health and cohesion of the players is still a real issue, but I am concerned about the direction this team is headed.

 

The Spartans play Iowa on Thursday, March 6, for what is the final home game of the season. I am willing to reserve judgment of this team until that game is played. If Michigan State can find a way to win, then maybe they have turned a corner and there is hope. But a loss to the Hawkeyes could be devastating.

The Michigan game is upon us

This is the third time I have tried to write this. I started writing on my phone, forgot to save it, went to do something else on the phone, and lost everything. I attempted a second try, and saw that, finally, a computer was free in our house. So here I am...

Today is the big day. Heart Attack Special Day. The culmination of what of one of our local Lansing sports talk show hosts David "Mad Dog" DeMarco calls "Prozac Week."

Bitter rivals Michigan State vs. Michigan in basketball: round two.

Can Michigan State continue the torrid shooting they displayed against Purdue on Thursday night? Or do they revert back to the "brick fest" of the Wisconsin and Nebraska games? Somewhere in the middle should be just fine, as far as I'm concerned. On the other side of the floor, does Michigan shoot the ball like they did in East Lansing last month? If so, it could be a season sweep for the Wolverines and I don't know how I'll take that. Probably not well. I may go into seclusion until the start of baseball season. (Tongue somewhat in cheek, there).

One fact I do know is that Michigan State is healthier than they were the first time these teams went at it this year. Winning basketball teams rely in synergy, and Branden Dawson had injured his hand only two days before MSU and Michigan played at Breslin. The Spartans had no time to prepare for life without him, had to scramble to put together a new patchwork rotation, but still played admirably in that game despite the circumstances, only losing by 5 to a team--the Wolverines--whose shooters were on fire that night.

Keith Appling is healthier and seems to almost have all of his strength and conditioning back. The same can be said for Adreian Payne. For both guys, this is may be their last shot at Michigan. I fully expect both of those players to give everything they have today. The bigger question may be what the other players like Valentine, Harris, Trice, Costello, and Kaminski bring. I can't answer that because I don't know. I hope they feed off the energy of Appling and Payne and the Spartans come away with a win. I hope that Valentine continues to play with the maturity he has shown in recent weeks, I hope that Harris shoots the way he did against Purdue and not Wisconsin.

I have to take a moment here and say that Michigan basketball is back, as if there was any doubt. The University of Michigan has far too many resources and history to continually field a weak basketball team. It just took the Fab Five scandal to be far enough away in the rear view mirror, and for Michigan to find the right coach in John Beilein. Believe me, I enjoyed the days when the Spartans beat the Wolverines in basketball like a rented mule, but those days are over for the foreseeable future.

Back to the game: I hope the Spartan basketball team can get some payback in Ann Arbor and that I and the rest of Spartan Nation can wake up with a spring in our step on Monday morning.

At what point do we become concerned?

It's natural for a team to not bring it's "A" game all the time, but yesterday's MSU loss to Nebraska at home was shocking. And from my observation, it appears that the Spartan basketball team has lacked consistent focus for the last few weeks. But really, one could go all the way back to early in the season--with nail-biters against the likes of Columbia--and see that this team is prone to lapses in focus and energy.

Yes, I know that injuries are still an issue for MSU, and that Nebraska has improved over the last half-dozen games or so, but that doesn't make yesterday's loss much less surprising, particularly in light of what MSU had to gain by coming out strong and winning.

I'm trying hard not be the stupid, myopic sports fan here. There's no doubt that MSU's consistent excellence in hoops throughout the last 17 years tends to spoil us, and we begin to believe that winning, particularly in Breslin Center. is virtually automatic. Well, it's not. And when your opponent outworks you and outhustles you, like Nebraska did yesterday, you will lose--even in your own building. It's easy as a fan to focus all of your attention on what your own team did wrong and forget that there is an opponent who wants to win just as badly, and Nebraska was the hungrier team.

After Wisconsin, I was still convinced that if the Spartans ever got healthy again, they'd be a Final Four team. Now, I don't know that they'll ever get healthy and I'm beginning to question how far this team can go in the tournament. Maybe not as far as I originally thought.

Wisconsin thoughts

We're moments away from tip-off of the Wisconsin basketball game at the Kohl Center in Madison and Keith Appling is out of the lineup. Will this team ever be at full strength?

 

Even without Appling, the Spartans are a better and more talented team than the Badgers. That doesn't necessarily translate into a victory, particularly on the road against a potentially desperate team.

 

Okay, the game has tipped off. Go Green!

---

We're at the first media timeout and the score is deadlocked at 14.

 

I don't know that I've mentioned how much I like Alvin Ellis III. He's developing into a very good player.

---

Badgers up 25-22 and the Spartans can't hit the broad side of a barn.

---

Wisconsin 60, Spartans 58

 

Well, that was not the desired result. I'm sitting here nursing a Samuel Adams Harvest Pumpkin Ale and contemplating the game and typing this entry from my phone, since I don't have a computer nearby.

 

Considering how poorly the Spartans shot the ball, and the bummer of no Appling, it's astounding that MSU only lost by two points.

 

I still remain convinced that if this team ever gets fully healthy, they are national title contenders.