Couch: For this MSU team, Friday's NCAA tourney showing is a big deal
TULSA, Okla. – It’s true, as Tom Izzo said Friday night, that winning a single NCAA tournament game isn’t big deal for Michigan State’s basketball program.
Except that this one was a big deal. For this MSU team. For this group of players. For their Hall of Fame coach, too.
The Spartans’ surprising 78-58 waxing of Miami in the first round of the NCAA tournament Friday night might not be a so-called program win. But it was a heckuva team win, for this team especially, setting up a heckuvan opportunity — a shot at top-seeded Kansas on Sunday here in Tulsa and a chance for this MSU team to assert itself on the national stage.
“I wanted a shot at Kansas,” Izzo said bluntly Friday night.
He’ll get that shot, and he’ll get it with a team that, if it plays like it did for the final 30 minutes Friday, has a shot at an upset.
“I can’t think of anybody who didn’t play well,” Izzo said.
I think Izzo believes his guys match up favorably with the Jayhawks. And Friday’s effort showed him that his young squad might have reached a point where it can actually take advantage of that.
Kansas gives MSU a chance to regain the national attention that disappeared four months ago after Kentucky overwhelmed the Spartans in the Champions Classic in New York. Most of the country dismissed them then.
It’s Miles Bridges versus Josh Jackson, who nearly joined MSU’s freshman class. It’s two familiar programs. A clash of titan brands.
But that’s not why Friday was a big deal for MSU. Friday’s win will have its place regardless of what happens the rest of the way. It’ll matter down the road to Bridges. It’ll mean something moving forward to the rest of this young roster, most of which returns and has more NCAA tournament games in its future, likely with a better seed and higher expectations.
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It’s not just that they won in the NCAA tournament. It’s also how they won. The performance they delivered, and on a day when not everything went right.
“They responded. No matter what happens now, they responded,” Izzo said. “They’ve kind of proven themselves against a good, quality team that they could get down and bounce back.”
Friday will mean something to all of them — Izzo and his staff included. Four-plus months of persistent struggle resulted in a beautiful performance just in time. The joy and sense of accomplishment on the bench and in the locker room was palpable.
“That was as good a stretch as we’ve guarded,” MSU assistant coach Dane Fife said. “As (associate head coach Dwayne Stephens) said, (Miami) tried everything and we were ready for everything. I think we frustrated their guards. We just wanted to form a wall. ‘Win the paint’ was our mantra.”
MSU out-rebounded Miami 36-23, only allowed 17 free-throw attempts and scored 40 points in the paint to the Hurricanes’ 28.
“Nick (Ward), he knew, if we got beat on those ball screens, we’re going home,” Izzo said. He didn’t. So MSU is sticking around.
For a while, though, it looked like the Spartans in trouble.
This game had the makings of a disaster. Ward picked up his first foul on the opening jump-ball. It rattled him, which took MSU out of its game plan, which rattled the rest of the team.
“It messed with my head,” Izzo said. “I messed with his head. We had a lot of heads being messed with.”
Meanwhile Miami jumped ahead 17-5. Nine of those points came off Hurricane steals.
“(The game) flipped, I swear to God, when we told our team to stop throwing it to their team, because that’s how they were getting easy baskets,” Fife said.
MSU had seven turnovers in the first 9 minutes and five the rest of the way. Ward, whose first foul came at the 19:58 mark of the first half, didn’t pick up his second until there were 5 minutes left in the entire game and MSU led 70-49.
MSU hadn’t won a game against a decent team away from Breslin Center since Dec. 27 at Minnesota. Before that, late November against Wichita State in the Bahamas. So there was plenty of reason to wonder if the Spartans had it in them. No one anticipated this. At times, I forgot Miami was on the court — a Miami club that in the last seven weeks beat North Carolina, Duke and Virginia, a capable ’Canes team. MSU made them look inferior, sometimes invisible.
If Izzo and Co. tried to draw up the perfect game, Friday would be it. MSU’s four freshman tallied a combined 57 points, 19 rebounds, nine assists and committed only two turnovers. Bridges and Ward were the best of themselves. But, so, too were Cassius Winston and Joshua Langford. Winston changed and controlled the game during the Spartans’ late-first-half run. Langford, who’s battled unrealized expectations this season, made sure Miami never felt a sense of hope in the second half, scoring nine quick points on four shots out of the gate to extend MSU’s 11-point halftime edge to 49-32.
Izzo called it a “coming out party” for both Winston and Langford.
“That’s what it’s all about — you’ve got to learn how to make plays when it’s your time,” Langford said.
Matt McQuaid, Alvin Ellis, Kenny Goins — all of them stepped up. Again, that wasn’t a given. This was a sizable stage. And a horrible start.
“We were having visions of Middle Tennessee State (last year),” Fife said of Ward’s quick first foul and, a couple minutes later, a banked 3-pointer by Miami’s Bruce Brown for a 10-0 Hurricanes lead. “You just felt like, ‘This is going to be a long night. We’re not out of the game. But it’s going to be a dragging, painful game for us.’”
Instead, it became the high point of a season that’s been no picnic. A team that’s plowed through injuries and diminished confidence, growing pains and slow growth, beat the tar out of slightly favored ACC opponent in the NCAA tournament. The Spartans put it all together at the perfect time.
For them, that’s a big deal.
“It’s rewarding,” Izzo said.
Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch.