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Thursday, November 30, 2000
Spartans' upside makes new faces contenders
By Andy Katz
ESPN.com
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EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Duke and Arizona -- with Loren Woods -- might end up being the best teams in the nation come March.
But their respective growth rates might not match Michigan State.
The Spartans are only skimming their potential, but they got reassurance Wednesday night that they have the personnel in place to defend their title with a convincing 77-64 victory over North Carolina at the Breslin Center in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.
"We definitely have a chance to win a national championship if we get the freshmen to learn the system," Michigan State senior guard Charlie Bell said. "We have the talent, the athletic ability. Duke's a great team but we've got just as good a chance to win a championship."
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This win lets us get our own identity. We've been living off the past and we love what they did but these guys needed our own identity, to be our own team. We can be better. ” |
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— Tom Izzo,
Michigan State head coach |
The difference between Michigan State and Arizona and Duke at this point is the Spartans' top two reserves are freshmen. But the two new faces might end up being two of their three most talented players.
McDonald's all-American freshman forward Zach Randolph is still trying to feel his presence in the paint. When he was on the floor for 18 minutes Wednesday night he didn't miss a shot. Really. He was 4-for-4 from the field and got to the line for four more free throws, while also grabbing nine rebounds. Meanwhile, his fellow fast-food all-American Marcus Taylor came off the bench to provide a more potent playmaker.
Taylor didn't shoot well, making only 3 of 10 shots, but he dished out five assists and had only one turnover in 22 minutes. More than that was his Spartan moment when he dove on the court for a loose ball when North Carolina freshman Brian Morrison stumbled. Taylor had his carpe diem for the semester when he stayed with the loose ball and flung it ahead to Bell for a fast-break layup.
"Coach talked about who was going to dive on the floor for a loose ball before the game," Taylor said. "We had been watching film of last year's championship and we realized how hard they worked. We've got young players, veterans too, and we're only scratching the surface of what we can be once we learn the game and the system."
The Spartans opened up the game by taking a 15-point lead early in the second half by constantly attacking Carolina's interior. Michigan State was all over the Tar Heels in the first half with only 11 of its 42 points coming outside the lane.
The Spartans assault in the lane is a credit to their activity and aggressiveness, something they had last year but not in this many ways. Andre Hutson can score posting up, with a turnaround jumper, or just running the floor like he did for 14. Aloysius Anagonye can add a few putbacks, Randolph can be automatic once he gets more reps, and no one can stop Jason Richardson once he gets going on the wing.
Richardson seems to have nets instead of hands when he's on the break. In one sequence against the Tar Heels, the 6-foot-6 sophomore caught a pass that was too far ahead of him with his left hand, balanced himself before falling out of bounds, and put the ball in with a right-handed reverse layup.
"They do a better job this year with their twos, threes and fours and fives sprinting up court," Carolina center Brendan Haywood said. "The best thing they did all night is get up court."
The Spartans had options last year with Mateen Cleaves, Morris Peterson and A.J. Granger -- but mostly from the perimeter. Everyone in the top seven this season is an option, and the eighth -- Adam Ballinger -- is still out with a broken wrist.
"We have better inside guys this year because last year it was just me," Hutson said. "This year we've got three or four guys inside who can score. We're getting double teamed now inside and the wings are getting open to kick it out for shots.
"We feel confident in our team," Hutson said. "Duke is a good team, but we feel once we cut down our turnovers (17 Wednesday), get our shooting down, work on our zone offense then we'll get better. This was a big test for us because we hadn't played a tough team like that."
What it did for the Spartans was give them a national stage to say they do belong with the elite again and a third Final Four appearance isn't out of the question.
Carolina's Jason Capel said the Spartans were essentially the same team that he saw last year, doing the same things like running the break and crashing the boards. The only difference he said was no Mateen or Mo Pete.
But, come March, the change of names to JR, Zach and Marcus could be just a new look with the same results.
"This win lets us get our own identity," Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said. "We've been living off the past and we love what they did but these guys needed our own identity, to be our own team. We can be better.
"Randolph and Marcus and Mike Chappell will hit some shots. We've had guys out of practice for two weeks and at this time losing practice kills you. But we'll be a better team in January."
So, too, will Duke and Arizona, but their growth rate might not climb as high.
Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.
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