It’s been a very up and down season for Michigan State basketball. Their #3 seed at very best, #4 seed likely, #5 seed at worst tournament resume of a college basketball season has led us to this: a five game season in which MSU has finally had everyone back healthy again. Starting with the 53-46 loss to the Illini, Michigan State basketball has had all hands on deck. Maybe not totally 100%, but well enough to be playing.
Keith Appling, Branden Dawson and Adreian Payne have all had major injury issues this year. They’re all healthy now. MSU is 3-2 thus far with having everybody in tow, all the boilers lit, full steam ahead.
I asked Michigan State basketball Coach Tom Izzo after the very convincing win over Northwestern and before the decisive win over Wisconsin, in the four games he’s had everyone back healthy, if he’s seen steady progress, or has it been like a stock market chart, up?and?down?
“We’ve been more of a stock market up?and?down to be honest with you,” Izzo said.
“I think the biggest key tonight was Keith. Your quarterback has got to play well, and I thought he pushed it better. You could still see, though, where he comes in and used to make those moves and just go around a guy and get it up, and he just is?? just hasn’t done it in so long that he’s not as comfortable. But he did push it. We begged him to push it all the time. He did guard very well. That’s the old Keith. So I think that is the biggest key. Branden, yes. A.P., we really didn’t get much out of A.P., but he’ll be there tomorrow. I’m not worried about A.P. I think if I had to look at it over the four games, where have I seen a little bit more improvement? The Iowa game, it was Keith that went down a little bit and made some turnovers and that in the Ohio State game, and tonight again he did some good things. We’re making some progress.”
Then, in the semi-finals, Michigan State basketball had a very decisive and convincing effort over the Wisconsin Badgers; who had been in the conversation to grab a #1 seed. They would have needed to beat MSU, and some then win today to at least be considered for that #1 seed. That’s not going to happen, but was yesterday the best win of the year for Michigan State basketball? They lost the only meeting with the Badgers earlier this season and no one else the Spartans have beaten this season are even remotely close to being considered a #1 seed. Therefore, yesterday was likely in fact the “signature win” for Michigan State basketball.
Yet it still wasn’t a total 40 minutes of hell (for the opponent) either. I also asked Izzo about that.
Q. Do you think today may have been the closest you came to playing a full 40 minutes?
COACH IZZO: “Honestly, no. The second half I did not think so. I know some of the reasons, but I think Wisconsin played better, too. I’m just going to take my ball and go home and be happy to be honest with you.
We’re getting closer to playing the way I’d like to see us play. We ran, we defended pretty well early. Probably the only negative that I see right now on this team is the fouling situation. We’re making some foolish fouls, A.P. is reaching and Gary Harris, we can’t make those kind of fouls.”
But hey Keith Appling and Denzel Valentine believe that Michigan State basketball: stock market up!
Paul M. Banks owns The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. An MBA and Fulbright scholar, he’s also a frequent analyst on multiple news talk radio stations. The former NBC Chicago and Washington Times contributor has also been featured on the History Channel. President Obama follows The Sports Bank on Twitter (@paulmbanks) you should too