MSU vs. Butler Scouting Report and Prediction

Indianapolis, IN The Spartans head into today’s match up with the Butler Bulldogs as the underdog. What you have to remember with odds makers is something I

Indianapolis, IN

The Spartans head into today’s match up with the Butler Bulldogs as the underdog. What you have to remember with odds makers is something I have said on our site numerous times. My good friend Phil Steele is the best at setting odds in college football and he told me once, “Vegas doesn’t make odds based on what they think the outcome will be like I do. They make the odds based on what moves betting.”

Sure Butler comes in on a 24 game winning streak. Sure Butler has two certain future NBA players. Sure Butler has a good coach and a great record. Sure Butler has the home court advantage…BUT…they still have to play the Spartans.

Butler is an abysmal 148th in the nation in three point field goals. Did you know that? I was stunned as I sat in the media center here at Lucas Oil Field yesterday listening to alledged experts talk about the 3 point threat of the Bulldogs. Here is a conversation with a national pundit.

PUNDIT doing a radio interview on a cell phone: I just don’t think the Spartans have the weapons to stop the Butler guts and grind it out tactics and stop them from the three. (Hangs up)

Hondo:Â Would you mind telling me if you were kidding?

PUNDIT:Â What do you mean?

Hondo:Â Your three point threat observation on Butler?

PUNDIT: they have always been deadly from the three. Maybe you just haven’t seen Butler over the years?

Hondo: maybe you are too busy thinking how smart you are, because you are either blind or you are the one who doesn’t watch Butler. They are 148th in the country and they are not a three point threat. Perhaps you mean the old Butler teams such as Thad Matta who now coaches at OSU in case you didn’t know or maybe Todd Lickliter who is no longer employed. They shot the three effectively, but not now.

I get frustrated with people who make ignorant and simplistic predictions that amount to nothing more than the team who scores the most wins. Izzo even made a joke about those type of comments yesterday when we spoke about it. “Our plan will be to keep them scoreless so at least we can get a tie,” we had a good laugh with that Izzo classic.

Butler is a good team. If they weren’t playing the Spartans I would be rooting for them. With that being cleared up, they are playing the Spartans and their season ends tonight.

Each and every season the Spartan Nation has an meltdown when Tom Izzo has some early losses. He plays essentially the same schedule each year so that his team can follow the lead of the Apostle Paul when he wrote the Corinthian Church and said, “Be all things to all men so that by some means they can win some.”

Izzo’s teams can run with Maryland and battle it out with Butler. These Bulldogs are tough and play defense. They haven’t exactly faced a team with the discipline of the Spartans. In this 24 game winning streak they have beaten Kansas and Syracuse, but in both games those two more talented teams we undisciplined and reverted at times to street ball rather than disciplined grind it out basketball. That is why BEFORE the dance I had neither in my Final Four as you can witness by checking the Spartan Nation bracket challenge.

The Spartans will not do that. Other than those two wins, the Bulldogs 24 game-winning streak came against perennial powers such as Detroit, Youngstown State and we can’t forget Milwaukee. Can you sense my sarcasm? While MSU was playing OSU, Wisconsin, Illinois and Purdue they played the junior circuit. They won, but the level of competition wasn't anything to crow about.  Likening their schedule to MSU's is like comparing Rosie O’Donnell to Farrah Fawcett.  The number looks good in the 'W' column, but so did the posters of Farrah Fawcett and Bo Derek that hung on every red blooded American boys door like my brothers Scott and Gregg.

I am not belittling Butler's coach or program.  I am stating the obvious.  They aren’t the reincarnated version of the run and gun Magic led Lakers. They are a good mid major program that has good talent and coaching, but they remain a mid major.

The Spartans will go right at Gordon Hayward. I would be shocked if the first play of the game isn’t an inside play that sets him on notice that MSU is coming at him. They won’t revert to street ball. They won’t fold like the French Army (AKA Kansas) when adversity comes.  MSU won’t collapse like the perennial under achiever and national overrated joke we in sports media know as Syracuse.

The Spartans mirror their coach. They are relentless. They are a like a wife with an agenda. They will nag you. They will harass you. They will needle you and when you can’t take it anymore they will do it again. Go up three? OK, they will just go on a 6-0 run.

Butler is a good team, but MSU is better.  MSU is deeper and they are better coached .  Make no mistake about it, this is the best coached team they have faced in the NCAA tournament in Butler, but they aren't the Spartans.  MSU started the season ranked number two nationally.  When the game is over, they will have lived up to their preseason ranking.

Raymar Morgan is on a mission. He is playing the best basketball of his career and he will have a dominant game. The Spartans defense is unlike anything Butler has played against. They are defensively a very intense team, but not like MSU. Whereas some teams brag about playing defense, MSU and Duke are the only two teams in this tournament that play it like they invented it.

Butler plays defense. MSU loves it. MSU craves it. MSU enjoys it. MSU embraces the non Sportscenter highlight producing part of the game that won’t make highlight tapes, but wins championships. Frankly, this team loves defense like a fat kid loves cake or a fat sports journalist likes donuts.

They remind me of a Rambo movie. While others look tough, they are the ones buried in mud, covered in leaches and thinking that life is perfect. This team craves the defensive battles. They are like Bear Grylls from Man vs. Wild. They eat things and do things defensively that will make Butler puke. Butler plays defense, MSU rolls in it and then covers themselves in it and rubs it in. They get more jacked for a great defensive stop then a dunk. They have morphed into the green giant that pundits long ago said they no longer were.

The Spartans are on a business trip. They aren’t thrilled to be here. They aren’t content that they have another banner and footprint. They want more. Butler has had an amazing run. Sure they can be kissed by destiny and hit everything. If any team left has a magical and improbable shooting night they will win it all. Sure MSU could go turnover crazy. Sure the Spartans could forget how to rebound and if those things happen they would lose.

If destiny stays out of this Final Four and lets the teams play, Butler’s run ends tonight. Make it MSU 67-59.