Newly Minted #1 Michigan State Spartans Have Unimpressive Win in Front of Unimpressive Crowd: 82-67

Breslin Center East Lansing, MI Six days ago MSU beat the number one team in the nation: the Kentucky Wildcats. Unofficially they took the #1 spot that night.

Breslin Center

East Lansing, MI

Six days ago MSU beat the number one team in the nation: the Kentucky Wildcats. Unofficially they took the #1 spot that night. Earlier today it was made official; the Spartans were named #1 in both the AP and the coach’s poll.

Tonight the newly crowned #1 team won 82-67 over Portland and frankly it wasn’t an elite game and the Breslin Center crowd wasn’t close to elite either.

With nearly 50% of the upper deck empty the Spartans played like a mid-major team that could barely get a crowd for the first 28 minutes. They shot an abysmal 35% in the first half. Tom Izzo said, “I can’t say I was thrilled with the first half.” MSU shot 53% in the second half.

When asked about the empty seats Izzo gave this emotional response, “(Long pause) Disappointment. Had effect on a lot of people including me. All I would ask is I have no problem if you don’t want to come to the game, but I have thousands of people that want to come. Those are bought tickets. Give them away. Give them to me, I will give them away.”

The bright spot was Keith Appling. He carried this team tonight finishing with 25 points and seven assists. He was a defensive juggernaut and was all over the court. The Spartans QB on the hard court had only one turnover.

When I told him of his point guard’s stats, Adreian Payne told me, “That’s great. That’s good, that what I am talking about right there. He is the man.”

Portland head coach Eric Reveno said of Appling, “He was really good and sometimes on tape when you’re playing a really good team like this you’re looking for things; you’re looking for weakness or things you’re making him up a little bit. He was really good and when he was shooting the ball like that it was really impressive. His ability to distribute the ball, make the right decision, shoot the ball and get up to the line was just really, really good. It was impressive. It was very good.“

Tom Izzo may not name captains this year, but Appling has seized the role. Izzo said, “You have to give a lot of credit to Keith. To me it was one of the greatest point guard performances in many years. He just did an unbelievable job defensively. He was worth the price of admission. I think he was phenomenal and I don’t use that word for many players.”

The man Izzo called, “the best player on the team,” Gary Harris, had some proud sentiments for the senior Appling. “It was a heck of a performance. He did it all. We look to him as our leader and as he goes we go.”

The shy Appling told me about his performance that, “I just wanted to come out aggressive. I was willing to do whatever I had to do to not let it (Last Friday’s game with Columbia) happen again. It just felt right and everything was in place tonight.”

The Spartans had 13 successful three point shots tonight after having non in an embarrassing win over Columbia on Friday.

Reveno said of the game, “Having the opportunity to see them (MSU) in real life they are much bigger in person. (It was a) great opportunity to play a team like this. Ranking is not a big deal, but such a well-coached program is. They do things the right way. Regardless of ranking it was an honor to compete with them.”

Izzo shook up the starting lineup. He had started Matt Costello at the five all season, but tonight he inserted Alex Gauna. Izzo said of the experiment that, “The best thing of the night was how Costello competed. He worked his butt off defensively.” He elaborated on how he might have to handle that position this year. “It’s going to be by committee. I thought Alex was good, not great and I thought Matt gave a lot more effort.”

Izzo also brought Branden Dawson off the bench, starting Denzel Valentine for him. Izzo told me after the game, “I wasn’t real happy with some of Branden’s effort in the last game, he knows that, he will be fine, but I was looking for something.”

The Spartans now head to Brooklyn, NY for the national semifinals and presumably the finals on Friday and Saturday of the Coaches vs. Cancer classic. They face Virginia Tech Friday and if they should win, and they should, they would take on the winner of Oklahoma/Seton Hall on Saturday night.

On top of Appling the Spartans had two other double digit scorers in Adreian Payne (15) and Gary Harris who added 15. The Spartans also had an unselfish 21 assists on 29 buckets.