Spartans Head into Big Ten Play 10-3, with an Identity yet to be Fully Defined

So the MSU non-conference schedule did not go exactly as planned. A gutty effort against Gonzaga produced the biggest win thus far, thanks to the talent and

So the MSU non-conference schedule did not go exactly as planned. A gutty effort against Gonzaga produced the biggest win thus far, thanks to the talent and experience edge coming off last year’s magical run. 

 

A planned revenge trip to Chapel Hill ended in yet another loss to those pesky Tar Heels, though probably more the fault of a scheduling quirk than the players’ effort. And the “mid-term” exam in Austin turned out to be the revenge date the Long Horns have craved for a couple years now, as they were finally able to get over on MSU.

So if you want to judge MSU’s performance in its “big” non-conference games thus far, they won the home date, and lost the two road games…against legitimate Final Four contenders. If you put it like that, maybe things aren’t that bad after all. The overall record isn’t too far off where Tom Izzo and company probably expected it would be, especially after the early season injury parade. But the record doesn’t tell the whole story.

The 2010 Spartans are not last year’s team. They are not the 2000 Spartans, not the ’01 Spartans, and hopefully not the ’06 Spartans. They have yet to carve too much of their own footprint in the East Lansing sand because their identity is still largely to be determined. And sure, that’s an obvious statement, considering the Head Coach just decided his team would be better off by practicing without Big Ten Player of the Year, All-American candidate, and team Captain Kalin Lucas, only days before the Big Ten opener. That’s not something that happens when a basketball team’s engine is running on all cylinders. But all that uncertainty and unsettledness is not necessarily cause for panic. It is, however, a cause for curiosity.

One of the most enjoyable things about college sports is watching players and teams develop before your eyes. It can happen dramatically throughout the course of season. In the Izzo era, Michigan St. basketball has been one of the best major college programs to follow because you can so clearly see his teams develop in time to peak for March Madness. So much of that development comes in the “off days” during the winter semester break, when time is available for individual and team practices that focus on what the Spartans are doing, rather than primarily preparing for the next opponent. While the Spartans looked up and down at times in their 87-68 victory Wednesday night over Texas-Arlington, they’re clearly still a work in progress.

This team knows the “real” season starts Saturday evening in Evanston. This is not your old “wax-ready” NW squad. They are well coached, and now very well versed in their unique offensive attack. They have also shown admirable resiliency to date (10-2, 0-1), after losing last year’s top scorer and rebounder Kevin Coble to a foot injury in early November. There are no “off nights” or “easy Ws” in the Big Ten these days. The conference was the best in the country last year, will be arguably the deepest again this year, and could be just as strong again in 2011. 

To make it back-to-back Big Ten titles, the Spartans will have to bring it every night, and prepare at an exhaustingly high level for each and every opponent. Any thought of a one or two loss Big Ten campaign, for any team, is probably foolish and unrealistic. Some have said as many as four or five losses could grab a piece of the title in 2010. Just about all of the conference’s top players return this season, though a few (Evan Turner of OSU and Coble of NW) are already out with injuries. The collective experience of the league’s returning stars will drive the league’s competition level to another level. 

It all makes for an exciting winter race, which really starts from the opening tip, since every game is going to play a role in the final standings. Purdue (12-0, 1-0) has appeared the most together Big Ten team to this point, though it’s hard to tell exactly what they are. The Boilers’ “notable” non-conference victories over Tennessee, Wake Forest, and Alabama, really don’t tell us too much because those teams probably couldn’t compete for the Big Ten crown. But Purdue does play West Virginia on New Year’s Day at Mackey Arena, and should show the college basketball world just how overblown and overrated the Mountaineers have recently been. 

MSU will obviously have to improve to contend for a second straight Conference Championship. That is not news to anyone in the Spartan Nation that has followed the program closely over the past couple of years. They are not yet playing to their potential, and have probably played further from it than even the more conservative of Spartan fans could have prophesized. 

Yet, the problems aren’t rooted in talent; we know much of what this team has. But the problems might be partially founded in expectations. Not to sound contradictory only a couple of sentences later, but some Spartans are now entering, or are already into their upperclassmen Big Ten seasons. To shed a little Bill Parcells’ philosophy onto the basketball court, maybe some of these players already are who they are. Maybe some won’t progress much more from here. Some may not end up as good as was once hoped, expected, or even relied on. 

I frankly don’t yet see anyone out there who is going to give Chris Hill or Shawn Respert a run for their shooting money. I don’t yet see someone on this team with the basketball savvy and dependability of Charlie Bell. Nor do I yet see a current Spartan running the court with the truly elite athleticism of a Jason Richardson. On and on we could go. But that’s not to knock any of these 2010 Spartans. It’s actually to say, let them develop and be who they are. Let them find themselves and each other as a team. Don’t hold them to the standard of imaginary and speculative expectations. 

It’s unfair, though predictable, that these Spartans would be compared to teams in the immediate and recent past. But it’s kind of ridiculous to hear people chatter on message boards and radio air waves that some players, who any team in the nation would take in a second, are a disappointment because they are not rewriting the MSU record books and assuring themselves a “lottery” pick in the next NBA draft by mid-season. Heavily drinking the Green Kool-Aid can occasionally lead to skewed view of basketball reality. The Spartan Nation should keep that in mind as we listen, read, and individually judge the performance of the 2010 team.

I don’t yet have the concerns about this team that I had in say 2006, when the Spartans looked too often like they would simply try to “flip the switch” when the tournament games began. We all know that ended up with one of the softest and flattest NCAA performances of the Izzo era, as the Spartans were the first step in the George Mason “Hoosiers” epic Final Four run. 

As we begin the Big Ten season, this team appears to be struggling to find its identity, not struggling to find the desire and effort. Perhaps that’s to be expected, as its Head Coach predicted the Spartans would miss “program guys” like Travis Walton and Goran Suton, who shaped the past year’s mold. Those kind of voids aren’t filled over night, and perhaps it was premature to think they’d be filled before the heat of a Big Ten season. While the Spartans seem to know what they want to do at times, they don’t all appear to be on the same page yet about just how to do it. 

Offensively, they have yet to consistently operate in a predictable half court flow, as some past teams have done. Sure they can run, and run well. But in the half court, it’s not as if you can always see the set develop, know the ball is going down to a Suton or Davis (as past reference), and then expect it will work out and around to the wing for an open look, for example. That consistency and predictability will arrive only if this team, to a man, can begin to further accept and embrace their specific roles. If a half court set is going to run through Green or Morgan down on the block, for example, everyone has to buy into that and play their game from that perspective. I’m not sure we’ve seen all the Spartans fully grasp their roles to this point. But to be fair to them, I’m not completely sure they’ve been totally defined yet. 

If there’s one thing we can count on from a Tom Izzo team, it’s that they’ll be put in position to play their best ball through the crux of the Big Ten season and into the NCAA tournament. No, the Final Fours are not actually on the schedule for Michigan State, but making a sixth in twelve years is a legitimate possibility. If you listen to Spartan fans on the message boards or radio shows, it sounds almost like it would be a disappointment if they didn’t make the trip back to Indy. That is probably a ridiculous expectation, but probably better to have that type of expectation than any other kind. 

Sure, the Spartans need to sure up their 3-point defense this winter. And make other technical and strategic adjustments. But finding their team identity and committing to it, man for man, may be thekey to another shot at early springtime glory. The Spartans must collectively show the discipline to play within themselves individually, and within their overall team concept. They must also find a better way to take what each game gives them, and not press and flutter into a state of desperation. Playing desperate, which is not to be confused with playing with urgency, is a sign of a team in search of its identity. And make no mistake, there’s again very little margin for error going forward. Everyone in the league will again come gunning for MSU. Grasping their identity quickly is essential to the Spartans’ 2010 success.   

Every year is different, and every team unique. As their Big Ten season starts Saturday in Evanston, the search for this team’s true identity shifts into high gear. There is no hiding from that. It will emerge whether the Spartans like it or not. But while they’ve struggled with their identity thus far, the Spartan Nation does have reason to expect they’ll begin to find it and embrace it from here. They need only look back at past season’s footprints in the East Lansing sand, and to the Head Coach that guided each unique group though their path to self discovery. Let the evolution begin.