The Spartan Nation Basketball Weekly

 Did a “Lost Summer” Help Produce This Slow Start? The Summer season has been a secret of success for Michigan State Basketball. The Spartans would not

 

Did a “Lost Summer” Help Produce This Slow Start?

The Summer season has been a secret of success for Michigan State Basketball. The Spartans would not have made 6 Final Four trips in the last 12 seasons without outstanding off season development from its players. While the Summers of 2008 and 2009 helped propel MSU to consecutive Final Fours, the Summer of 2010 has presented the most serious threat to a season’s success in years.
Spartan Nation asked Tom Izzo about the importance of developing in the off season, and just how much of this team’s struggles are rooted in what was a discombobulated and tumultuous summer. “We'll I think that's the million dollar question at this point,” Izzo conceded. “In whatever (sport) it is, teams are made in the seasons, but players are made in the off seasons.”

Last Summer, too many Spartans missed too much time for this team to live to up its early National Championship expectations. “(We had) five or six players that missed two months or more this summer, and three or four of them (including) Lucas and Byrd, missing 6 or 7 months, including some of the fall and spring,” Izzo recounted. “(Summer development has) always meant to me that players are made in the off season, and if you don't get better as a player then it's hard to get better as a team.”

It also been said that a lot has to go your way to reach a Final Four or win a National Championship. Not much has gone the Spartans’ way this year, and very little went their way over the course of the “Lost Summer.” Yet, expectations for this team were already established as the 2010 Summer struggled on.

“The expectations (nationally) were set, again, before (the injuries and) a Chris Allen left….There's nothing wrong with high expectations,” Izzo believes. Though pre-season expectations should be long in the rearview mirror at this point, Izzo does not think this team’s talk of a “National Championship of bust” has hurt them to date, or caused them to press. “This team should be able to handle that (expectation) when it's been to two Final Fours, and I welcomed it,” Izzo admitted before the dismissal of Korie Lucious. “I didn't necessarily think we were a “Top 2” team, but I thought we were still a “Top 15 team," and I think we still can be…we're making some progress, it's just slow.”

No matter what happens during the remainder of this rocky 2011 campaign, Spartan Nation can only hope and expect that next year will get off to a much better start with a much better Summer.

Two Players Taking Ownership Roles

Delvon Roe (Jr. F) got off to a slow start in the 2010-2011 season. Coming off yet another knee surgery, Roe hoped to finally be healthy enough to play like the player Tom Izzo “recruited” in his final two College vseasons. The player Izzo recruited was considered by many to be a Top-5 National prospect before his Senior year of High School. Now mid-way through his College Junior season, Roe’s career is taking a new shape.

“I think Delvon Roe is putting himself in a position to maybe be a Defensive candidate for Player of the Year in our league,” Tom Izzo recently told Spartan Nation. After a disappointing start, which included a really difficult night at Duke, Roe realized his niche on this team would be based around Defense, and of course Rebounding. Since that epiphany, Roe’s effectiveness has steadily increased.

“It was a couple weeks ago when he came to me and said, “Coach, I think I can make a niche here,” Izzo recalled. Since Roe took ownership of his role on this team, the Spartans have been a better team. “He has certainly done an incredible job on a (John) Schurna (Sr. F NW), or even a (Jon) Leur (Sr. G, Wis.), he did a pretty good job on…He has definitely stepped up.”

Spartan Basketball is getting more out of Roe’s transformation than just its staple “Defense and Rebounding.” Roe’s initiative is the exact kind of leadership this bunch has lacked, and sorely needs to have any chance of reaching their potential.

Another Spartan who’s recently carved out his role while also displaying additional leadership is Freshman Guard Keith Appling. While it’s a bit rare for a Freshmen Guard to play such a key role at Michigan State, it’s not completely unprecedented. Spartan Nation need only think back to the early back court contributions of Kalin Lucas (Sr. G), Drew Neitzel, and even back to Charlie Bell, a Spartan legend that Appling’s already been compared to.

“After Wisconsin, the guys started calling him “Charlie Bell,” Izzo explained. “There’s no doubt that Keith Appling is one of the best Freshmen Defensive players, and his forte is Offense…so that could bode well for us in the future.” While Appling has earned minutes with his Defense and obviously has a long way to go to match the career of #14 (Bell), he’s pretty much bound to that comparison moving forward.

“Well, I didn’t ask him how he likes that (comparison to Bell). You’ve gotta remember now, Charlie was here 10, 11 years ago now, so Keith was only 8 years old,” Izzo joked. “That’s what you forget about quickly around here, but the players didn’t forget it. They understood what Charlie stood for, and how he made his niche early and then became a pro later on.”

Izzo even identified a couple of ways that “version 2.0” might be ahead of the old “Flintstone” icon. “I think Keith’s got two things that are really something. He’s actually got as good of quickness or better than Charlie, (though) not quite as big, but he’s probably tougher at the same age.”

For a program built on toughness, founded by the likes of Mateen Cleaves and Charlie Bell, Izzo’s praise for Appling’s grit is perhaps the most encourage aspect of his Freshmen year. “This kid is a tough kid that’s not afraid of anybody or anything.”

The Spot Up 3: Three Quick Points to Ponder

1. Korie Lucious’ dismissal Tuesday night will hurt Spartan Basketball, big time. Perhaps it hurts most because it was another self-inflicted wound. It wasn’t because of injury. It wasn’t because of the occasionally overbearing reach of the NCAA, and it wasn’t because of something outside of Lucious’ control. Whether or not others share in the blame and disappointment of his departure, Korie Luciousis the man ultimately responsible for the actions of Korie Luicous.
2. A few weeks ago we discussed how the only way this team would fix their issues was if the players themselves fixed it. Lucious’ dismissal doesn’t appear part of such a solution. If anything, it suggests this is a team coming apart rather than once again circling the wagons to coming together for the spring.
3. The last time we saw a post game hand shake like the one exchanged between Tom Izzo and Matt Painter Saturday night was probably in 2001 at Spartan Stadium when Lloyd Carr walked across a minefield of Wolverine implosion to extend one of the weakest attempts in the history of Homo sapiens to a thankful Bobby Williams.

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