Tom Izzo Does Things the Right Way

Did You Pick the Spartans? Selection Sunday came and went. I sat in my living room as the seedings were announced. As I kicked back on my leather couch, I

Did You Pick the Spartans?

Selection Sunday came and went. I sat in my living room as the seedings were announced. As I kicked back on my leather couch, I saw the #5 seed grace my TV screen and promptly yelled some words fitting of a 2 am bar fight. A number 5? Really? For the co-champion Big Ten Spartans? What a crock I thought as I hammered out the speed dial to discuss the situation with my brother. The Big Ten never gets any respect. Maybe that’s exactly what our Spartans needed to wake-up from their slumber.

I had a hard time believing that Coach Izzo and his Spartans would take their five seed lying down. I listened to every idiot on TV and every out of touch moron with an opinion rattle on about the Big Least Conference. If anybody mentioned Michigan State it was to talk about their first round Big Ten tourney loss or to bring up the Chris Allen one game whoopty-do suspension.

If more coaches kicked a player out of a practice or a game on occasion, they too might dance on the third weekend of the tournament. The story isn’t six Final Fours in twelve years. The story is about the method by which the man at the helm makes it happen.

I look at Tom Izzo’s brand of basketball and marvel at everyone else’s inability to emulate it. It starts with the basic premise that you out rebound, out hustle and out defend your opponent. While other coaches load up on the one and done Mickey D’s All-Americans, Izzo sprinkles a few into his roster and then keeps them three or four years.

Rebounding is a mentality. It is about toughness. It is about desire. It is truly what separates the men from the boys. Rebounding is the equivalent of running the football. The ESPN highlights during football season are usually the huge catch or the run that gets ripped off for forty-plus yards to pay dirt. However, it is usually the team that runs the ball consistently for five yards a pop and defends the run that wins the game. It isn’t a whole helluva lot different than a Tom Izzo basketball team.

Hustle is about giving up your body for loose balls and helping teammates on defense. It is putting the result of the play ahead of your body. When you wear a green uniform, hustle is indoctrinated into your brain the moment you unpack your bags and walk through the doors of the Breslin Center. It is just another one of the many reasons you put Tom Izzo’s team in your Final Four year in and year out.

When it comes to defense, nobody measures up to the Big Ten Conference. Michigan State and its Big Ten brethren get a bad rap for being ‘slow-it-down’ teams. It is hogwash. Wisconsin is a ‘slow-it-down’ team, but much of the rest of the Big Ten is happy to play up-tempo when they can. The reality is that defense and discipline are staples in the Big Ten Conference and MSU is the gold standard.

When you play two conference games year in and year out against the best collective group of conference coaches in the country, it is hard to score easy baskets. Find five coaches in any conference better than Izzo, Matta, Painter, Crean and Ryan and I’ll give you a twelve pack and a large pizza to watch the tournament next weekend. I am sick of the disrespect the Big Ten gets. Ask yourself why this is? Is it because guys like Izzo do it the right way? Is it because the media hate the Big Ten because they have their own television network? Is it because Big Ten coaches don’t glamorize salutes after dunks or dances after made three pointers?

I personally think it is a lot of those things, but firmly believe it is because Tom Izzo sets the standard for everyone else to envy. It is easy to sit down in Chapel Hill with Roy and the boys and load up every year on the nation’s cream. Where is NC this year… kickin’ it in the NIT? How about U-Conn?… chirp… chirp… chirp… that’s what I thought. Crickets, end of story.

So here come the bandwagoners. They didn’t learn the last eleven years after five Final Fours…after MSU hammered two #1 Big Least seeds in 2009. Hop on board you big media weasels. Hook your train to the Izzo engine and act like you knew they would be here all along.

I pick MSU every year to win the national championship. Conventional wisdom would tell you this is stupid if I want to win your pool. Here’s a question for you. If you picked Michigan State every year for the last twelve years, how many times would you have a team in the Final Four? The answer as everyone clearly knows is six, more than any other program in recent history. Yes I am an MSU homer. I love watching them because they do it the right way.

We can always be proud to pull for our MSU team because it is more than wins and losses. It is the representation and the spirit of family, camaraderie and the need to be a part of a community. There is no shame in being a Spartan fan. We may not always like it when we read about our star being tossed from practice or our defensive stopper being sat due to an explanation often never heard; he was being a bad teammate. It is out of tough love, respect for people, respect for the game and respect for a program’s history that is rich in both tradition, but most importantly rich in stories and memories consistent with doing it the right way.

While we celebrate another Final Four at the water cooler this week, our forgotten nemesis will be figuring out what life will be like without Manny Harris. Beilein is doing his best to overcome Ann Arbor’s tumultuous history that serves as a reminder to all how hard it is to get back on track after you do things the wrong way. Wonder how long it will be before the NCAA is sniffing around Lexington?