Your Spartan Nation Weekly Big Ten Basketball Report

The Spartan Nation Basketball Report Down Goes Dawson, and the Spartans Dance Through March? Many in Spartan Nation haven’t slept so well this week.Â

The Spartan Nation Basketball Report

Down Goes Dawson, and the Spartans Dance Through March?

Many in Spartan Nation haven’t slept so well this week. Accepting the reality of Sunday’s seasons changing loss has not been easy. So much excitement, hope, and expectation for March had built up over the winter, suddenly it was all put in major jeopardy. But if you think it’s been tough for you, imagine the feeling inside Spartan Basketball.

It’s was all lining up nicely for Michigan State Basketball, again. Cruising through the 1st Half against Ohio St. up 13, and then bang! The season that developed over the previous four months was gone in a couple hours. What lies ahead in the “new” season is quite uncertain.         

As the Spartans dominated the Bucks before Branden Dawson’s knee gave way, an outright Big Ten title looked secure, an NCAA # 1 seed looked to be firming up, and the team truly had that look to them that Tom Izzo has seen with 6 previous Final Four teams. It’s not that a Final Four is ever a guarantee, but that this group looked like that would at least be playing for a spot in New Orleans.

Now, as Spartan Nation discussed with Tom Izzo earlier this week, they must deal with sharing a Big Ten title and the loss of their fastest rising, and difference making star. The 17th year Head Coach called Sunday his toughest loss yet. Without question, it’s got to be on the short list.

“Losing Branden Dawson hurt us some down the stretch because we just didn’t have the physical tools we normally have,” Izzo explained. And yea, you can count on that being an issue for the tournament runs starting later this week. “There were things we wanted to do to get into the post (but couldn’t late in the game),” he added. “We made some poor decisions, we made some good plays...it (the loss) was a little bit of both.” Looking ahead, Izzo knows where the Spartans need to improve for Tournament play, especially down the stretch.

“We’ve gotta make better decisions, and our rebounding has gone down.” Losing their most explosive rebounder doesn’t help at all, in fact it seriously threatens to keep the Spartans from playing their game the rest of the way. “It was a tough locker room scene after the game, he (Dawson) just was crushed when he got the news (that his season was over).” 

Though there’s still so much to play for, many thoughts have been with Dawson throughout the week. “Everybody recovers so differently…I just don’t know,” Izzo said. “There’ve been guys that have recovered in 4 months…there’s guys that have who’ve taken a year.”

No matter the timetable of his return, Izzo made clear the “219” Big Ten All-Freshmen selection will not be rushed back, but should eventually bounce back at his own pace. “It’s one of those things in life that you don’t wish on anybody, especially a young guy who’s never really been hurt…but there’s people dealing with a lot worse, and that’s the way we’ve gotta look at it.”

The Seniors’ Final Leadership Exam

Draymond Green and Austin Thornton have done an impressive job leading these young Spartans from unranked to still playing for a # 1 seed, but now face their toughest challenge. Sure, they have the experience of being on the wild ride of 2010, but that performance following the loss of Kalin Lucas will be nearly impossible to match. The scenarios, however, are pretty similar.  

After taking care of a pesky and somewhat unsportsmanlike New Mexico State team, Lucas and the Spartans were handing it to Maryland in the round of 32. The Spartans were rolling again and had the look of a Final Four team (regardless of # 1 seed Kansas in their bracket) as Lucas made his last shot before the Achilles popped. 

That game looked like it was going to have the same ending Ohio St. did on Sunday. If you recall, Maryland closed hard, and but for Korie Lucious’ career highlight game winning 3-pointer, the Spartans would’ve lost bitterly by 1. Instead they lived for the Dance’s second weekend, and Lucious and Durrell Summers took off from there.

This time the Spartans were rolling over an Ohio St. team that looked headed for a Halftime knock out. MSU was up 13 when Dawson went down, and realistically could’ve held on to more than a 4 possession (12 points) lead at the break. Unlike 2010, there’s not a clear candidate or two that can be counted on to fill Dawson’s void. No one can replace him right now because his physical skills are so unique. But if the Spartans are to have any shot at a tournament run, others will have to rise up and compensate for the key late subtraction.   

The depression many in Spartan Nation feel about Dawson’s critical injury may not go away for quite a while. Beyond March, it will clearly have an impact on next season, and possibly the year beyond. In the mean time, it’s primarily up to Thornton and Green to navigate the Spartans through their choppy looking March waters. 

The ‘09 Clash Between Potential and Reality

Though it’s tough to digest the bitter irony of this 2012 Spartan season, (beginning and ending with a knee injury to a 5-star Forward), it ends up complimenting the record of the Spartans’ Senior Class (2009-2012). Though Draymond Green has gone Spartan legend, Korie Lucious and Delvon Roe represent incredible opportunities lost. One lost them by choices and questionable direction, the other under complete frustration thanks to truly awful luck. Austin Thornton can be counted in or out of this class, depending on how you score it at home (he was recruited the year before the other three), but has added steadily to the Spartan program along the way. Lucious, Roe, and Green once looked destined to become the most decorated class in school history, but ended up with only one active member on the Breslin floor Sunday to kiss the block “S,” errrrr, Spartan head.

After losing in the National Title Game in Detroit as Freshmen, the 2009 class came up one (awfully officiated) game short (against Butler) from facing off with Duke in the Championship Game of CBS’s dreams. Had the final couple minutes gone the Spartans’ way, MSU probably had too much for Duke to handle, and the ’09 class would’ve seen their legend grow with a third National Championship for the school. Yet, after that deep disappointment against Butler, the class looked ahead to a 2011 team that was probably Izzo’s most talented group. The mission was clear, a National Title or bust. The result was unfortunately more clear, a complete unraveling and internal meltdown. The season never got going, for an accumulation of reasons and disappointments, and left a sour taste in the mouths of Spartan Nation as the ’09 class started to fall apart.

Before the end of 2011, Lucious was completely gone from Spartan Basketball, which seemed impossible after the shot he hit against Maryland and his subsequent tournament play. Even his performance on the road against Duke early in 2011 (a game the Spartans should have won) indicated great things could still happen. Only weeks later, Lucious was out of East Lansing for good.

Roe’s physical breakdown is still hard to imagine. It began around the time he committed to Michigan St. as Izzo’s highest rated recruit yet, and finalized itself early in the past off season. In that short time, the pure Spartan that was Delvon Roe had nothing left to give. He had reached the point of diminishing returns, and thus Green was the only member of the ’09 class left standing for their Senior year.

Though Green’s not done, as he reminded Spartan Nation after Sunday’s devastating day, his class essentially is. What was once a sure bet to become the most successful class in the history of the school has sadly fizzled to only one all-time great. Their record is a really far from a disappointment, but it should take years for Spartan Nation to stop discussing “what could’ve been” of the 2009 class of Lucious, Roe, and Green.

The Spot up 3:Â Three Quick Basketball Points to Dribble Around in Your Head

1.     Most people don’t like the Big Ten Tournament. Maybe that’s being a bit too generous. But what if it started the Big Ten season? Instead of wrapping things up in Indianapolis or Chicago, what if the league kicked off Big Ten play with a tournament over the first weekend of the season? 

2.     Big Ten Officials as a whole may have been better this year, but the MSU-OSU game Sunday was an embarrassment. Between the foul disparities early, mistakenly taking a 4th foul off Jared Sullinger, reportedly yapping back at critical Spartan fans, etc., it was a sad performance on the conference’s biggest stage of the year. Though CBS avoided the obvious topic completely, even the novice fan watching the game (regardless of affiliation) recognized the deficiency. That game and the earlier debacle at Illinois provide enough evidence for Spartan Nation that considerable work is still left to be done with officiating.

3.     Maybe Braden Dawson should Red Shirt next year. Think about how many guys come back from major injuries far too soon. Do we really want to see another guy, let alone Spartan, push to come back too fast, possibly get reinjured, completely miss out on a summer, and/or never get back to where he should’ve been? I understand the rush to get back as quick as possible, but not if it’s to your own detriment. No matter what happens next year, Dawson should need to return to campus for a third season. And unless he’s alreadydecided he won’t play a fourth, he should probably Red Shirt the entire 2013 year to regain 100% health again. He could take next winter to make up for the summer he’s bound to lose while giving himself the time to heal the inevitable physical and mental scars he just picked up. 

Follow Jonathan on Twitter @JPSpartan and inside the Phalanx Forum