Making the case for Michigan State to win
This isn’t the most talented team Tom Izzo has coached at Michigan State. And he’ll be the first one to tell you as much.
“I mean, that sounds like it’s going against the players I’ve got,” Izzo said last week. “I just mean I’ve had teams with four draft picks on there, and this team isn’t there yet.”
What these Spartans do have is a level of mental fortitude that Izzo said some of his past teams have lacked. They have a blend of veteran leadership and youthful energy. They have one of the most dominant rebounding teams in the country. And, of course, they have a first-team All-American in junior point guard Cassius Winston.
For all of the hype surrounding Duke’s freshmen, it was Winston who left Washington, D.C., as the East Region’s most outstanding player. The Detroit native racked up 20 points, 10 assists, four steals and just one turnover in the Spartans’ Elite Eight win over the Blue Devils, after averaging 19 points and 7.6 assists during the regular season. He already ranks third all time in assists in the Big Ten, with one year of eligibility remaining.
Winston, along with senior Matt McQuaid (9.8 points per game), leads a team that isn’t tremendously athletic but has proved to be tremendously resilient. The Spartans have a knack for withstanding runs — taking an opponent’s best shot, remaining calm and answering with one of their own.
They’re able to do this, in part, because of their strengths. The Spartans are outrebounding opponents by an average of 9.5 boards per game. They also shoot a collective 75.2% from the free throw line, which leads all Big Ten teams, and rank third in the country in both assists (18.7 per game) and field goal percentage defense (37.9%).
Yet with all of that said, perhaps the most significant advantage that Michigan State will have is Izzo. He has more NCAA tournament wins (51) than Chris Beard, Tony Bennett and Bruce Bearl combined, and he is the only coach left who has previously been to a Final Four. (This will be his eighth.)
In other words, Izzo knows what kind of hooplah accompanies the final weekend of the college basketball season, and how to navigate it. And he has an experienced group of players and assistants behind him.
“I think all in all,” Izzo said, “we’re as battle tested as you can be.”