10
Mar
| SPARTAN SPECTATORS |
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| Written by Jack Ebling | |
| Monday, 10 March 2008 | |
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The Spartans’ carelessness on offense wasn’t the only reason the Ohio State Buckeyes rallied for a 63-54 Senior Day triumph Sunday in Value City Arena. MSU failed to match the winners’ intensity over the last 10 minutes and looked like the tentative team, if not the scared one, we’ve seen all too often this year. Yes, more than 300 Division I teams would love to have 24 wins at this point, a shot at the Big Ten Tournament title and an 11th straight invitation to NCAA play. To think back a decade, it’s amazing that those achievements aren’t enough.But we’re all judged against others’ expectations and our own potential. Until the Spartans play like champions 24-7, they are doomed to be viewed as underachievers. Worse yet, they’ll be seen as a group that couldn’t hang a banner with an endless supply of hooks and power tools. That’s what happens when you’re scared of heights. Tom Izzo’s team is 3-6 in conference road games. If regular-season champ Wisconsin had come to Breslin Center, MSU could’ve won and still had twice as many league losses as the Badgers _ as many as the Badgers and Boilermakers combined. The biggest problem has been a passive approach in pressure situations. When the Spartans have needed passion to fight, they’ve been pacifists with pacifiers. Nowhere is that timidity more obvious than in getting to the foul line. MSU has attempted 332 free throws in its 24 wins to just 177 for opponents. In their seven defeats, however, the Spartans have been outshot 170-89 at the line. That hasn’t all been due to shaky calls. A case of the shakes is just as much to blame. And that needs to change by the time MSU gets to Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis Friday or 24-7 could soon be 24-9. The oddsmakers knew that and made OSU a slight favorite Sunday. The Buckeyes had much more on the line. And it showed. They made things happen in the last 10 minutes, just as they had after falling behind by 20 points in Breslin Center. Following a familiar script, the Spartans were outshot 20-6 at the line and outscored 28-10 in points off turnovers. The totals in their last two losses in those stats? Try 34-11 and 37-12, respectively. Look no further than senior Drew Neitzel. As a junior he shot 140 free throws and hit 123, outstanding accuracy at any level. Instead of using that ability to get easy points, Neitzel has attempted just 72 free throws this season. And 27 of those have come in the final 2:05 of games when teams had to foul to have a chance. When Neitzel hit his first two shots from the field, both from long range, MSU was off to another strong start Sunday. When he failed to score over the next two hours, his team was one player short of success. What did it mean? Very little in terms of a title. That ship sailed with losses at Iowa and Penn State and became a one-way voyage with defeats at Purdue and Indiana. The trick is to learn from that, if this team is capable of it, and play with twice the aggression this week. At least put up a fight this time and punch back for a change. There’s a fine line between victims and victories. It’s often drawn in the sand. |
A blizzard of record proportions struck Central Ohio over the weekend. Nearly 21 inches of snow fell in Columbus _ one for every Michigan State basketball turnover.
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