Michigan State is coming together at the right time after beating Maryland yesterday on a buzzer beater by backup point guard Korie Lucious. Coach Tom Izzo always seems to get his teams to play together and to take ownership of their team at the right time of the year. After a season of ups and downs and players not playing up to potential, the Spartans are starting to understand what Izzo has been urging all year long. This is from the Detroit Free Press:
Attached to the Michigan State locker room at the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena is a small room with cement block walls and a black table against the far wall.
At halftime of the Spartans second-round game against Maryland on Sunday, point guard Kalin Lucas sat on that table, his left foot wrapped in ice. He had been told moments earlier that his Achilles tendon was likely torn, and tears rolled down his face.
Michigan State coach Tom Izzo would later say that what happened next was one of his "prouder moments" as a coach. One by one, Lucas' teammates lined up to enter that small room. Among them was Korie Lucious, the 5-foot-11, sophomore guard who would become the team's primary ball-handler and director with Lucas out. He hugged Lucas and repeated what many of the Spartans had told the fallen guard: "I got your back. All us here got your back."
A half of basketball later, Lucious was on his back on the court, his teammates and even Sparty, the school's faux-muscled mascot, piled on top of him. Lucious' three-pointer at the buzzer gave the Spartans an 85-83 victory and the school's ninth trip to the Sweet 16 in the last 13 years. But, as Izzo and his players would say later, the team won not because of a single shot, but rather because all the players finally believed what they said to Lucas at halftime.
"It's no secret that if you put us in this situation three weeks ago, we wouldn't have won this game," said forward Draymond Green, whose three-pointer with 20 seconds left was part of a dramatic finish that included four baskets in the final 35 seconds, including two brave drives by Maryland's Greivis Vasquez, all of which could have been game-winners. "It was a matter of us becoming closer as teammates and better teammates to each other. With us doing that you can pull off games like this."
Any discord was buried deep in delirium, and why shouldn't it be?
College basketball remains the realm of the juvenescent, where teambuilding and maturity are not just catchwords. Every team, every kid is a work in progress, even one coached by Izzo, with his long history of driving the Spartans deep into the Dance.
"I don't wan to get too dramatic -- it is the [second round] of the NCAA tournament -- but where this win really ranks high is me having been telling this team a little bit about why you have got to be a better teammate and why you have togetherness," Izzo said.
Summers, the talented but at times undisciplined junior guard, scored 26 points, including 6-of-7 on three-pointers, but his finest moment came when he approached Izzo postgame. "I still got a long ways to go, Coach," he said, and his coach smiled.
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In reading an additional article on Sunday in the Detroit Free Press, Summers actually requested a one on one meeting with the coaching staff to clear his mind. Summers has been in Coach Izzo's 'doghouse' all year for not giving a full concentrated effort this year. Even Summers and his teammates admit he has not been there mentally for much of the season. Here is the a little from the article:
"When a player initiates it, it's a big difference," assistant coach Mark Montgomery said. "Durrell wanted to get some things off his chest, off his mind. We sat down and talked about it. He wants to contribute. He knows he is more valuable on the court. His focus -- you could hear it in his voice. You can see it in his body language."
Montgomery said Summers has been a different player since, in "practices, meetings, walk-throughs." He did not have a great game against New Mexico State, missing 10 of 15 shots after a hot start. But as Montgomery said, "he was taking the ball aggressive to the basket, trying to draw contact. He acknowledged coaching. He acknowledged what Coach Izzo was saying. When your head is clear, you hear and think clearly."
Summers said his only real request of the coaches was to "just keep coaching me the way they have," which was like asking a rattlesnake to bite the exact same spot. Summers has not been a very coachable player this season. And maybe that's why he called the meeting: He wanted Izzo to know he still wanted to be coached.
