No. 11 Michigan State Back To Basics: Boards And D
LARRY LAGE,AP Sports Writer
EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan State has gotten back to what made its basketball program successful.
Rebounding and defense.
The 11th-ranked Spartans are competing for another Big Ten championship — in a season that started with them out of the Top 25 — because they have bounced back in those two key parts of the game.
Michigan State is third in the nation in rebound differential and 19th in points allowed per game after being 48th and 125th in the same categories last season.
"I knew we made significant improvement, but I didn't know it was that drastic," said forward Draymond Green, who averages a Big Ten-best 10.5 rebounds. "In order to win, those are the things you have to do and those have been the staples of this program. That's what we got away from last year. We were trying to outscore people instead of rebounding and stopping people."
Michigan State barely made the NCAA tournament last season, getting in with 19 wins and a .500 Big Ten mark, and lost in the first round to end a season that began with high hopes.
The Spartans will be tested on the boards Wednesday at home against Penn State, which leads the conference in offensive rebounds, and in every facet of the game by third-ranked Ohio State on the road Saturday.
Michigan State (18-5, 7-3 Big Ten) is expected to beat the Nittany Lions (10-14, 2-9) easily to set up a game against the Buckeyes (20-3, 8-2) that might prove to be pivotal in the conference race.
Coming off an emotionally charged win over Michigan, coach Tom Izzo is concerned about what he acknowledged is a trap game.
"I am very paranoid about the next one," Izzo said.
Izzo knows the Spartans have to take care of business against Penn State because that might be one of the few games they're expected to win with a remaining schedule that includes trips to Ohio State, Purdue, Minnesota and Indiana.
"That doesn't sound good," he said. "That makes me nauseous."
Izzo wanted to get sick when he watched his first team as a head coach try to make shots. That team struggled so much offensively during a 1-2 start that he decided to make rebounding an emphasis, sending four players to the glass to grab offensive rebounds. A watershed game for his then-lackluster program was Nov. 28, 1995, when the Spartans beat Arkansas 75-72 after outrebounding the Razorbacks 47-23.
"It just kind of grew from there," Izzo said. "We're not as good of an offensive rebounding team — we don't send four as much as we used to — but we still have a pretty good defensive rebounding team."
The Wolverines found out just how good Michigan State is in both offensive and defensive rebounding Sunday. In the Spartans' 10-point win, they outrebounded Michigan 40-16 — with Green getting as many rebounds as his hated rival.
"You can control defense because you can control effort," Green said. "You can't always control if your shots go in."
Izzo said his players, particularly Green and fellow senior Austin Thornton, deserve all the credit for the helping the program get back to its roots this season.
"We made an emphasis of doing what Michigan State has been built around — defense and rebounding," center Derrick Nix said. "Those are the things that help you hang banners and cut down nets."
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