Green’s unselfishness spreads within team, propels success

---

Tweet

Looking back through sports history, great teams always have been led by great players.

From high school to college to the professional ranks, championship teams tend to have a leader who embodies at least one distinct characteristic the whole team possesses to make it successful.

For MSU men’s basketball coach Tom Izzo, that leader is senior forward Draymond Green. And the defining quality Green has spread to the No. 11 Spartans is his constant unselfishness.

A little more than halfway through the conference season, MSU (18-5 overall, 7-3 Big Ten) leads the Big Ten in assists per game at 16.2. Sophomore guard Keith Appling averages 3.5 assists to lead the Spartans, but Izzo said Green — who also dishes out 3.5 helpers per game — is the reason for MSU’s giving attitude.

“He just exudes this whole thing,” Izzo said. “He sits at meetings and says, ‘I really do get more out of a pass than a shot.’ Early on I didn’t believe him. … Then you watch him.”

As the Spartans’ Mr. Everything this season, Green is scoring 14.8 points and grabbing a conference-leading 10.5 rebounds per game to go along with his assists. However, Izzo said maybe the most impressive thing Green has done for MSU this season is turn a group full of newcomers and a first-year point guard into one of the best passing teams in the Big Ten.

Green — who Izzo described after a Jan. 21 win against Purdue as so unselfish “it was a joke” — said his teammates have taken on his personality as a passer because he leads by example.

“When your supposed superstar passes up shots, then that makes you want to pass up shots,” Green said. “All it does is get more momentum going.”

According to Izzo, it also has made the 2011-12 Spartans into one of the better shooting teams he’s had during his 17 years as MSU’s head coach.

Although the Spartans struggled from the field in a loss at Illinois a little more than a week ago, the Spartans still are shooting 47.7 percent, good for third in the Big Ten. Compare that number to last year, when MSU shot just a shade more than 43 percent from the field, and Izzo said the difference is passing.

In his first year as the Spartans’ full-time point guard, Appling said the team’s willingness to pass and subsequent improved assist and shooting numbers have made him look better as a floor general.

“It helps a lot because everybody on our team is willing to give up a good look for a great look,” Appling said. “That’s just what makes this team what we are.”

Recently, MSU’s unselfishness has taken a different form.

After starting his first 22 games as a Spartan, senior guard Brandon Wood found himself on the bench to begin Sunday’s 64-54 win over now-No. 22 Michigan. Rather than sulk on the sidelines, Wood responded with nine points, four rebounds and four assists in a reserve role.

Now Izzo said he might continue to bring Wood off the bench to provide a spark on offense. After practice Monday, Wood said he couldn’t remember the last time he didn’t start a game before Sunday. But if him becoming a sixth man is considered better for the team, Wood said nobody will hear any complaints from him.

“It’s fine with me whichever way,” Wood said. “Obviously I want to start, and if I get the opportunity that’s what I want to do. But if coach decides otherwise, that’s fine with me. I just plan on doing as much as I can.”

If Izzo does decide to keep Wood out of the starting lineup — starting with a 6:30 p.m. matchup with Penn State on Wednesday at Breslin Center — his replacement will be senior guard Austin Thornton.

Recording his sixth career start Sunday against the Wolverines, Thornton said he would love to be in the starting lineup again. But, much like Wood, he said it doesn’t matter to him if he goes back to the bench.

Because whether it’s giving up an open shot or taking on a different role, Thornton and the Spartans have learned from their leader that there is only one thing that truly matters.

“The thing about this team, all we care about is winning,” Thornton said. “We don’t really care who starts and whatnot, all we want to do is win.”

---