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Northwestern offense poses challenge to U

February 6, 2002
Junior forward Al Anagonye gets a shot over Michigan forward LaVell Blanchard in the first half of the Jan. 30 game at Breslin Center. The Spartans travel to Evanston, Ill., for a game against the Northwestern Wildcats at 8 p.m. today. —

The MSU men’s basketball team will do its best to stay awake tonight against Northwestern at Welsh-Ryan Arena.

“It’s kind of a lull-you-to-sleep offense,” MSU head coach Tom Izzo said of the Wildcats’ attack.

Wildcats head coach Bill Carmody coached under the legendary Pete Carril at Princeton from 1982-96, and was the Tigers’ head coach until 2000.

At Northwestern (12-8 overall, 3-5 Big Ten), Carmody incorporated the backdoor offense Carril made infamous at Princeton. But the Wildcats didn’t master it until recently, as they’ve won four of their last six.

Izzo described the Wildcats’ offense as, “five guys moving all the time with the baseline very open. Five guys are from the free-throw line and up, (doing) a lot of back-cutting and a lot of backdoor plays.

“When you’re playing for 35 seconds, if you want to take five of those seconds off, you’re probably dead.”

MSU associate head coach Brian Gregory was an assistant at Northwestern from 1997-99 and recruited its five starters.

“It’s a Catch-22,” Gregory said of the Wildcats. “We’re always on guys to play aggressive and tough, but that can be a disadvantage because if you’re one step out of position due to hustle, they’ll take advantage of it.”

That’s why MSU (13-8, 4-4) will follow the blueprint from its 63-56 win against Princeton in the second round of the 1998 NCAA Tournament. In that game, the Spartans used their forearms to slow down the Tigers’ cutters, Izzo said.

“We went into the game plan (saying) that you can never, ever relax for one second against that offense,” Izzo said. “It was such a big deal that that’s what went on our (Big Ten) championship rings that year - ‘Never relax.’”

But that method won’t work as well tonight because the NCAA has recently changed its rules, Izzo said.

“You can’t do that as much anymore,” Izzo said. “Now you bump a guy, I think you get three years.”

Carmody said MSU has been one of the best teams at stopping his offense.

“Particularly when we cut, they try to get in our way a little bit,” Carmody said. “That’s sort of like one of the points of reference in reffing, that you’re not allowed to bump cutters, so we’ll see where that goes.”

It’s important for MSU’s scout team (white team) to prepare its starters in practice, junior forward Brian Westrick said.

“It’s a lot more confusing than the other (teams’) offenses,” Westrick said. “It’s kind of continuous, so it’s pretty hard to pick up.”

The players on the white team in 1998 are starters or have graduated, Izzo said.

“One of the problems we’ll have is how good of a (scout) team we’ll have to execute (Northwestern’s offense),” Izzo said. “We’ve had some players in the past that understood it.

“(The white team) could be the MVPs of the week depending on how they run it, because if you have to go in there and guard it cold turkey it’s going to be a tough guard.”

As a member of the 1998 white team, junior forward Adam Ballinger grasps the intricacies of the backdoor offense.

But Ballinger joked he hasn’t given the white team pointers.

“I don’t talk to the white team much, because they’re the ones that go against us,” Ballinger said. “You kind of want them to be off because it makes you look better.”

With sophomore guard Marcus Taylor (concussion) a game-time decision, MSU could get run down like it did Sunday.

Freshman guards Chris Hill and Alan Anderson will be expected to play more minutes at the point, and junior forward Al Anagonye will be forced to play defense on the perimeter.

Foul trouble may be the Spartans’ biggest enemy.

But Ballinger said playing Northwestern is more mentally taxing than physically.

“It has to be,” he said. “That’s the only way you’re going to win, to be mentally prepared for a team like this.”

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