The MSU men’s basketball team made the NCAA Tournament selection committee raise a collective brow Sunday.
The Spartans toppled Big Ten-leading No. 23 Indiana 57-54 in Breslin Center, a win that may have clinched a NCAA tournament bid for MSU (17-10 overall, 8-6 Big Ten).
“I’m not begging,” MSU head coach Tom Izzo said. “I think we’ve earned the right to play in the NCAA tournament.”
The win was MSU’s third straight in its effort to impress the tournament committee. The Spartans have won seven of their last 10 games.
With two games left, the win improves MSU’s chances of finishing above .500 in league play - an area the tournament committee may be looking at closely this year.
“I feel confident that we’re in,” freshman swingman Alan Anderson said. “I talked to the coaches and this was the win that we really needed.”
Anderson played a large role in gaining that confidence when he scored the game’s final two points from the free-throw line with six seconds left.
“I felt real calm,” he said. “Today I just went in and hit them, I didn’t worry about all the pressure.”
Junior forward Adam Ballinger said those shots promoted Anderson’s status.
“That’s a lot of pressure,” Ballinger said. “He’s not a freshman anymore after hitting those.”
Another Spartan who performed well under fire was sophomore guard Marcus Taylor, who led all scores with 16 points. He also tallied eight assists.
Taylor’s free-throws with 11.2 seconds left gave MSU a 55-53 advantage before Indiana guard Tom Coverdale earned a trip to the free-throw line.
But Coverdale missed the second shot and fouled Anderson after he grabbed the rebound.
The Hoosiers had another shot after Anderson’s heroics, but Coverdale missed a triple from the right side as time expired.
Freshman guard Chris Hill said when Coverdale released the ball his heart stopped.
“Even though it was 40-feet away, it’s a good look for him,” Hill said. “I just waited for it to bounce off the rim - and celebration.”
Coverdale showed his range in the first meeting between the two teams, an 83-65 massacre on Jan. 8. In that game, Coverdale hit 6-of-8 from three-point land while the rest of his team added eight more.
Most of that damage came in the first half as Indiana hit 10 triples and shot 65 percent for 48 points. That trend seemed to be repeating itself in Sunday’s first half. The Hoosiers shot 46.4 percent from the field and 54.5 from the arc on 6-of-11 shooting.
And it seemed like the Hoosiers were on pace to repeat their performance from the first game, Hill said.
“It felt just like that,” he said. “I think Coverdale even banked one in.”
But Indiana cooled off. The Hoosiers missed all seven of their triples in the second half.
The biggest reason Indiana’s production from the three-point line fell off was because MSU stopped double teaming forward Jared Jeffries, who was finding his teammates open on the arc, Izzo said.
“We tried to double the post a little bit,” Izzo said. “Probably a bad move on my part because they started burying those threes on kick-outs.”
The defensive switch in the second half meant Ballinger wouldn’t get any help checking Jeffries, the front runner for Big Ten player of year.
“Adam did a great job guarding Jared Jeffries one-on-one,” Hill said.
