Tampa, Fla. - It took the Spartans five months, but they finally granted their head coach his preseason wish Friday evening.
In October, MSU head coach Tom Izzo preached that, while he wanted to continue reeking havoc on defense, he wanted to be a more offensive-minded team.
MSU did just that with a 79-64 win over Colorado in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at the St. Pete Times Forum.
"It was a big part of the game plan," Izzo said. " It's a little harder in the Big Ten. I thought that's one of the things we could do in film against them. We felt a running game would be a big part of our game if we were going to be successful and I think that's how we got some easy baskets."
The 79 points were the most for the Spartans since dropping 82 in the mauling of Iowa on March 5, and MSU improved to 5-0 on the season when topping the 79-point mark.
Though the stat sheets gives MSU (20-12) only four fast break points, the Spartans recorded many borderline fast-break scores.
The easy buckets came right from the get-go. Following many Buffalo misses, MSU veered away from their traditional half-court game and began pushing the ball up court possession after possession.
The result was an offense Colorado (20-12) couldn't contain.
"One thing we noticed is that they would get out and run," Colorado head coach Ricardo Patton said. " If you got back and stop them, which we didn't, then they are patient on offense. The first thing we wrote on the board was transition defense.
"We knew we had to get back in transition and, for whatever reason, we just didn't do that."
One of the factors that allowed the Spartans to run was their field goal shooting. The 15-for-50 performance in their last game against Ohio State was a distant memory.
MSU shot 26-for-56 for the game (46.4 percent), including 48.4 percent in the first half.
Sophomore guard Chris Hill played the point guard position less than usual, but was a big part of MSU's transition game.
"I'm sure they saw the last couple games, us playing in the Big Ten Tournament and the running game is something we didn't' do a real good job of," Hill said. " That would be a good assumption to make. Maybe we caught them off guard."
Following a 44-point first half, MSU's biggest point total in the first frame all season, the Spartans' offensive engine was still running hard in the second half.
Just 1:41 in, the Spartans reached the 50-point mark. With 15:36 to go in the game, a 3-pointer by Hill gave MSU 56 points.
That topped MSU's point total of 54 in each of the past two games.
Two free throws by senior forward Aloysius Anagonye gave MSU 69 points with 7:50 to play. However, for the next 3:57, the Spartans would be held scoreless.
Izzo said his guard play was a big reason for the offensive outbreak, also adding it was a big reason for the scoreless stretch.
"Today, our guard play was good," he said. "I think we had five turnovers with five minutes to play and then we got complacent in a couple of ways. I think all but that three-minute stretch that we got ambushed, they played extremely well."
Sophomore forward/guard Alan Anderson said he felt the offense was more than a surprise to Colorado - one, if not the main reason for the convincing victory.
"They saw the last three games when we didn't run and we couldn't run," Anderson said. Today, as you can see, it helped us out a lot."
