For the record, The State News always has had a powerfully sound belief that Chris Hill actually could dunk. Dozens of fast-break layups and finger-rolls in transition - routinely met with groans of disappointment from the Breslin Center crowd - have not once punctured our confidence in Hill's vertical leap, nor our trust that when the inevitable slam was unveiled, it would be thrown down with two hands like Bill Walton prefers.
(Cough).
That said, we'd like to extend our warmest congratulations to the men's hoops squad for turning an impressively boisterous Crisler Arena crowd into church mice Tuesday night. Well, the ones not wearing green and white, anyway.
It seems like a long time ago that MSU fans - and some sheepish Michigan fans - could admit to calling Crisler Arena "Breslin South." In the days of Mateen Cleaves, Morris Peterson, Charlie Bell and Andre Hutson, it wasn't unusual to see the upper bowl of Crisler in green, the bottom in maize. It resembled lime and lemon Lifesavers at the bottom of the package, except the lime was very loud, and the lemon rattled their jewelry.
One game last January, when MSU lost to Michigan, 60-58, changed all of that. The Maize Rage hopped a little higher, the alums sat up a little to free their hands and the place got loud. Like Fab Five loud. Michigan players, such as Daniel Horton and Bernard Robinson Jr., gave the Wolverine hoops program a needed shot in the arm and, for the first time in a few seasons, Michigan fans started to expect wins at Crisler Arena.
Which, admittedly, had a good many MSU fans expecting the same on Tuesday. Michigan looked dangerously hot before Tuesday night. Players were shooting well, a big win on national television against No. 22 Wisconsin - a team that had manhandled the Spartans early in the conference season - had Ann Arbor abuzz and Michigan needed Tuesday night to keep tournament hopes alive.
This makes Tuesday's win all the more important to the MSU basketball community. Crisler Arena was primed to become MSU's personal valley of ghosts and turnovers, and for about the first 30 minutes, it certainly was taking shape. Down 12 points to a hungry team in front of a frenzied crowd and in a hostile environment, the Spartans battled back. Tuesday night was a test of the MSU men's mettle, of their toughness.
It's not Glue-and-Guts, elbow-you-in-the-mouth, meet-me-under-the-boards-to-discuss-that-moving-screen kind of tough that coach Tom Izzo bred into the championship teams of the past, though. It's a different team now - young, guard-reliant and perimeter-based. Tuesday night proved that while MSU fans and critics had been looking for a tough team to emerge under Izzo, toughness has acquired a new look in East Lansing.
Toughness now means the ability to fight back, to lock down and rise to the challenge. We've been waiting for Paul Davis to punch someone in the mouth during a loss. What we've found, though, is clutch performances, improved execution and teamwork in an important win.
It's a very different team now than the one that lost at Crisler Arena last season. It's a different team from the one embarrassed by Duke last December. It's a team that features a sky-walking Chris Hill. And it's a team that is looking to have finally found its identity.
