Worcester, Mass. - Hunched over with his hands resting on his knees, Vermont star forward Taylor Coppenrath barely had the energy to shake hands with the MSU team that ended his college basketball career in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday.
Coppenrath and his four fellow Catamounts starters should have been exhausted. All five had played more than 40 minutes Friday in an upset, overtime win over Syracuse and had to chase MSU's deep bench and relentless fast break.
"You could see them bending over and grabbing their shorts," MSU senior swingman Alan Anderson said. "We came into the huddle and said it's time to make a run and put them away."
Even in the first half, the Spartans could sense the fatigue of Vermont's players.
"We knew they were tired, they started getting tired so we knew we had to take advantage of it," MSU junior guard Maurice Ager said.
The Spartans outscored Vermont in fast break points 16 to 2 and dominated in bench points 19 to 5. But beyond the statistics, MSU made Vermont work from start to finish.
The Spartans guards pushed for full-court pressure and constantly subbed in new players in the 10-player rotation.
"It just seemed like they were always fresher and bringing guys in," Vermont guard T.J. Sorrentine said.
The depth and running game have been advantages for the Spartans all season, but it paid off against the Catamounts, as the top three players put in more than 37 minutes. Vermont players had their hands on their knees, their shots were missed and their desperate dives for loose balls came up a little short.
"It just seems like every time we made a play they'd come back and pop us in the face again," Coppenrath said.
Crushing the Cinderella stories
Izzo knew coming into the game not to take the lower seeded teams for granted. He's assembled a 19-2 record against lower seeds and has beat underdog teams that everyone rooted for, including No. 11 Temple and No. 12 Gonzaga in 2001 (MSU was No. 1) and No. 5 Princeton in 1998 (MSU was No. 4).
And Vermont was no different as Izzo's assistant coaches made an extra effort to gather as much film as possible to prove how good Vermont has been this season.
Senior stars
The Spartans used senior guard Kelvin Torbert to post up more against Old Dominion on Friday and to help guard a hot Sorrentine in the second half of Sunday's game, giving MSU a major boast off the bench.
"His defense was great, we put the ball in his hands at key moments and he came through," Izzo said.
Also with Anderson's seven rebounds he became the fourth player in MSU history with 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 300 assists. Steve Smith, Charlie Bell and Ken Redfield are the others in that group.
