New York — If you had asked most pundits a month ago what the greatest strength of this year's MSU men's basketball team would be, most of their answers would have sounded something like this:
"It'll help pass the time until next year's Top 5 recruiting class gets here."
Well, after upsetting No. 19 Texas and coming within a basket of beating soon-to-be ranked Maryland in this past weekend's 2K Sports College Hoops Classic, maybe we all, head coach Tom Izzo included, need to reconsider just how much rebuilding the Spartans will be doing this season.
"I learned that we've got a chance — maybe that's the best thing," Izzo said Friday, after his team's comeback bid against the Terrapins came up one basket short.
"I didn't know if we had a chance. I told you at the beginning of the year, I thought we could be a decent team. Now, I think we could be a pretty doggone good team. And if we get a little more consistency out of a couple guys and get lucky once in a while, maybe even a real good team.
"That's going to be fun to see if we can keep building."
After watching his team go toe-to-toe with two perennial powers at Madison Square Garden, why shouldn't Izzo be optimistic?
Raymar Morgan established himself as one of the grittiest freshmen in the country, relentlessly finding his way to the basket for 31 points and 11 rebounds on the weekend. As a team, the Spartans had a plus-15 rebounding margin against Maryland, a feat they accomplished only six times all of last season. They also limited all four of their opponents in the tournament to 62 points or fewer.
Wait a minute, games won with defense and rebounding? If I didn't know any better, I'd say this was a Tom Izzo-coached team — wouldn't you?
"I think we did make some big strides this weekend," said junior guard Drew Neitzel, who hit the game-winning shot against Texas with 2.4 seconds left and earned a spot on the All-Tournament Team.
Now, let's not kid ourselves — the Spartans didn't transform from bubble team to Final Four favorite this weekend. They're still just as much ugly duckling as they are beautiful swan. They turned the ball over 34 times in the two games, including eight each by Morgan and sophomore center Goran Suton. That sloppiness left the offense disjointed at times and led to several extended scoring droughts.
"We just did some things that we can't do if we're going to win," Izzo said.
But none of those flaws appear to be fatal. And with poised performances in one of basketball's most storied buildings, the Spartans made a resounding statement — they're not just playing this season to get to the next one.
"When I came to New York, I didn't know much about my team," Izzo said. "I know a little bit more about them (now), feel a little better about some things, worse about others.
"We leave New York a lot better than when we came to New York."
Like Sinatra said, if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.
Tom Keller is the State News sports editor. He can be reached at kellert1@msu.edu.
