he MSU men’s basketball team celebrates its first Big Ten Tournament championship in 12 years after beating Ohio State 68-64 on Sunday. Senior guards Austin Thornton and Brandon Wood and senior forward Draymond Green reflect on winning the title. Green also talks about earning a No. 1 seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament.
Entering the Big Ten Tournament, the MSU men’s basketball team dropped two in a row and a chance at an outright Big Ten regular-season title,but the Spartans (27-7) bounced back and won their outright title on Sunday and earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Sunday’s championship win against Ohio State showed a lot of positives, especially with Big Ten Player of the Year senior forward Draymond Green not playing at his elite level.
“We came off a disappointing two losses (and) regrouped with our best player, Superman, when he wasn’t superman,” head coach Tom Izzo said. “That spoke volumes that you can average 70-some points a game, shot very well all three games, did a lot of things very well.”
But the team struggled in one area it’s been successful in all year: rebounding. MSU had a plus-8 rebounding margin this season but held a minus-0.3 margin in the Big Ten Tournament.
“Just about everything was encouraging except our rebounding, that was very discouraging,” Izzo said.
Improving Appling
After a struggle to end the season, sophomore guard Keith Appling had a great weekend of point guard play in Indianapolis.
In the tournament, Appling began to push the fast break and make smart decisions.
The late-season struggles came from his transition from two-guard to point guard.
“So many things he’s tried to do coming from a two-guard to a point guard. Everybody wants to score points, whenever you’re scoring you feel better,” Izzo said.
But Appling’s averages of 9.7 points and 5.3 assists with three turnovers on the weekend show he’s becoming more comfortable. Izzo said Appling started to look for his third, fourth and fifth options, a trait great point guards possess.
“I think pushing it really helped him. He’s starting to learn the little toss back to Green, made a couple great passes to (senior guard) Austin Thornton,” Izzo said. “He’s having some fun doing it. Five, six assists, still feel like you’re impacting the game even if you’re not scoring.”
First Round
MSU’s first game against LIU Brooklyn (9:20 p.m., Friday) in Columbus, Ohio, is the first time the Spartans are a No. 1 seed since 2000.
LIU (25-8) brings an up-tempo attack that racks up possessions.
“(I) can’t say we knew a ton about them before today,” Izzo said. “(They’re) not real big, two players that score a lot.”
If the Spartans get by the Blackbirds, they’ll see a group of athletic teams in the West Region. And that’s a concern of Izzo’s. At Monday’s press conference, Izzo said he wished he could bring out athlete’s like retired forward Delvon Roe and injured freshman guard Branden Dawson.
“If there’s a negative, we have a very athletic pod,” he said referring to super athletic teams Memphis, Louisville, Marquette and Missouri. “It’ll be a little tricky if we can win in Columbus.”
Still, Izzo is happy to play in Ohio the first weekend.
“The pluses outweigh the negatives,” he said. “It’ll be nice to be close to home, and it’s great to be a one seed.”
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