A day after MSU played up-tempo ball better than the Blackbirds, Saint Louis players were talking about the high-speed Spartans.

The reason?

MSU plays its own brand of basketball this season, which it creates while adjusting to the style of its opponent.

With the variety of players in sizes and quickness, MSU can throw just about anything at anyone. Junior center Derrick Nix and sophomore guard Keith Appling exemplify that.

Thursday, Appling talked about how much he loves to run and play fast. Saturday, Nix asked why a player his size would like to play in an up-and-down game.

But while MSU outran LIU Brooklyn, Nix and his center partner sophomore Adreian Payne dominated the paint with their size advantage against the Blackbirds. Payne tied his career high in points and Nix set his mark.

Then, although Saint Louis did a lot to stop fast-paced play, Appling still stepped up his game against the Billikens. With the defense sagging, Appling started hitting jumpers.

But of course the glue in the whole equation is senior forward Draymond Green. His outstanding inside-outside scoring skills combined with passing make defenses adjust to him. They don’t fluster him much.

Saint Louis head coach Rick Majerus had an equation of 20 or so ways to stop Green written on his hand during Saturday’s press conferences.

Didn’t work so well. Green still managed 16 points on six-of-11 shooting, grabbed 13 rebounds and dished out six assists.

Majerus has been so impressed by Green that he called him the nation’s best college player, and if he had to choose a player to win the National Championship with, it’d be Green.

Izzo credited the ability to play any style with anyone to his difficult schedule — high-speed teams such as North Carolina and grind-out teams such as Wisconsin.

And that season of changing tempos has led them to this No. 1 seed and the ability to play their way while allowing the other team to dictate the tempo.

But the Spartans learned a lot in slipping past the Billikens in a 65-61 slugfest.

“It just shows you any team can be beat; there was a chance we could have lost,” Nix said. “The little mistakes we made in the tournament, you can’t do stuff like that.”

Holding on to late leads will be key if the Spartans want to move on deep into the tournament.

And that’s something a lot of people tend to forget: these Spartans aren’t as experienced in March. Sure, three players have played in at least one Final Four, but a majority had played one NCAA Tournament game or fewer.

The Saint Louis game showed the Spartans’ youth, and now every game will hold true for what Izzo told his team at halftime: “We gotta grow up here in 20 minutes, and we gotta get a little better.”

Almost every game from here on out will be a new experience for the Spartans. They aren’t to the level Kentucky or North Carolina is, so they’ll have to continue to grow. But as long as they have Green to guide and dictate tempo, they can go far.

So teams can think the Spartans play one style or another, but Green and his teammates just go with the flow.

“We showed the world that we can play through dirtiness and physicalness,” Green said.
“We can play through anything.”

_Pat Evans is a basketball reporter for The State News. He can be reached at evanspa7@msu.edu._