That’s the question men’s basketball head coach Tom Izzo has been wrestling with throughout the last few weeks.
“I asked my team, ‘Who is our go-to guy?’ (and) nobody could really give me a good answer,” Izzo said. “Because it was Keith (Appling), he got hurt in the North Carolina game. It was Gary (Harris) for a while, it was (Adreian Payne) and we just kind of moved around.”
During the first half of the season, Appling was playing like the conference player of the year candidate he was, scoring 20 or more points in three of the first six games, and dishing out five or more assists in four of those tilts.
In that time, Izzo described his performance against Portland, in which he scored 25 points and had seven assists, as one of the best point guard performances in “many, many, many” years.
It was clear Appling was the go-to guy.
“I love to have the ball in my hands at the end of the game,” Appling said. “But at the same time, I feel like I’m a very unselfish player and sometimes that kinda hurts me, but it benefits the team in some ways.”
During the Spartans’ 79-65 loss to North Carolina on Dec. 4 , he fell hard on his side, and hasn’t been the same since.
Appling missed the first three games of the Big Ten season and played in a limited role for the next two because of a sore wrist.
Payne and Harris morphed into the go-to guys for the Spartans during that time, but Harris said now that MSU has a full compliment of players, it’s time to get back to the way things were.
“It’s more like just playing, and not being uptight,” Harris said. “Like we were playing earlier in the season. With Keith driving and making plays and everybody being able to play off of Keith. Now we have everybody back and we’re trying to figure out what will work best.”
With 133 assists this season, Appling accounts for 25 percent of the team’s total assists, while also maintaining the third-highest scoring average.
Izzo said he is the type of player that has a lot of facets to his game, making it hard for a team to completely shut him down for an entire game.
“People can take away a play for Gary Harris or take away something for Adreian Payne,” Izzo said. “In Appling, we’ve got a guy who’s good enough to do it, he’s done it before and yet the question is whether he can regain that. I still think the ball has to be in his hands.”
Appling has the confidence, now it’s just a matter of proving it on the court.
“Coach puts the ball in my hand, I’ve got to make the right decision at the end of the game,” Appling said. “The main thing is I’ve got to get back to being myself, and when I do that, I’m a better player and we’re a better team. That’s just what it’s all about.”
