If Izzo's Spartans can get fully healthy, watch out
By Gary Parrish | CBSSports.com Senior Writer Follow GaryEAST LANSING, Mich. -- Kalin Lucas missed the shot pretty badly, but the ball bounced right back to Michigan State because that's the type of night the Spartans were enjoying, the type where every bounce goes their way. So now there wasn't much difference between the game clock and the shot clock, and Tom Izzo was yelling to the far end of the court, waving his arms and telling his team to pull the ball out, to take the final shot of the half.
But they didn't see him.
And they couldn't hear him.
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| Tom Izzo watched so much film on Sunday's loss that he missed the Super Bowl. (US Presswire) |
On the court, they were awesome.
Final score: 76-47.
Now if they could just get the off-the-court health issues fixed.
"It's been frustrating," Izzo said afterward. "(I don't know if I'll) ever get them all practicing together."
The Michigan State Spartans are 18-4 overall, 9-2 in the Big Ten and alone atop the league standings. They're ranked 12th in the Top 25 (and one), 13th in the AP poll, 14th in the Coaches poll and seventh at CollegeRPI.com. Translation: Things are OK, at least on the surface. But below the surface, Izzo is filled with frustration, because he thinks he's got a Final Four team but he hasn't even spent four weeks with his roster at full strength.
If it's not Delvon Roe's left knee, it's his right knee.
Or his ankle.
And if it's not his ankle, it's Goran Suton's left knee.
Or his right knee.
Or Raymar Morgan's lungs.
Seriously, it's been one thing after another since before the season started, the latest problem being Morgan's diagnosis of walking pneumonia that kept him out of Wednesday's win over No. 19 Minnesota after limiting the junior to just three minutes in Sunday's loss to Penn State. Meantime, Isaiah Dahlman is on crutches. Why? Because he sprained his ankle Sunday in warm-up. And while this development is not a big deal in the grand scheme of things -- Dahlman is a seldom-used guard, after all -- it's still worth noting that on top of everything else, Michigan State had a player get hurt during pregame warm-up.
"And not even in regular warm-ups!" Izzo said with a smile late Wednesday in his office. "He was just out there shooting, and I'm sitting in here, and it's like 45 minutes before the game, and I hear this screaming. So I go in there and the doctor has him pinned down on the thing, telling me his ankle is sprained so bad he might be out three or four weeks."
That was the crazy pregame story from Sunday.
Postgame was crazy, too.
After Michigan State lost to Penn State -- primarily because the Nittany Lions hit 50 percent of their 3-point attempts, some from well beyond the 3-point line -- Izzo was so bothered that he stayed in his office watching film in an attempt to figure out what happened and how.
"I must've watched those shots 30 times," he said. Before he knew it, the Super Bowl was over, meaning this avid football fan didn't even watch the biggest football game of the year. "I never miss the Super Bowl," Izzo said. "But I watched film all night."
(Note to Tom: You missed a nice game.)
So with this win over Minnesota in the books, Izzo will now get back to work early Thursday in preparation for a weekend tilt with Indiana. After that, there are games at Michigan and Purdue, and if you're wondering about Morgan, here's the deal: He almost certainly will not play against Indiana, probably won't play against Michigan and might not play against Purdue either, because walking pneumonia is serious like that.
Consequently, you can rest assured that whenever Morgan does return, he will be relatively weak, somewhat out of shape and operating with diminished skills, which means the Spartans will be forced to limp into March still not quite as healthy as Izzo would like, still in search of a dose of good luck that might have them finally, one day, operating at full strength.
"Our ceiling is high," Izzo said. "But I still don't think we've seen the best Michigan State team yet."
