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Roller Coaster Season Ends in Embarressment For the Team
Chris Vannini
A season that had its highs and lows ended on Friday for the MSU men’s basketball team. A 92-74 loss to #1 seeded Memphis ended a tournament run that had inconsistent play from almost every player.
On selection Sunday, the Spartans found out that they would be a #5 seed and play Temple University in the first round. The last time the Spartans were a 5 seed was in 2005, when an underachieving MSU team put it all together and made a run to the final four.
The game was even through the first 12 minutes. The Spartans started to break away in the final 8 minutes of the half and led 35-26 at halftime. State continued to extend their lead as the second half started. Their biggest lead was 19 points. Temple did not give up however, cutting the lead to 10, but it was too little too late and the Spartans won 72-61
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Balanced scoring lead the offense as Sophomore Raymar Morgan scored 15 points, freshman Chris Allen scored 12. Fellow freshmen Kalin Lucas and Durrell Summers scored eight points each. Senior captain Drew Neitzel scored only five points. The Spartans knew Neitzel couldn’t afford more poor performances if they were to continue to win in the tournament.
The most impressive aspect of the Spartans victory was the defense. Temple’s top player, Dionte Christmas was held to only 3 points on 1 for 17 shooting. Christmas averaged 20 points per game on the season, but the tight MSU defense shut him down.
With the win over Temple, MSU moved on to the second round where they would meet #4 seeded Pittsburgh. Not many people were giving MSU a chance to win the game. Pittsburgh had gotten one of its top players back and rolled through the Big East Tournament, beating Georgetown in the final to win the Big East Championship.
Pittsburgh was on a roll and was a popular pick to go deep into the tournament. Legendary Coach and ESPN analyst Bobby Knight even picked Pittsburgh to win the National Championship.
The first half was a back and forth affair. The biggest lead was State by 5 and MSU lead 30-28 at halftime. The Spartans opened up the second half on a 10-2 run to take a 40-30 lead with 15 minutes left. It looked like MSU was going to run away with the game, but Pitt answered with a 14-2 run as they took the lead.
Pittsburgh was unable to break away from the Spartans. They couldn’t hit some open shots and it cost them. Kalin Lucas scored a three-point play to give the Spartans the lead back. Then Drew Neitzel scored eight straight points and the Spartans began to pull away. Neitzel and Lucas scored 21 of MSU’s final 25 points as the Spartans defeated Pittsburgh 65-54 to advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time since the final four run in 2005. Neitzel finished with a game-high 21 points and Lucas finished with 19.
Lucas was successful driving to the basket while Neitzel found his shooting touch. Junior Goran Suton was the only post player to have success offensively. Suton finished with 14 points and 9 rebounds. Morgan continued his inconsistent season by scoring only four points. MSU wouldn’t continue to move on in the tournament if Neitzel and Morgan continued to be inconsistent.
In the Sweet 16, MSU ran into the machine that was the Memphis Tigers. Memphis had lost only one game all year; but after squeezing out a three point win in the second round, Memphis looked like they were primed to get upset. Many people were getting on the Michigan State bandwagon, including ESPN’s Dick Vitale, who picked the Spartans to upset the Tigers. MSU matched up well with the Tigers. MSU was strong and deep inside. Memphis must have used this as motivation, because they left no doubt which team was better.
State needed to play a slow, low-scoring game if they wanted to upset Memphis. The first couple minutes showed that this wasn’t going to happen. The only way MSU could stay in the game was to score, score, and score some more. As was the case all year (save for the explosion against Indiana), the Spartans could not generate a whole lot of offense. MSU kept it close for the first five minutes, but Memphis rolled in the first half, ending with a 34-7 run and taking a 50-20 lead into halftime.
At this point the game was all but over. State was not hitting shots and it wasn’t likely that they suddenly would. The defense, which was the strength in the previous two rounds, was embarrassed by the athletic ability of the Tigers. Tom Izzo played a zone in the first half and the Tigers shot right out and over it. Memphis had a big height advantage on the perimeter and easily shot over the shorter Lucas and Neitzel. The embarrassment included a couple of highlight dunks by the Tigers.
Suton was the lone bright spot for the Spartans. He finished with 23 points and nine rebounds. In his final game as a Spartan, Drew Neitzel had a game he wishes he could forget. Neitzel didn’t score a single point until less than two minutes were left. He finished with just six points. Raymar Morgan had seven points. The inconsistent play of Neitzel and Morgan had bitten the Spartans for the last time. MSU lost 92-74.
MSU basketball is done for 2007-08. The Drew Neitzel era is over, but the future does look bright. Kalin Lucas surpassed everyone’s expectations as a freshman and is a budding superstar. The Spartans have a great recruiting class coming in and everyone knows Tom Izzo will have his team ready for another tournament run. Spartan fans are left with their brackets and hopes that they can win some money.
Questions? Comments? Contact Chris Vannini at vanninic@msu.edu
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