Michigan State Flies By Hawkeyes 89-72

Feb 4, 2004

By LARRY LAGE
AP Sports Writer

EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) - The elite coaching company Tom Izzo joined meant more to him than the milestone he reached.

Paul Davis scored 19 points and Izzo won his 200th game in Michigan State's 89-72 victory over Iowa on Wednesday night.

Izzo became just the eighth coach to reach 200 victories in his first nine years among coaches with at least half of their seasons at a Division I school. The other coaches are Roy Williams, Everett Case, Denny Crum, Jerry Tarkanian, John Calipari, Tubby Smith and Jim Boeheim.

"The 200 wins, I hate to say it, aren't exciting to me," said Izzo, who succeeded Jud Heathcote at Michigan State nine years ago. "But the names of the coaches that did it in a comparable period of time as we did, that's the part that excites me. It means we're getting something done."

Davis has been criticized by Izzo as much as any player the past two seasons. But the standout center could only rave about Izzo as a coach and a person.

"He definitely comes second to my parents and I can say, for every other guy in this room, he's like a parent to all of us," Davis said. "He's got his ways, but he gets the job done -- 200 wins is an incredible feat."

The Spartans (11-8, 6-2 Big Ten) have won six of seven since losing the conference opener at Wisconsin and falling to 5-7 overall. Michigan State is alone in second place, a half-game behind the Badgers.

"We feel like we're getting better, but we still have a long way to go," said Kelvin Torbert, who scored 18 points.

Iowa's Jeff Horner and Pierre Pierce each scored 21 for the Hawkeyes (11-8, 4-4), who had won two of three. Greg Brunner had 10 points and 13 rebounds.

"I thought we did enough good things offensively," Iowa coach Steve Alford said. "We just couldn't get enough stops."

Chris Hill had 15 points for the Spartans and Alan Anderson had 12. Shannon Brown and Jason Andreas each added eight points.

Michigan State won its 10th straight game against Iowa at the Breslin Center, where the Spartans are 42-2 against Big Ten teams since 1998-99.

The Spartans took control of the game for good by outscoring Iowa 22-11 during the final six minutes of the first half to lead 50-35 at halftime.

The Hawkeyes struggled late in the first half when Pierce picked up his third foul with 4:42 left. When he went out, they trailed by just seven. They were down 17 just a few minutes later.

"Having him in foul trouble in the first half really hurt us," Alford said.

Michigan State had its highest scoring first half of the season, and its second straight 50-point half.

After Iowa trailed by 22 midway through the second half, it pulled to within 12 with 3:56 left, but couldn't get closer.

Michigan State made 51.7 percent of its shots and limited Iowa to 41.1 percent.

"Obviously, we ran into a very good basketball team playing very well," Alford said.