Spartan Hoops Courtside: "Picture Perfect" Day For MSU

March 8, 2010

Rarely do opportunities present themselves like this.

A chance to win a share of the Big Ten regular-season championship, on Senior Day, against your archrival.

With this trio of circumstances converging Sunday afternoon at the Breslin Center, Michigan State took full advantage as the Spartans controlled Michigan, 64-48, claiming their 12th Big Ten title in program history and sending out seniors Jon Crandell, Isaiah Dahlman and Raymar Morgan out as winners in their final game in East Lansing.

But maybe it's also a case of karmic scheduling.

Half of Coach Tom Izzo's six Big Ten titles have arrived against Michigan on the Breslin Center floor in the last game of the regular season. In many respects, this game resembled the 2000 affair vs. the Wolverines, when the Spartans needed a win for a Big Ten three-peat. That team responded with a historic 114-63 triumph, MSU's largest margin of victory ever in a league game.

With Flintstones Mateen Cleaves and Charlie Bell behind the bench in attendance on Sunday, this year's team did much of the same, building a 29-point lead in comfortably cruising past Michigan for a second straight conference crown.

MSU also beat the Wolverines in 2001 to claim a share of the Big Ten title - its fourth consecutive conference championship.

"This will probably go down as the most rewarding of the six championships just because of all the things we battled through this year," said Izzo, who became just the sixth coach in Big Ten history to win at least six league titles.

Senior Day is aptly named, for usually the ones playing in their last home game play one of their best. It certainly was the case for Morgan.

The outgoing captain, who is only one of five players in Spartan history to score 1,500 career points and collect 700 rebounds, put on a show in his final home game.

Morgan scored a season-high 22 points, was 10-of-15 shooting from the field, and pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds for his 12th-career double-double. With his layup at the 16:01 mark in the second half, he was outscoring Michigan, 19-16.

The Canton, Ohio, native summed up the day with two simple words.

"Picture perfect," he said, smiling, in the locker room after the game.

Morgan wasn't the only senior in the spotlight on Sunday.

Dahlman, a reserve for most of his career, earned the start and went on to play 14 minutes. His two baskets were perhaps the loudest cheers of the day - both dunks. On a fast break early in the second half, Morgan tossed the ball to Dahlman for an alley-oop that made the score 42-14 in favor of the Spartans.

Later in the half, Dahlman recorded a steal, and the ball ended up in Kalin Lucas' hands around midcourt with nothing but a wide-open layup ahead. But before heading to the hole, Lucas saw Dahlman in the corner of his eye. Being a point guard, Lucas knew the right play. He yelled "backboard" to Dahlman, who took Lucas' offering off the glass and slammed it home to a thunderous, appreciative Spartan faithful.

"I guess you could call that the icing on the cake, the way that happened," said Dahlman. "I couldn't have asked for better teammates for what they did. Both of them had opportunities to get their own dunks, and they gave it to me. I will thank them forever for that, because those memories will live with me."

Even walk-on Jon Crandell got in the mix, playing the final two minutes in the victory.

For the second straight season, there was an extra production to the usual traditions of a Spartan Senior Day. In addition to the framed jerseys, the videos, the speeches, and the kissing of the "S" at center court - which Shawn Respert started in 1995 and Cleaves brought back in 2000 - the team got to celebrate a Big Ten championship.

"This doesn't happen every day, so sit back and enjoy this," Izzo told the crowd.

Wearing championship t-shirts and hats, the Spartans gathered at the free-throw line, circled around the Big Ten trophy, and watched as another banner was lifted to the rafters of the Breslin Center to the sounds of the MSU Alma Mater.

Izzo then invited the students to the floor to celebrate with the team during the net-cutting ceremony. Each member of the team cut a piece of the net, one-by-one, to a packed court of students, fans...and cameras. No one wanted to ever forget this moment.

And who could blame them? It capped a perfect day for Spartan basketball.

"Coach Izzo always talks about leaving your footprint...I think we did that today," said Dahlman.

One that will be seen for years.