Michigan State University Athletics
Grinz On Green: Spartans Still Growing Together
2/1/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By Steve Grinczel, MSUSpartans.com Online Columnist
Denzel Valentine encountered a much different Matt Costello before Michigan State took on Michigan in the Breslin Center Sunday afternoon.
"I'd never seen that look from him," the Spartans' junior guard and co-captain said of the junior power forward. "He kind of gave me a handshake and a chest bump, and I never felt that before from Matt. He's kind of the sit-back guy, but I could tell he wanted to win this game."
Costello's "want-to" eventually turned into "will-do" as he helped Valentine steer MSU to a 76-66 come-from-behind overtime victory over its archrival in what was the closest thing to "must-win" situation as there can be at the midpoint of the Big Ten season.
Michigan State came out of the game in a second-place logjam with four other teams sporting 6-3 league marks. The key to staying within striking range of 7-1 Wisconsin is distilling the best parts the Spartans have to offer into an elixir potent enough to contend for the championship, qualify for an 18th consecutive NCAA Tournament and making a difference in the postseason.
That means Branden Dawson, who had 19 points and 10 rebounds against the Wolverines, has to perpetuate the consistency he is demonstrating with his six double-doubles in his last eight games, and Valentine, whose 25 points equaled the career high he established 16 games earlier against Marquette, has to declare himself free and clear of a shooting slump once and for all.
Meantime, Travis Trice, who had nine assists but eight points on 3-for-9 shooting against U-M, has to regain the form that had him scoring 18 and 25 on 52-percent shooting in back-to-back wins over Iowa and Northwestern. And, Bryn Forbes, who made timely contributions en route to 10 points against Michigan, has to maintain the level that has produced 28 points in his last two appearances compared to single digits in eight of the previous nine.
It's a time-worn Izzo axiom that if a player can do something well once, he can do it again and again.
In other words, while Costello may have been barely noticeable in the first 36 minutes, he just put himself on notice going forward.
"He was a beast in overtime, making those plays," Valentine said. "He can do that all the time. He's just got to put his mind to it. I'm holding him accountable from now on."
Actually, Costello began to rise to the occasion with time running out in regulation. After the Spartans cut a four-point deficit in half, he blocked two shots on an extended U-M possession that began with 3:47 remaining. The first came with 3:21 to go and landed out of bounds, the other nine seconds later and led to Dawson's fast-break dunk, off a pass from Valentine, to tie the score at 66-66.
Although Forbes' 3-pointer put MSU ahead by five, Michigan forced overtime by making two baskets, one inside and one outside of the arc, in the final 42 seconds.
Valentine got the extra period started by backing in for a hooking layup, while Costello upped MSU's lead to 72-66 with a pair of free throws and a putback of Trice's errant 3-point try. Another Costello rebound led to a pair of Dawson free throws - he made the first and missed the second - and Costello helped insure the Spartans would shut the Wolverines out in overtime (10-0) when he blocked Zak Irvin's 3-point attempt from the corner with 1:03 to play.
What got into Costello, who with 10 points had all of MSU's points off the bench and seven rebounds?
"I don't know," he said. "I just stopped thinking so much and was just playing. I was just playing more free and not always thinking all the time, trying to do the right thing.
"I know I can play basketball, so if you just play, it works a lot better."
Even Michigan coach John Beilein took notice of how Costello affected the outcome.
"He's way underestimated as a basket defender," Beilein said. "He's a really good player, but he's really underestimated as far as blocking shots. He's not playing over the rim a lot, but he's got great timing, and you don't see that lot. A couple times we go to the rim, he cleaned some things up. Those were big plays in the game."
This happened to be Costello's time to shine, but it's not like nearly every Spartan hasn't had similar moments to a degree throughout the season, which is what has Izzo so confounded. Yes, there have been injuries and illnesses that have disrupted continuity, but there have also been enough sublime glimpses of individual potency that beg the question:
What would MSU be like if everybody maxed out at the same time, all the time?
"What's it going to take?" Costello said. "Your guess is as good as mine. We're just going to keep working on it. Not everybody click all the time. That's why you don't have a billion teams competing for a national championship.
"But if we do click, I think we do have that opportunity."
No one is more aware of the expiration date that comes with "if" than Izzo. The game was a reflection of how the season has gone with hot-and-cold shooting. Michigan State converted just 9-of-31 field-goal attempts in the first half but improved from 29 percent shooting to an astounding 71.4 percent (15 of 21) in the second.
"Matt struggled on ball screens and that," Izzo said. "Matt struggled with a couple layups, I mean point-blank layups. You're not going to be a great team if you miss those. Yet, he made some unbelievable plays down the stretch, the blocked shots, the block on Irvin. That's was frustrating about this team right now.
"We just haven't put it together. Personally, I don't have mixed emotions. My emotions are, I don't think we played very well. There's no mixing in that. I think we're better than we're playing. We have to get better if we're going to have a chance later in the season, at the end of the year. But, if you're having one of those days where you miss and find a way to win, that's something that's encouraging."
Valentine has a vision of the big picture; the Spartans just have to get it in focus by the time the second half of the Big Ten season begins against Illinois on Saturday at Breslin.
"In my career we're even (3-3) against Michigan, so that's a big positive," he said. "But we can play a lot better than this. There were times in the game that we just looked so good. We played defense so well and we hit shots. We've got to find a way to maintain that for 40 minutes.
"We just have to look at film and dig down deep and really hold each other accountable. Me and Travis, our leadership has to get better, and we've got to really go out and do it instead of just talking about it. If we do that, we're going to be a great team. It's a process, but we've only got nine Big Ten games left, so we have to figure it out now."
