Spartans Display Grit in NCAA Tournament Opener against Georgia
3/20/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By Steve Grinczel, MSUSpartans.com Online Columnist | @GrinzOnGreen
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Branden Dawson came to a sobering realization while sitting on the Michigan State bench with two fouls, no points and no rebounds against Georgia in Friday's NCAA Tournament opener at Time Warner Cable Arena.
The fact his second transgression allowed the Bulldogs to take an 11-5 lead on a pair of Marcus Thornton free throws only added to the consternation that simmered within him for the next 14 minutes and 23 seconds.
"I was definitely frustrated," Dawson said. "I don't think there was another time this season where I've been on the bench and sat for that long. So, it was hard especially since this was the first tournament game and it could have been my last one."
Dawson, known as "B.J." throughout the Spartan nation, replaced that helpless feeling with a sense of resolve that after all these weeks and 35 games appears to be the Spartans' one common denominator this season.
This is far from coach Tom Izzo's most talented or athletically gifted team. When it comes to shooting free throws, it's his worst by far. He's had other teams with higher basketball I.Q.s and this one is prone to lulls and lapses, which reared their ugly head again against Georgia.
However, this team is nothing if not resolute and its once ambiguous identity can finally be defined by an affinity for figuring out how to overcome deficiencies over and over again, as the 70-63 victory over the Bulldog demonstrated with hair-pulling frequency.
Just when it looked like it might be Dawson's last game as a Spartan, it didn't, then it did, then it didn't, then it did and then it didn't.
"There were definitely a lot of thoughts going through my head but I kept telling myself, `Hey B, you have to pick it up,'" Dawson said. "My teammates and my coaches just kept telling me that in the second half I needed to come out just a different person. So that's what I did.
"Then I got my third foul like two minutes in. It was definitely hard getting into the flow of the game, but just told myself I'm a senior, my team needs me and I need to step up."
Before that happened, however, MSU erased the five-point deficit and built a 13-point halftime lead with freshman forward Marvin Clark Jr. taking most of Dawson's minutes. With sophomore big man Gavin Schilling also in foul trouble, Izzo patched another hole with the fair-haired Colby Wollenman, a walk-on and pre-med student.
Bryn Forbes, the mercurial outside shooter whose point production read 5, 4, 1, 3 and 10 points in the previous five games, picked a good time to drain three timely 3-pointers and finish with 14 points.
Through it all, the Spartans weathered a storm that saw their lead dwindle to two points with 14:07 remaining, go back up to 13 with six minutes to go and dip back down to three with 21 seconds left in large part because Dawson came alive for all 14 of his points and six of his rebounds in the second half.
Oh, and also because senior guard Travis Trice chipped in 15 timely points and six assists.
And also because junior guard Denzel Valentine made up for his costly turnover at the end of regulation in the overtime loss to Wisconsin in the Big Ten Tournament Championship Game, by making six consecutive foul shots - for Izzo's worst free-throw shooting team - in those final 27 seconds to send MSU into Sunday's Round of 32 against second-seeded Virginia.
With Valentine scoring a team-high 16 points, handing out six assists, pulling down six rebounds and committing just one turnover, Izzo once again begged, borrowed and stole - the Spartans did have eight steals while scoring nine points off 12 Georgia turnovers - just enough to come out on top for the 24th time this season.
Michigan State just continues to find ways to be functional despite its spells of dysfunction, illustrated further by the way it won despite being outrebounded, 43-35.
"We've been in this position plenty of times," Dawson said. "I looked over at Travis and over at Zel and we were calm. We didn't panic. We didn't yell at each other. We just stayed together. We had a couple lapses but we kept our poise as a team and we never stopped playing.
"To help this team out and pick this team up shows our leadership."
If the gray in Izzo's hair appears to double during each timeout it's because of occasional on-court decisions, such as an ill-fated attempt at scoring on a fast break with under a minute to play instead of pulling the ball out and working the clock, which happened before an eight-point lead suddenly shrunk down to 66-63.
"That team we played was physically tough," Izzo said. "We did a great job on those two guys inside (Thornton, 12 points and 10 rebounds and Nemanja Djurisic, seven points 12 rebounds), meaning our defense on their offense. But they killed us on the boards, and that doesn't happen very often.
"Of course with one of my best guys out most of time, and then Schilling..., I'm not sure going into the game we thought Marv and Colby - Dr. Kildare there - would be my two guys, and yet it was. Give them credit, they might have won the game for us."
And, Michigan State did play to the strengths it has - unselfish play being chief among them - just as it has in most of its wins.
"We did what we do," Izzo said. "We had 18 assists on 26 baskets, our running game, I thought, won us the game, too. They turn the ball over a lot. That's one of their negatives, and I thought we got some fast breaks because of the turnovers they had.
"Any time you blow lead, you've got guys in foul trouble and this and that, and you can bounce back from it, it means there's something growing with this team. Everybody's really taking to it."
The last thing Izzo wrote on the grease board before going out to play Georgia, was, "you've got to play hard enough, you've got to play good enough and you've got to play smart enough," he said. "We seem to be hitting two out of three a little more often than all three, and when you get deeper in this tournament, you have to hit all three."
Izzo has had to rely on Trice, Valentine and Dawson to do so much, he's had no choice but to put his trust in the likes of youngsters like Clark and "Tum Tum" Nairn Jr. or risk running the team completely into the ground.
The result has been the Spartans becoming comfortable with who and what they are.
"Everybody's been ready to go on this team and I think that's been obvious to see the whole season," said Clark, who had six points on 3-for-5 shooting from the floor. "I can go all the way back to the Kansas game when (walk-on) Trevor Bohnhoff got in the game and got some big rebounds for us going into the end of the first half.
"Today B.J. drew two fouls and coach didn't hesitate to put me right in. Part of that is showing him I can come in and produce. I think it just plays into the camaraderie of this team. Nobody is selfish. Everybody is for each other, everybody has confidence in each other. Coach came in (after the game) and said you know what, we gave away two big leads, but hey, we won the game, so let's get out of here and get ready for our next opponent."
There's no telling who the credit will go to next.
