Grinz on Green: Resourceful Spartans Rally Past Sooners
3/28/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Video Highlights | 2015 NCAA Tournament Central
By Steve Grinczel, MSUSpartans.com Online Columnist
SYRACUSE, N.Y. - It was Michigan State's biggest game of the season, and yet the Spartans "came out flat," said junior power forward Matt Costello.
"We came out very sluggish," agreed freshman forward Marvin Clark Jr.
Unimaginable. Inexplicable. But even when MSU was trailing Oklahoma by 10 points more than halfway through the first half of Friday night's East Regional semifinal at the Carrier Dome, not unfixable.
Not for a team that may go down as the most resourceful of the Tom Izzo coaching era with a four-year history of coming back from horrific injuries and bizarre illnesses suffered by the likes of senior forward Branden Dawson and senior guard Travis Trice. Not for a team that could trace losses earlier in the season directly to free-throw shooting that was so bad, it jeopardized extending a hallowed 17-year streak of NCAA Tournament appearances.
The No. 3 seed Sooners were grabbing every loose ball, beating the Spartans to every rebound and scoring on nearly every possession. Meantime, Michigan State was once again missing three of its first four free throws.
Had it not been for the heady, steady Trice putting MSU on his back while scoring 10 of his game-high 24 points in the first half - he made 3 of 6 shots from the field and was 2-for-4 from 3-point range before intermission - Michigan State might have found itself in an unsalvageable situation.
But, they trailed Oklahoma only 31-27 at halftime, and Izzo pushed the reboot button once again.
"We started believing about 14 games ago that we had to change our approach," Izzo said. "We were a soft team. And the first half, either they were monsters or we reverted back for a little while. I just didn't like the way we played, and I don't think our players did.
"This has been the closest-knit team I've had and it's been maybe a little less talented one than we've had, and we had that albatross on our back with the free-throw shooting, and we've kind of dealt with it. One more victory would be one of the more sweeter moments of my career because I think it would teach you that you it a lot of different ways."
After falling behind by six points again early in the second half, the No. 7 seed Spartans rallied behind the gritty play of Denzel Valentine, some timely shooting of Dawson and the decisive foul-shooting of Trice and Valentine down the stretch to pull out a 62-58 Sweet 16 win against the Sooners.
In the span of 17 minutes, Michigan State went from what would have been an ignominious elimination - given their lethargic first-half effort - to being a victory in Sunday afternoon's Elite Eight matchup against No. 4 Louisville away from reaching the Final Four for the seventh time under Izzo and the ninth time in school history.
"I didn't know if we could win it tonight, the way we were playing in that first half," Izzo said. "I've got a lot of respect for (Sooner coach Lon Kruger) and his team, but you constantly learn about your own team, too.
"They got challenged at halftime. It was an interesting locker room, and they needed to be challenged. What I started to like is they challenged each other. We were a day late and a dollar short on everything we did. I don't have an answer why. "I honestly was so happy we were only down four at halftime."
Valentine and Trice hit back-to-back triples to ignite a 12-6 run that tied the score at 39-all with 14:31 remaining. Neither team scored for the next three and a half minutes until Oklahoma took a 42-39 lead on Buddy Hield's three-point play.
After Valentine countered with a 3-pointer, Dawson emerged from his funk - he had nine of his 11 rebounds in the first half but only two of six points - with a back-to-back suspension jumpers deep in the lane. The Sooners led one last time, 45-44, with 7:52 remaining, but Costello rebounded his own missed hook shot and dunked a putback to put the Spartans ahead to stay.
Valentine added a critical pull-up triple to give MSU a little breathing room and in the final 1:19, helped secure the win with what had been an area of weakness as recently as the first half: the Spartans made their final six free throws, two by Valentine, after pulling down a key defensive rebound, and two pair by Trice.
Valentine scored 13 of his 18 points in the second half as he and Trice combined for 27 after the break.
 | "This team, if we could win another game - I hate to say it after winning a national championship (in 2000) - it might be one of my favorite banners ever being hung from those rafters just because of this team has gone through." |
"It's funny because I was talking to Trav in the hallway," Valentine said. "In the first half, it felt like it was my first time playing basketball. But I just kind of like snapped out of it. I was like, I'm in the Sweet 16 and we've got a chance to go to the Final Four. I'm a junior, what the heck.
"I just smacked the ground and I woke up, I guess. I just got on guys and guys responded, and Trav led us."
Trice said Valentine's ability to revive himself was critical to the Spartans comeback.
"The stakes were high and if he misses that (3-point) shot, we might not be here right now, we're probably on our way home," Trice said. "So you have to give Denzel a lot of credit. Early in the first half he was kind of struggling. Some players might give up, but he's the type of player where he bounces back."
The Spartans won again despite defying convention. They lost the battle of the boards in their third straight NCAA Tournament game, 38-36.
"This is a lot different than how we won all year long," said Costello, whose only two points proved to be pivotal. "But, it's March. Crazy things happen and we pulled it out. It feels really good that we were able to finish it, and now we're playing on Sunday.
"I personally had a very frustrating first half, so to finally do some good things out there felt really good. I'm so proud of Trav and Zel. Zel's really our vocal leader and Trav tries to do it by example and they made plays for us. B.J. (Dawson) didn't have his best game in the world, but he's not ready to be done and he fought through adversity and made big plays at times."
The game against Louisville will symbolically bring Michigan State full circle with regard to the adversity the Spartans have face over the last four seasons. Then a freshman, Dawson sustained a serious knee injury against Ohio State in the final regular season game of 2012.
The No. 1 seed Spartans won their first two NCAA games, but without Dawson in the lineup, fell to the athletic, No. 4 Cardinals, 57-44, in the West Regional semifinal.
"This team, if we could win another game - I hate to say it after winning a national championship (in 2000) - it might be one of my favorite banners ever being hung from those rafters just because of this team has gone through," Izzo said. "We've made adjustments. We're not one of those teams that just go to the system, like a Wisconsin, that's very, very good at it.
"We're kind of a bag of nuts. There's nothing better than when a team can self-evaluate, and this team can understand what it does and doesn't do. When you have a team like that, they know what their weakness and strengths are, and I think they responded in a very good way."
