NCAA Tournament Coverage

BIG TEN TOURNAMENT TEAMS

By Nick Meyer

itoffishul777@hotmail.com

March 15th, 2004

NCAA Tournament Scouting Report: Michigan State

Continuing with the theme of guard play, Michigan State features arguably the deepest corps in the nation.  Shannon Brown, Kelvin Torbert, Chris Hill, Maurice Ager, and SG/SF/PF Alan Anderson give Tom Izzo exceptional firepower and athleticism in the backcourt.

Brown is a tremendous leaper and open-court finisher, as is Torbert. Hill is a deadly spot-up shooter when he’s confident. Ager is also a great shooter, but a little streaky, and Anderson is a tough, athletic slasher.

Michigan State is extremely balanced, with four players averaging over ten points a game and Hill and Torbert over nine.  Freshman point guard Drew Neitzel is young and inexperienced, but has played well since taking over for Hill at the point.

Paul Davis gets a lot of criticism, but is still one of the nation’s better big men, almost single-handedly holding down the post for the Spartans and commanding double teams on offense.

The Spartans are strong on both ends, finishing second in the Big Ten is scoring offense and fourth in scoring defense.

Weaknesses:

As talented as Michigan State is, they’re far from a complete team. All of their guards can handle the ball, but only Neitzel is a natural ball handler who doesn’t have to carefully plot each move before making it.

They have too many players that play the same position (shooting guard), and the inside players except for Davis have not panned out as coach Tom Izzo expected.  Matt Trannon and Delco Rowley are undersized and too raw on offense, and Drew Naymick is not very confident or aggressive.

Izzo has failed to establish a consistent playing rotation and probably needs to do a better job

 of riding the hot hand instead of constantly shuffling lineups.

The Spartans have lacked killer instinct, failing to put away teams such as Iowa in the Big Ten Tournament and not playing well in big games. They have just one win over ranked opponents in the last two seasons (Wisconsin at home this year.)

Summary: Michigan State has the firepower to get hot and go on a run, but they seem to lack the intangibles that distinguish good teams from great ones. They’re missing a power forward like an Antonio Smith or Andre Hutson in years past to do the dirty work down low.

Prediction: Second-round loss to Syracuse.