Marquette speared by MSU Spartans in NCAA

No other way to put it, MU had no answers. MSU defeated Marquette 61-49 ending Marquette's season with a first round NCAA defeat. MU came out tentative, scared, uninspired...who knows. It took MU ten minutes to score their first points after trailing 14-0 to start the game. David Cubillan did the honors with a 3 pointer. In fact Cubillan hit three of them in the first half and seemed to be the only guy that came to play in the first half. MSU came into the game ranked 4th in FG% defense and it showed why as they frustrated MU completely.

MU trailed 30 to 18 at halftime against one of the best zone defenses seen all year by MU. MU scored ZERO two point baskets the first half. ZERO.

The second half wasn't much better, though Dominic James did heat up a bit. MU managed to hit five two point baskets and in the process tied a NCAA Tournament record by scoring the fewest two pointers in a NCAA basketball game in history. MU broke it's own record of 5 (held also by Louisville and Samford) which it set against Arkansas in 1996 under Mike Deane.

MU shot a horrid 32% for the game while MSU shot a solid 54%. James led MU with 18 points. Barro finished with just 1 point, spending much of his time on the bench with foul trouble. Fitzgerald, who scored 40 points in two games in the Big East Tournament, did not hit his first shot until 32 minutes had expired on the game clock.

The Carolina Curse continues. MU is now 3-25 all-time in the state of North Carolina.

MU finished the season 24-10.

Mike Kinsella and Jamil Lott graduate and a class of five new players (two guards and three forwards) will come in next season.

MEDIA UPDATES

Rosiak's Article

AP Recap

Marquette Tribune recap with Paul Day.

Marquette Tribune look at Sparty's defense with John Keegan.

Boxscore

Bring on the Spartans!!

Once again, Man's Greatest Four-Day Weekend begins.......the 2007 NCAA basketball tournament. Workplace productivity be damned. There are games to be played.

And for the fourth time in the last six seasons, the Marquette Warriors are part of the fun --and this time have a sizeable chip on their shoulders for several reasons:

1. Disrespected by their seed: check
2. Key player injured: check
3. Fashionable pick to lose in the first round: check
   
4. Whispers that the team peaked too soon: check
   

Perfect. Now its time to go to battle.

Keys to tonight's game.....well, there are several but a few points to watch for:

• Turnovers: Despite playing at a slower pace (only two teams scored as many as 70 points against them this season) and relying on superior guard play to win, Michigan State turns the ball over on 25% of their tempo-adjusted possessions. Can MU turn the Spartans over at this clip or better if McNeal is not ready to go?
• Rebounding: MSU's inside rotation is more consistent than Marquette's, and the Spartans are one of the very best offensive rebounding teams in the nation. MU is not far behind in that category, but in aggregate the Spartans are a stronger rebounding team. Can MU make the backboards a break-even proposition?
• Raymar Morgan: Folks, here's another versatile 6'7" forward. Yuck. Let's remember what Jeff Green, Demetris Nichols, Alando Tucker and most recently Sam Young have done to MU this season. Can Fitz and/or Lazar slow down MSU's talented freshman?
• David Cubillan: Let's say McNeal won't play. Cuby will have to defend Neitzel. Sack up, Cuby.
• Dan Fitzgerald and Wesley Matthews: MU could have mismatches in their favor with each of these guys on offense. If MSU plays much man-to-man, Neitzel could be matched up on the taller Matthews. Advantage MU. Same thing with Fitzgerald -- as we've seen over the years, MU's tall shooters often gain advantage in man-to-man schemes if they are defended by a traditional post player. This could be the case tonight -- hopefully it is for MU. MSU is a great defensive team (especially inside the arc) so these matchups are key.
  

Time to lace'em up folks. And we know that Al McGuire is on MU's side - check out this fantastic segment from WTMJ on Al. GOOD KARMA!

MEDIA UPDATES

• MUScoop info header for the game.
  
• Rosiak on Matthews and James going into battle sans McNeal.
• Paul Day of the Marquette Tribune previews the game tonight.
• The AP preview.
  
• The AP with the 1,034th take on the mentor-mentee storyline.
• Tom Keller of The State News on how MSU will free up Neitzel.
• Andrew Silver previews the game for Marquette Hoops.
  

Tom Crean radio interviews

Tom Crean appeared on two Michigan radio programs yeterday --- the Staudt on Sports radio show and later with WDFN-AM's Bob Wojnowski and Tom Kowalski.

Check'em out here.

Marquette-Michigan State Preview

For the fourth time in the last six seasons, Tom Crean's Marquette Golden Eagles will lace'em up in the NCAA tournament later this week. I'd venture to guess that Thursday's opening round matchup will immediately become the most memorable of those four as MU squares off against perennial power Michigan State in Winston-Salem.

Now its time to know our opponent. We've enlisted the help of Tom Keller, MSU's beat reporter from The State News , MSU's Independent Voice.

Tom covered the mentor v mentee angle yesterday, and was kind enough to work on a detailed Q/A to help us get up to speed on the Spartants. Tom, take it away ..........

CS: What types of teams generally give MSU the most trouble?
Keller: No surprise with an Izzo team - it's all about defense. The Spartans have only allowed 15 opponents to top 60 points this season, which has helped mask some of their offensive deficiencies. A team that can push the tempo and shoot from the outside (like, say, UNC, or to a lesser extent, Marquette) is a threat - this team isn't built to be playing in the 70s.

What types of teams do the Spartans generally handle well?
Keller: The Spartans have four respectable bigs they can rotate down low, so few big men have presented much of a problem - MSU put a reasonable clamp on Greg Oden and D.J. White, at least comparatively. Zone defense has also been pretty ineffective against the Spartans.

Raymar Morgan could give Coach Izzo his biggest matchup advantage. Can you breakdown the freshman's game?
Keller: Morgan's a 4 playing the 3 out of necessity. He's got good range out to about 18 feet, and MSU has been getting him more touches on the block of late. Has a great knack for contact. MSU was plus-6 with him in the lineup against Wisconsin in the Big Ten Tournament; minus-19 without him. It's funny that he's MSU's biggest matchup problem now - it was exactly that mid-sized swing forward that the Spartans glaringly lacked last season.

Every team gameplans for Drew Neitzel, yet he stil averages 18ppg, 4 apg and shoots 41% from deep. What does Izzo do to free him up?
Keller: Relentless downscreens, a la the Detroit Pistons with Richard Hamilton. Neitzel's shifty enough to get a step on his man and quick enough to get out and shoot right off the catch. The teams that have slowed him have hedged way out on those screens - he's a less effective (but still surprisingly dangerous) scorer off the dribble.

MSU is 2nd in the nation in assists/field goals made, yet turns the ball over on nearly 25% of their possessions. Are MSU's guards susceptible to full-court pressure?
Keller: Without a deep roster to do much fast breaking, the Spartans have instead relied on a very meticulous half-court offense, a big reason for the high assist/high turnover count. (A lot of those turnovers come from mistimed sets or illegal screens for Neitzel.) Opponents pressed with pretty good success early in the season, but MSU adjusted well and hasn't seen much of it lately.

The Spartans enter the NCAAs losing three of their last four games. Is this team struggling right now?
Keller: The first loss came with Neitzel severely hampered by flu-like symptoms, the second by two at Wisconsin on Kammron Taylor's late 3, the third a legitimate handling by the Badgers at the Big Ten Tourney. None was a bad loss (the only one that would really qualify all season was the 30-point drubbing at Purdue), so it's not a complete freefall. This team has undeniably had problems winning away from home, but neutral wins over Texas and BYU and two-point road/neutral road losses to Maryland, Wisconsin and Ohio State bode well.

Goran Suton is a greatly improved big man, averaging roughly 10ppg and 6 rpg. Is he a legitimate threat on the blocks?
Keller: Suton's a remarkably skilled Euro-style 4 with good rebounding skills and range out to 18 feet. He's also the Spartans' best back-to-the-basket scorer. They don't get him the ball there as much as they probably should, instead using him a lot in pick-and-pop sets. When he's hitting that mid-range shot, the rest of the offense flows a lot better.

Other than the players mentioned, are there others who might step up and surprise MU on Thursday night?
Keller: Travis Walton is a hawkish on-ball defender who will likely draw most of the James assignment. (Ironic, because each could easily be playing for the other's school right now.) He can be very disruptive, and he's improved his jumpshot enough to add a few baskets a game. Drew Naymick's a steady defender in the post who's averaging almost two blocks a game the last month. Other than that, though, this team doesn't have a whole lot of options. It's got to come from the top seven (maybe even the top one or two), or it's not coming at all.

Expectations are always high in East Lansing. How have the 2006-2007 Spartans performed relative to those expectations?
Keller: Izzo was realistic from the beginning of the season - this team has NIT talent. But the Spartans relished that underdog role, got some big wins early, and have been playing as a sum greater than their parts ever since. They've acknowledged their deficiencies and embraced a system that hides them well. Getting to the tournament was a huge accomplishment in itself, but there hasn't been any back-slapping over it. They've still got a little bit of a chip on their shoulder, and they're not a team I'd want to see on the other side of my bracket.

Tom Keller of The State News, THANKS VERY MUCH!