Not individual stars but a team

As I was sitting on the train heading to my brother's for Thanksgiving, I ran across the following article

Some Things Don't Change by Howard Byrant.  This is one of the best articles on Tom Izzo and his career as Head Coach of MSU men's basketball.  Don't take my word for it...READ IT!  Bryant quotes,

"Izzo has won consistently without the Kentucky-Duke formula of top-two or -three recruiting classes or obvious next-level talent...Yet there are the Spartans, somewhere in the top 15 or 20 annually to start the year, growing stronger as the year goes on, winding up in the top five or a 1-seed."

What's Bryant's point?  Izzo recruits talented players, no doubt, but his aim isn't to find NBA-ready players to secure his spot in the Final Four.  He instills in his players somewhat old-school values: toughness, team-work, and appropriate selflessness.  Those boys work hard.  Period.  These aspects have been discussed in earlier posts so I won't elaborate too much, but it was this exact formula that brought the Spartans another W last night against Oakland.  

Honestly, it wasn't a pretty win.  The game should have been a blow out but due to an obscene amount of turnovers, Oakland was always in reach, until the end.  With Harris and Trice still out, Appling played another brilliant game.  In 38 minutes, he led the team in scoring with 20 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, and only one turnover.  Hats off to Appling.  But lets face it, in order for MSU to really make a deep run this year, we need more than just Appling playing well each game.

ENTER Payne and Valentine.  Both players played with great poise and patience.  Payne not only scored at the rim but made some impressive jump shots as well, making him more than just a threat in the paint. Valentine, with the excitement of playing against older brother, Drew, in front of a home crowd, played like he owned the Breslin.  The young freshman put up a double-double (10 points, 10 rebounds) and appeared all over the court.  His youthful energy lifted the Spartans near the end when they really needed to pull away from Oakland and claim the game as theirs.

The Spartans continual challenge will be to limit the number of turnovers.  At one point, the announcer shared that we had made 20 baskets and also committed 20 turnovers.  Those have got to go.  I trust Izzo is working on that with his boys.  Making wise decisions under pressure is called maturity and with a young, inexperienced team, mistakes are bound to happen, and at a relative high rate.  The rate will start to drop as the season progresses.

Question is: Who will step up next game?

Next up: Louisiana-Lafayette.  GO STATE!