NCAA Tournament 2000 - Spartans adjust style to fit opponent

Spartans adjust style to fit opponent
Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS -- Want to slow down, play some defense? Fine. Michigan State can do that.

Want to play run-and-gun for 40 minutes? Oh, the Spartans love that.

Whatever Florida wants to try in Monday night's national championship game, the Spartans are saying, "Bring it on."

"We want to be remembered as champions," forward A.J. Granger said Sunday. "No one remembers who came in second."

After Michigan State's 53-41 win over Wisconsin in the semifinals, it's easy to forget the Spartans averaged 73.7 points during the regular season.

"I think tomorrow's game will be more up and down the court," Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said. "I think we want to run; they want to run. We want up-tempo; they want up-tempo.

"It should be a game that's 180 degrees from yesterday."

The Gators look more like greyhounds on paper. They averaged 84.1 points during the season and 79.4 points during the tournament.

But the Spartans are big, fast and athletic, too. During the season, they beat Mississippi State 96-63; Illinois -- a team very much like Florida -- 91-66; and Michigan 114-63.

"I think our players are confident that no matter who we play, we've played somebody like them," Izzo said.

Some of that is Izzo's doing. He's the one who scheduled non-conferencee games against Texas, North Carolina, Kansas, Arizona and Connecticut.

That's why the Spartans believe they should be able to handle Florida's vaunted press. Other good teams have pressed them -- and failed.

The Spartans beat UConn 85-66. Syracuse, another good pressing team, led the Spartans by 14 points early in the second half of a regional semifinal game, but lost by 17.

"I think we match up with Florida very well," said forward Andre Hutson, the closest thing the Spartans have to a low post player. "They don't have anyone really tall or bigger than we are.

"They are big physically and very athletic, just like we are."

Michigan State starts three seniors and two juniors, a rarity in an age when players turn pro after just one or two years. That might explain why the Spartans rebound better than just about anyone.

They averaged 12 more rebounds a game than opponents during the season. Florida's margin, by comparison, was 5.4 rebounds.

"Rebounding will be a big key, especially because of their style," the 6-foot-8, 240-pound Hutson said. "We're going to send four guys to the boards, just like we always do."

In the end, this game might be decided the way so many Michigan State games are decided: by the play of Spartans' point guard Mateen Cleaves. Forward Morris Peterson has scored the big points in this tournament, but Cleaves is still the leader.

It is a role that Cleaves, a three-time All-American, stayed in school to play.

"I tell him it's like Deion Sanders," Izzo said. "It's prime time, and he's a prime-time player. A lot is going to be on his shoulders tomorrow."


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