Team LCD

First of all, let's hear it for Ryan Miller and Team USA. Arsenio woofs and corndogs all around. Also, kudos to Suzy Merchant and the MSU women's team for a huge upset at Ohio State. Finally, hold on just one second, those of you who want to mock the pollsters who put this MSU men's team in the preseason top 5.

    It's about that time, to come to terms with the fact that the Spartans aren't as good as you thought. And to say they were woefully overrated in the preseason. But if you look back at the preseason top 25, MSU was still the most known commodity after Kansas. Kentucky? Seems obvious now, but we didn't know just how good Wall and Cousins would be. In retrospect, Villanova and Purdue were probably safer picks than the Spartans, but that's it. And let's not forget, Texas and North Carolina started at No. 3 and No. 6!
    But yeah, this MSU team appears to be a descendant of the 2005-06 team, which was a preseason top-5 team because it returned a lot of talent from a Final Four finisher -- and ignoring the fact that it lost Alan Anderson, Kelvin Torbert, Chris Hill and Tim Bograkos.
    Kind of like the 2003-04 team, which was a preseason top-5 team because it returned a lot of talent from an Elite Eight team -- but ended up badly missing Erazem Lorbek and Al Anagonye. And going back, sort of like the 1990-91 team, which returned Steve Smith and a lot of other good players from a Big Ten champ/Sweet Sixteen team -- but lost more than people realized in defense-stretching bomber Kirk Manns and versatile forward Ken Redfield.
    It looks like this team is on course to be remembered in much the same way.
    Unless it wins its next game.
    Which, by the way, our Dan Kilbridge has already fearlessly and confidently predicted. I'm guessing there won't be too many others. Much of the talk in the press room after the game was not about whether MSU could win at Purdue, but whether they would lose a competitive game or just get blown out. For the record, I see a solid effort and a loss of 10-12 points. I'm on the "wipe that green Kool-Aid mustache off your face" side of the press corps.
    So you saw the game, and some of you may have seen Tom Izzo's comments after the game. If not, he made it clear that the game plan -- to run at every chance against a team that played four guys 40 minutes -- was not followed in the first half. He said Raymar Morgan was the only Spartan who played "really, really well." (Which probably shocks some of you, but you have to look beyond point totals. I didn't think Morgan was terribly sharp, but there's no question he spilled it out there).
    He also busted out the three words that have become this team's unofficial theme.
    “We still have some leadership and chemistry and distraction problems,” Izzo said. “And I feel that those are more problems than they’ve been in other years, that’s why I’ve made such a big deal about it."
    Chemistry is the thing Tom Izzo talked about in positive terms on the two-game road swing to Penn State and Indiana. Guys cheering for each other and all. A loss like this, and it's a problem again.
    This is a tired topic. But it's not going away. In a way, it seems ridiculous. I mean, this is a game. Pass, shoot, run, jump. But it's not like Izzo harps on this stuff every season, even in less successful seasons. He's on this stuff hard (without getting too specific, unfortunately) so it can't be discounted.
    This is a good time to try to put yourself in Izzo's shoes. As a fan, you work all day, come home, watch the game and swear at Raymar Morgan when he goes 2 for 10. For Tom Izzo, Raymar Morgan and Durrell Summers and Korie Lucious are his job. All day, every day. He has 15 guys, with their schoolwork, friends, girlfriends, parents -- and in some cases, handlers and people who want to be their agents. He has to try to stay on top of what's going on, because he knows how easy it is for 18- to 22-year-olds to get off track, to lose focus. And at this level of basketball, as fierce as the competition is out there, a little bit of lost focus can make a huge difference.
    Izzo has been talking about it all year. After the Ohio State game, so did his players.
    “I mean, he’s right," Morgan said when told of Izzo's comments. "We’ve had some distractions with the whole team throughout the entire year and it’s probably starting to show. It’s been showing in our play."
    Meaning what?
    “Just distractions across the board. There’s no other way you could put it.”
    Draymond Green was asked, too.
    “I’m not sure -- I mean, I know, but it’s something that you keep within your family, that’s something that we’re keeping between us,” Green said. “I know, just like the rest of us know. It has to be corrected in order to be a championship team.”
    If you're confused, maybe it's best to look at each category on its own.
    * Leadership. Remember that win at Minnesota way back in January? Tom Izzo praised Kalin Lucas for his leadership in that game, but it wasn't the fiery, in-your-face stuff that you automatically think of in a team leader. Izzo was talking about a few times in that game when Lucas took charge on the floor, made sure some sets were run correctly, calmed everyone. And he hit the big shots too, of course.
    On Sunday, it was very different for Lucas. For whatever reason, even after he was so good and controlled in wins at Penn State and Indiana, he was out of control too often -- bad, early shots, driving too deep instead of pulling up, not taking command -- against Ohio State. Was it the Evan Turner duel? Just trying to do too much? Ankle feeling too healthy? Whatever it was, it was a major factor in MSU's loss. The good news for this team is, Lucas has done it right before and won a lot of games -- big games, in March -- so this is correctable. And he did push the ball in MSU's second-half run. But in the first half, MSU was "bad fast." You want to run, or you want to take your time and get a good shot, preferably get it inside against Ohio State. Instead, a bunch of rushed jumpers while Ohio State was winning the game with a 19-2 run.
    (Great teams don't let other teams go 19-2 on their home floor, by the way).
    MSU got the ball inside and ran in the second half, and dominated a 12-minute stretch. Then the Spartans lost their composure again during crunch time, while Ohio State pulled away for good.
    Lucas and Morgan, it's been said a million times, are not natural leaders. They don't talk a lot. Draymond Green does, and that's why Izzo made him a captain in December. The problem for Green is, he's a sophomore, and he isn't yet a great player (emphasis on yet). Guys don't always stand and salute for a sophomore who's still finding his game. The next two seasons, this will be Green's team and there will be no questions asked. But this particular team is transitioning to that, and those transitions aren't always smooth.
    Which leads us to...
    * Chemistry. A wise old man observed in the press room after the game that this team is "mopey." I thought that was a pretty good word for it.
    Here's what Chris Allen said when asked about the LCD issue.
    “Honestly, I feel like guys are getting mad at themselves and getting ready to come in the game they’re thinking about the last play instead of just ‘All right, that play happened, let it go.’ And I think guys are still thinking about that play," Allen said. "So if they do have a shot or if they do have a pass, they’re second-guessing it because they don’t want to make that same mistake and have to hear everybody on the bench’s mouth, and stuff like that."
    Interesting. Chemistry is a tricky thing. There aren't that many teams out there that are clique free, with a bunch of guys high-fiving all the time and setting up poker nights. This team has cliques and some guys who seem to go their own way, like a lot of teams. It would be way overstating it to call this a poisonous or divided locker room, but this team definitely isn't as close as some of Izzo's other teams. Which is easy to see during stretches of four losses in six games, not as easy to see during 10-game winning streaks.
    * Distractions. Lucas and Summers are the obvious guys here because of the NBA angle. Lucas, it has been clear since the end of last season, is going to seriously consider it, and perhaps that has messed with his mind some. Don't just shrug off Summers, despite how not-at-all-ready he often looks. Last year's NCAA run put him on the radar, and there are those who think he's ultimately a better prospect than Lucas. Should both of them focus on improving, getting degrees, playing four years and then making a living playing basketball? Yes, but that doesn't mean they will.
    Like I said, that's the obvious thing, but that's just part of the deal. There are a lot of different ways to be distracted, and apparently a lot of guys on this team who are distracted at times. Anything that detracts from focus on the team hurts the team.
    "Every team has distractions. It’s who has the least distractions and who deals with them the best that be the winning teams," Green said. "I don’t think we’ve dealt with them that well. We’ve dealt with some well, but coach, he’s always gonna work for us. If there’s 24 hours in a day he’s working 25. That’s just the kind of guy he is, that’s what he puts into it. And whatever you put into it, you usually you get out what you put in. So he’s putting everything into it and I think we’re putting some into it."
     Maybe that's the way this team will be remembered. An underachieving group, a collection of talented individuals that never became a great team, and ultimately fell short of its goals.
     Unless the Spartans win their next game. And/or have another one of those memorable Marches.
    And even if they don't, take heart. At least you aren't North Carolina fans this season.