NEW YORK - Michigan State guard Keith Appling drove the lane one day in practice and flipped a lob to Branden Dawson as he had many times before.
“He didn’t go get it,” Appling recalled Saturday. “It wasn’t that it was a bad pass or bad timing. We weren’t used to doing it. I had been out for so long, and he had been out for so long.”
Appling figured the injury-riddled Spartans would rekindle their chemistry sooner or later, but there isn’t much of a later in the final days of the regular season.
Michigan State got its timing back just in time. The Spartans (29-8) are one victory away from their seventh Final Four in 16 seasons.
They face Connecticut (29-8) today at Madison Square Garden in the East Regional final, a scene hard to envision when Michigan State lost 7 of 12 to close the regular season.
Not that the reasons were a mystery. Appling missed three games in February with a sore right wrist. Dawson sat out nine with a broken right hand. Big man Adreian Payne was sidelined for seven with a sprained right foot.
“Once you get everybody back, you kind of expect it to go smoothly like it was before,” guard Gary Harris said of a team that started 18-1.
Instead, the Spartans lost at home to Illinois on March 1 in their first game at full strength.
It made sense to Coach Tom Izzo that the lack of continuity would make for a ragged offense. He reminded his players that the Oklahoma City Thunder dropped three in a row after star point guard Russell Westbrook returned from injury last month.
What Izzo didn’t realize at first was how much the shuffling would hinder their trademark defense, too.
With Dawson and Payne’s athleticism, Michigan State can switch on screens. Izzo tweaked his strategy when they were out, and it took a while to readjust after they came back.
Once the Spartans’ defense improved, their rebounding improved.
“I think we got our identity back,” Izzo said.
They beat Wisconsin and Michigan, two teams that also have reached the regional final, to win the Big Ten Tournament. Suddenly Michigan State was an NCAA Tournament favorite despite being seeded fourth.
“There were people putting a fork in us, and then two weeks later the president’s picking us to win the whole thing,” Izzo said about President Barack Obama’s bracket for ESPN.
The Spartans showed why by beating top-seeded Virginia on Friday in the sort of gritty, physical game Michigan State has so often won in March. Still, Izzo isn’t sure this group quite has the edge yet “that just refuses to lose” like some of his past teams. Appling is the guy who can provide that, and he’s not 100 percent.
Since Izzo took over in 1995, every player he’s recruited who stayed four years has reached a Final Four. If the Spartans lose today, Appling and Payne would be the ones who snapped that streak.
To Izzo, players accept that pressure when they sign with Michigan State.
“I’m hoping for true competitors,” he said. “Fear drives us all.”Elite Spartans
Michigan State Coach Tom Izzo is 6-1 in Elite Eight games since he became the Spartans’ coach in 1995. The Spartans are in their first regional final since 2010. YEAR OPPONENT RESULT 2010 Tennessee W, 70-69 FINAL FOUR Lost to Butler (Semifinal) 2009 Louisville W, 64-52 FINAL FOUR Lost to N. Carolina (NC) 2005 Kentucky W, 94-88 FINAL FOUR Lost to N. Carolina (Semifinal) 2003 Texas L, 85-76 2001 Temple W, 69-62 FINAL FOUR Lost to Arizona (Semifinal) 2000 Iowa State W, 75-64 FINAL FOUR Beat Florida (Nat’l. Champ.) 1999 Kentucky W, 73-66 FINAL FOUR Lost to Duke (Semifinal) SOURCE Michigan State Media Relations RESEARCH Jeremy Muck, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Sports, Pages 30 on 03/30/2014