Michigan State Begins Difficult Road Back To Final Four

March 14, 2001

Welcome to the NCAA tournament Alabama State. Now, say hello to the defending national champions.

Making their first-ever trip to the NCAA tournament, the 16th-seeded Hornets are confronted with the daunting task of facing top-seeded Michigan State in a first-round South Region game.

A task they admit they are looking forward to.

"We will soak it all in and try to make the most of it," Alabama State coach Rob Spivery said after expressing relief that his team was not selected to compete in Tuesday's play-in game. "This is certainly a special time for the university. We will prepare the best we can for a very good Michigan State team."

Alabama State earned its berth by overcoming a 13-point deficit to post a 64-52 victory over Alcorn State on Saturday in the Southwestern Athletic Conference championship game.

Now all senior point guard Tobarie Burton and his teammates have to do is find a way to hold their own against the likes of Michigan State playmaker Charlie Bell and the Spartans.

At least Alabama State will hold the element of surprise over the Spartans.

"I have no idea about (Alabama State)," Michigan state forward Jason Richardson confessed. "But they made it to the tournament, so they have to play hard."

Burton intends to do more than just play hard.

"Hopefully we can ride this high into this tournament and upset Michigan State," Burton said.

That will be a tall task, considering the way Spartans coach Tom Izzo is talking and the fact that a No. 16 seed has never upset a No. 1 in NCAA tournament play.

"I'm not going to be satisfied until we win another championship," Izzo said. "That's our goal and it's a legitimate goal. Unfortunately, there's too many teams that can end that dream. But that's the way we're playing right now."

Izzo did admit that he and his staff were having trouble gathering information on their first-round opponents.

"We've taped every game known to man the last few weeks," Izzo said. "It'll be a lot easier for them to get film on us, than it will be for us to get film on them. But we'll make calls and try to find out who we know in that league or who we know that played them, or where we can get some film."

Although they were denied a third consecutive Big Ten tournament title, suffering a stunning 65-53 loss to Penn State in the quarterfinals on Friday, the Spartans are clearly focused on defending their most meaningful championship.

"If we play Spartan basketball and don't have any letdowns, there's no doubt we can win it again," said Bell, who has done an excellent job of taking over point guard duties since the departure of Mateen Cleaves.

Michigan State is a No. 1 seed for a third straight year and is attempting to become the seventh school to win back-to-back national championships and the first since Duke established the feat in 1991-92.

The Spartans are 3-0 in first-round NCAA tournament games since a 79-72 loss to Weber State in 1995 and boast an impressive 13-2 mark in tournament play since that loss with the defeats coming against North Carolina in the East Region semifinals in 1998 and Duke in the 1999 Final Four.

This is the first-ever meeting between the schools.

PROBABLE STARTERS

Alabama State
F Keith Gamble (10.2 ppg, 3.7 ppg)
F Tyrone Levett (15.6 ppg, 8.4 rpg)
C Alvin Pettway (14.6 ppg, 6.2 rpg)
G Joey Ball (11.1 ppg, 2.4 apg)
G Tobarie Burton (6.8 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 5.5 apg).

Michigan State
F Andre Hutson (13.3 ppg, 7.3 rpg)
F Jason Richardson (15.4 ppg, 5.9 rpg)
C Zach Randolph (11.0 ppg, 6.7 rpg)
G Marcus Taylor (7.8 ppg, 3.9 apg)
G Charlie Bell (14.1 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 5.4 apg).