Spartans Proudly Bearing The Burden Of 'Defending National Champs'
3/23/2001 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 23, 2001
By PAUL NEWBERRY
AP Sports Writer
ATLANTA - The nets have been cut. The parade has run its course. The trophies have been put in the case.
That's about the time when the realization sets in: It's not easy being a defending national champion.
Just ask Michigan State coach Tom Izzo.
"Someone told me it would be the ride of my life," he said. "Well, it's bigger than that. I didn't realize that winning one or two more games would make that big a difference. The bull's-eye is bigger. There's more obligations. People are more interested in what you've got to say."
Just ask Izzo's players, who feel as though they've spent an entire season on the firing range.
"Teams that didn't sell out all year would sell out when we got there," senior forward Andre Hutson said. "The governor, the president of the university, they would all be there."
Even so, Michigan State held up just fine lugging the onerous moniker of defending champion. Few teams got to experience the season-making joy of beating the Spartans (26-4), who amid all the furor managed to put themselves two victories away from a third straight trip to the Final Four.
The top-seeded team in the NCAA South Regional will meet No. 12 Gonzaga (26-6) on Friday night in the semifinals.
Admittedly, the Spartans expected to arrive in Atlanta with two other teams from last year's Final Four. But No. 2 seed North Carolina and third-seeded Florida were both upset in the second round.
So, Michigan State is sharing the Georgia Dome court with not only Gonzaga, but seventh-seeded Penn State and 11th-seeded Temple, who will meet in the late game Friday. The winners advance to play Sunday for a trip to the Final Four.
Instead of viewing those teams as an easier path to Minneapolis, the Spartans consider them a wake-up call.
"The same thing could happen to us," Bell warned Thursday.
While the champion Spartans were a star-oriented team with Mateen Cleaves and Morris Peterson, this season has produced a more collective effort. Sophomore Jason Richardson is the leading scorer at 15.2 points per game, but Hutson and Charlie Bell are both averaging more than 13 points. Zach Randolph is also in double figures.
Everyone is expected to crash the boards, which is why a team with no one grabbing more than 7.6 rebounds per game still has a dominating presence in that category. On average, the Spartans collect 15.5 more rebounds than their opponents.
No matter how many championships banners are hanging in East Lansing, Izzo demands a blue-collar approach from his players. The five-on-five rebounding drills in practice are not for the weak-hearted.
"You're piled on and knocked down," Bell said. "But you've got to get up and play. Maybe if we weren't winning, there would have to be some adjustments. But we've won four straight Big Ten championships."
The Spartans are matched against a team that is used to playing at this time of year. Gonzaga is one of only three schools - Michigan State and Duke are the others - making its third straight appearance in the round of 16.
Enough of the Cinderella talk.
"There are big parallels between these programs," coach Mark Few said, comparing the Zags and Spartans. "We're under the same sort of pressure in our league. Teams are always jacked to beat us. If we lose, they storm the floor."
Of course, Gonzaga plays in the West Coast Conference, where the hoopla is pretty well contained to obscure basketball outposts such as Saint Mary's and Santa Clara. No one else pays much attention until this time of year, when the Bulldogs always seem to knock off a couple of big-time teams and everyone jumps on board the little team that could.
Gonzaga, led by senior forward Casey Calvary (19.1 points per game) and junior point guard Dan Dickau (18.9 points, 6.4 assists), loves to fire up 3s - more than a third of their shots have come outside the arc. They still have to prove they can stand up to the Spartans on the inside.
Gonzaga is hardly intimidated by the task.
"We don't have to beat them 10 times. We've only got to do it once," Few said. "We're playing well. When we get it going, we can be a handful."
