Michigan State bows out in big ten tourney

Does anybody remember that classic quote from Rob Schneider in the movie Necessary Roughness?

"Coach, nows not the time to make sure everybody has played. Hey, I haven't played yet, maybe I should go in."

That was actually one of his many classic quotes as announcer Chuck Neiderman.

It's the not the time to make sure everybody played that was eerily similar to the way Michigan State coach Tom Izzo handled his team on Friday. The Spartans loss to Minnesota in the Big Ten Tournament left many fans, media and even a few players scratching their heads over the way Izzo managed the player rotation.

With Chris Allen suspended for mysterious reasons, the Spartans were definitely in need of a lift at the guard play. For some reason though Durrell Summers was benched most of the second half again for mysterious reasons. In his place were seldom used Austin Thorton and walk-on Mike Kebler which left Spartan fans wondering why in the world is Izzo benching Summers for those two. Yes, Kebler did help the defense improve in the 2nd half, but offensively he was a liability. The stat line: 20 minutes, zero points, 2 missed free throws and two costly turnovers. One of those miscues was on a fast break where Kalin Lucas passed to him and he basically couldn't wait to release it back to a Minnesota player as if he were holding a hand grenade. The other was while grabbing a rebound after a Minnesota miss and basically tripping over his own feet out of bounds. Lucas was standing right near him and you could see the look of disgust on his face when they showed the replays.

So at the risk of making the offense look bad, Izzo thought at least he would make their defense look good. But Izzo didn't need to contribute to the offensive demise - the players did that on their own with all the missed free throws. Sparty was an aberration from the charity stripe in Friday's loss in which they were slightly over 50% including four straight crucial misses in overtime. Minnesota obviously didn't have issues with the basket as they were close to 75% in free throws. And did anybody notice how a few of the Minnesota players just step up to the line and calmly shoot it in no time? Usually their results are all net. Smooth and secure. The Spartan players stand at the line, stare at it too long, measure it, and almost aim it. Even a lot of their makes were rim rattlers that were fortunate to bounce in. Make a few more free throws and Michigan State could have been the ones facing the battered and bruised Boilermakers, which Minnesota dismantled on Saturday.

MSU's defense has actually improved over the last 4 or 5 games thanks in part to Chris Allen and due to Raymar Morgan playing up to potential. Get Allen back in. Get Summers some more playing time. And get the continued solid play from Morgan. Get all those in place and the Spartans can forget about the Minnesota meltdown and focus on a respectable run in the upcoming NCAA.