Certainty

* Editor’s note:  It’s been a while since I sat down to write a column.  If we had avid readers I am sure they’ve be extremely distraught. My apologies. But, alas, I am back on the grid and back to being a regular contributor to the Boomroast operation. Thanks to those who helped keep it afloat during my absence.

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With the exception of the BCS stirring up controversy, the Yankees spending more than the GDP of a small country and the NBA being relatively unwatchable (except for Jeremy Lin, but that’s a topic for another column), very few things in sports are certain. Which is one of the reasons why we watch. Given what’s happened thus far in the college basketball season, we can add one more certainty to the list.  And that’s that when they’re playing the underdog role and the no one believes in us card, Tom Izzo and the Michigan State Spartans are possibly the best team in all of basketball. Yes.  The best. This is when critics and talking heads on ESPN (I’m looking at you Digger and Dick*) will point to Kentucky and Syracuse as being leaps and bounds above MSU.  But, given past history and what’s playing out on the court right now I’ll take an Izzo team in March over the other guys. Especially this year’s Izzo team which is exactly the kind of team he wants to coach.

     Doesn’t Digger and Dick sounds like a name for a porno movie?

Everyone knows and it’s a point that’s been beaten to death since last year when MSU started the season ranked number two in the preseason.  Expectations were high in East Lansing and the team folded like Cousin Eddie’s cheap suit. The bottom falling out on that team left a bad taste in the mouths of Spartan fans and basketball experts alike.  So much so that at the start of this season MSU was unranked and projected to finish in the middle of a much improved B1G. It was supposed to be a “rebuilding” year in East Lansing. MSU fans were told to enjoy the season but wait until next year – when five star stud Gary Harris and a loaded class would arrive on campus. As a Spartan fan I foolishly bought into the doom and gloom prognosis.  In fact, if you were to ask someone to give a prediction on the season, anyone declaring a B1G title or top three finish would be branded a homer among other insults/expletives that would make Erik Cartman blush.

Now, my green glasses are Coke bottle thick and I expected that MSU would make a late season push and scratch its way to bubble team status. I anticipated them being one of the six or eight schools with CBS cameras in the locker room/film room watching the player’s reactions when their team is either chosen or left out of the tourney.  I’m not sure if people still go “postal” but if MSU’s fourteen year streak of consecutive berths ended on live TV with Gumbel and his cronies chronicling the entire thing many fans would’ve gone gone all Michael Douglas in Falling Down.

Despite not having a roster loaded with four and five star talent, I truly believe that since the original Flintstones put the MSU Basketball program in the upper echelon, Tom Izzo has his best team. Not players.  But team. Everyone knows that when MSU teams are at their best, rebounding, on court leadership and hard nosed defense are the catalysts for success.  This team has all of those and then some.  The worst part about regaining the rebounding advantage is we’re stuck hearing about the war drill yet again.  As for the on court leadership, look no further than the heart and soul of the Spartans – Mr. Draymond Green. He is a bonafide stat stuffer and can seemingly will the team to victory.  The fact that he has the intangibles of what Tom Izzo looks for in a leader are why he’s constantly compared to Mateen Cleaves.  So much so in fact that by the end of this season I fully expect hearing about that will surpass announcers talking about Izzo and Mariucci being best friends who grew up in Northern Michigan. If you look at their defensive stats, this years team is at or near the top in all of the major defensive categories.  Come tourney time if the shots aren’t falling, it doesn’t mean the sky is, because that old adage of defense winning championships still holds true.

As every sports fan knows, March Madness is just a few weeks away and this team much like we expect from MSU in March is looking like they’re ready to make a deep run in the tourney. I know that regardless of their draw, I’ll have this years Spartans penciled in to at least another Elite 8.  And then I’ll be kicking myself for not having enough faith as they blitz their way to yet another Final Four.

Written by: Jeff