[ad_1]
Chris Solari and Shawn Windsor of Free Press and Graham Couch of LSJ summarize the loss to Texas Tech at Michigan State and look to the future. Filmed on April 6, 2019.
Mike DeFabo, Lansing State Journal
MINNEAPOLIS – University basketball has never been so successful in our state. Everything Michigan and the state of Michigan have done this season saved our winter.
Each program has been ranked in the Final Four over the last 12 months, giving schools a combined total of six Final Four participations over the last 11 years.
On the regional level, U-M and MSU have a grip on the Big Ten tournament, winning four straight wins and six out of eight. Last year, both schools spent a lot of time in the top 10.
The programs are led by two of the game's best coaches, who routinely convert modestly recruited players into American, NBA and potential conference artists.
Do not expect the golden years to stop anytime soon. Not with John Beilein and Tom Izzo around.
Buy a photo
MSU and Cassius Winston have had the upper hand over Michigan and Zavier Simpson in all three games this season. (Photo: Kirthmon F. Dozier, Detroit Free Press)
Both schools will be good enough to race next season, as long as some essential players come back.
[[[[Big Ten Newsletter: The last championship of Tom Izzo is 19 years old. Aie]
No wonder there were not many tears in the Spartans' dressing room late Saturday night at US Stadium, after Texas Tech's semi-final loss to MSU.
Instead, there were smiles. And optimism. And gratitude.
The MSU players understood, even in the wildest moments after a late season defeat, what they had accomplished and talked about the possibilities of next season. It's not a routine. it can take weeks or even months for players to sit and think.
Yet Cassius Winston, Aaron Henry and Xavier Tillman were doing just that.
"We're going to be naughty next year," said Tillman, an easy smile on his face.
He did not boast. Or try to seem arrogant. Or seeking to make a statement.
Tillman is a player as cerebral as Izzo trained. The junior striker sees things. He is a father and soon a husband. And he knows that another summer in the gym as his returning teammates could turn the team into something more than the team that beat Duke to qualify for the finals.
He also knows what will happen next season.
Assuming that Josh Langford can regain his form before the injury he showed in November and December, the Spartans will have at least three players able to get a bucket at the end of the shooting clock: Langford, Henry and the young recruit Rocket Watts.
MSU will have size and depth and a senior backcourt. He will have an improved Tillman, an improved Henry and the player of the year named Big Ten who plans to change his body this summer.
Buy a photo
Cassius Winston with the Big Ten Championship Trophy on March 17th in Chicago. (Photo: Kirthmon F. Dozier, Detroit Free Press)
Winston knows he has worn out late this season and especially late in Saturday's loss. The guards and wings of the Red Raiders were physical and relentless and finally submerged.
Izzo thinks Winston can go to a higher level with a summer at the gym. Winston does not disagree.
[[[[Cassius Winston has worn MSU this season. But it's not magic, Mateen – again]
With all incoming and incoming talent, the junior leader will have more decisions to make next winter as a senior and will have to juggle a team more talented and deeper than he had this season.
Speaking of juggling, Jordan Poole of Michigan will have to find the perfect compromise between his obvious talent for individual marking and the needs of Beilein's fluid – and demanding – system.
Buy a photo
Michigan's Jordan Poole scores against a Texas Tech defender at Sweet 16 on March 28. (Photo: Junfu Han, Detroit Free Press)
If the second-year shooting guard returns, and he should, he has the talent to flourish to become a force composed of all the lectures and the centerpiece of Beilein's offensive in his third season.
If Ignas Brazdeikis does not return as well, in this case, Poole and the dynamic first-year striker could form a formidable double like that of the Big Ten.
These are big if, certainly. But even if Brazdeikis leaves for the NBA, Beilein will have a lot of talent to compete for a conference title and a place among the elite of college basketball.
David DeJulius and Brandon Johns have skills and a summer now to perfect them after a year of learning Beilien's system and, more critically, his expectations.
In other words, there are pieces. Players we do not see coming or those we thought were coming but just needed a little more seasoning.
[ Michigan basketball must evolve for next season ]
Buy a photo
John Beilein, left, and Tom Izzo discuss before the Michigan-Michigan State game on February 24, 2019 at the Crisler Center. (Photo: Kirthmon F. Dozier, Detroit Free Press)
At this point, it is foolish to doubt that Beilein will form a team capable of another exciting winter – and of March.
MSU could start next season in the top 5. U-M in the top 20 … or much higher, depending on who comes back.
There has never been a better time to be a college basketball fan in our state.
The last 12 months have proven it.
Read more:
The Michigan basketball foundation strong enough for all that is coming
Windsor: The last round of MSU was special. Why it's only the beginning
Albom: Tom Izzo, Michigan State need to change the script
Michigan State basketball coach, Tom Izzo, addresses the media after his loss to Texas Tech at the Final Four on Saturday, April 6, 2019 in Minneapolis.
Chris Solari, Detroit Free Press
[ad_2]
Source link