After being confident that Temple would prevail, the Spartans destroyed me. They were more athletic than I anticipated, and they played a team game on both ends of the court. Now I know why at least one person picked them for their final four.
Neither teams' leading scorers led the way. Drew Neitzel had just 5, and Dionte Christmas only scored 3. Here's the real catch: MSU's other players stepped up. In fact, Raymar Morgan stepped up so much, he's now their leading scorer.
Morgan 15 +1
Naymick 10 +6
Allen 12 +6
Walton 6 +2
Summers 8 +3
All five of those guys outperformed their season scoring averages. When you have a supporting cast like that rise to the occasion and fill in when the star gets into some foul trouble, you're going to steal some games. Now look at Temple:
Tyndale 16 +1
Allen 13 +5
Brooks 14 +5
Inge 4 +1
Only four guys outperformed their averages, and they did it by less than the MSU guys did. Some of the numbers might be skewed because MSU rotated in more players, but the point remains. The Spartans had more balanced scoring, and they shared the load when Neitzel couldn't carry them.
Defense was another big difference, and it became pretty obvious early on. When Christmas touched the ball, two players would converge, even out on the perimeter. Tom Izzo did a good job mixing up schemes and matchups. Christmas didn't get any good looks, and MSU did a great job of preventing Temple from running in the open floor, which they really wanted to do.
At times, it looked like the Owls weren't interested in playing defense. It seemed like they were lazy getting out to cover the corners, and they weren't able to make adjustments to what MSU was doing. Players weren't taking responsibility and just hoping a teammate would pick them up. That's not a way to win basketball games, or any sport for that matter.
Hopefully St Joe's and Villanova represent the city better tonight. Someone has to win, right?
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