Izzo has been reminding the team of the importance of defense to championships and the Spartans did a remarkable job of shutting down the athletic, talented, Tennessee Volunteers, winning 70-69.

While I’m not [...]]]> Michigan State Head Coach Tom Izzo has lead the Spartans to the NCAA Final Four for the sixth time in 12 years.

Izzo has been reminding the team of the importance of defense to championships and the Spartans did a remarkable job of shutting down the athletic, talented, Tennessee Volunteers, winning 70-69.

While I’m not going to go into details of the game, I am going to go out on a limb and speculate. This team is not going to win the National Championship.

The Spartans’ best player, Kalin Lucas, is not playing. And even if they get through Butler, they’ll find themselves facing exceptionally talented teams in West Virginia or Duke. Heart and great defense can get you to the Final Four. The jury is still out on whether it’s enough to best Coach K.

The Spartans play fifth-seeded Butler on April 3 at 6 p.m. The championship game is April 5.

Here’s a link to the Detroit Free Press’ photo gallery.

And here’s a link to the Freep’s coverage of the game.

At one point, they were up on Maryland by 16 points. But once point guard Kalin Lucas went down (and out of the game with an obviously serious injury), the Spartans lead evaporated.

In fact, the Spartans found themselves [...]]]> The MSU Spartans hung around for a two point victory against the University of Maryland Terrapins last night.

At one point, they were up on Maryland by 16 points. But once point guard Kalin Lucas went down (and out of the game with an obviously serious injury), the Spartans lead evaporated.

In fact, the Spartans found themselves behind with 35 seconds left. Then they came back. And they found themselves trailing by one point with six seconds left in the game.

Backup guard Korie Lucious, a sophmore, saved the game and the season for the Spartans. He sunk a 3-pointer from above the top of the key at the buzzer, giving Michigan State an 85-83 victory.

Next steps for the Spartans (26-8), is the Midwest Regional in St. Louis, where they’ll play ninth-seeded Northern Iowa, which upset No. 1 Kansas on Saturday. If second-seeded Ohio State beats sixth-seeded Tennessee in the other regional semifinal, there could be an all-Big Ten regional final.

Read about the game at the New York Times.

The Spartans played a tremendously uneven game. At times they were brilliant and at other times they were sloppy. This is exactly how this team has played all year.

A highlight for the Spartans was Kalin [...]]]> The Michigan State Spartans survived to play another day in the 2010 NCAA tournament.

The Spartans played a tremendously uneven game. At times they were brilliant and at other times they were sloppy. This is exactly how this team has played all year.

A highlight for the Spartans was Kalin Lucas’ career-high 25 points.

The Spartans are now getting ready to play the University of Maryland Terrapins on Sunday afternoon.

The brouhaha over Sidney Crosby’s snub of Nicklas Lidstrom, as well as the fact that our Winged warrior came up one game short of the cup, has worn off.

And the Tigers have been playing [...]]]> Things had been pretty quiet around the Motor City Sports Blog offices the past week.

The brouhaha over Sidney Crosby’s snub of Nicklas Lidstrom, as well as the fact that our Winged warrior came up one game short of the cup, has worn off.

And the Tigers have been playing great, with a seven-game winning streak (aside from a blown lead and a couple of flops on the road).

The Lions and Michigan Wolverines are making all the right noises in their march toward incompetence.

And aside from the draft, nothing really much from the Pistons. My bet was on Joe Dumars giving Michael Curry another year, and a better, more motivated roster, to prove himself.

There’s going to be a lot of speculation about who should coach this team. My concern is that this group of players, who won a great championship in 2004, has a chip on their collective shoulder. In every year since 2004, they have come up short. But they still talk the talk and walk with the swagger of a championship team. The sad truth is that they’ve fallen quite a bit since their 2004 win.

Is this group of players coachable? Can they dredge up the humility they need to recalibrate their collective work ethic and make at least one more serious run at a title? And can they do this in a conference that’s going to be dominated by LeBron James for the next few years?

Pistons fire Michael Curry | Freep.com | Detroit Free Press

The Pistons 2008-2009 season came to a crashing halt on Sunday as “King” LeBron James further solidified his reputation as one of the greatest [...]]]> Like you, I watched yesterday’s Pistons game hoping for the best, but expecting the worst. And the only positive thing you can say about the game is that our expectations were met.

The Pistons 2008-2009 season came to a crashing halt on Sunday as “King” LeBron James further solidified his reputation as one of the greatest players in basketball. And he did so at the hands of an unraveling, aging Detroit Pistons team.

James had 36 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists for the Cavaliers in this series-clinching game.

Over the next few weeks, there will be much noise in the local and national media about what this team needs to do to recover.

Getting younger will help, hopefully Rodney Stuckey will emerge from Rasheed Wallace’s shadow.

Getting hungrier will also help. Even with his talent, Tayshaun Prince may not be more than a mere role player. Coach Michael Curry certainly gave Prince an opportunity to prove himself this year and Prince did not meet Curry’s challenge.

I think that Joe Dumars realizes this and I suspect that he’s also plotting a few key pickups that he can make through free agency. We’ll see what happens, but we do know for sure that this look and feel of this team is changing.

That we can expect.

Freep.com: LeBron dusts off Pistons for sweep

What’s happening to the [...]]]> It’s always like this in the end. Athletes rarely quit before their time is up (Barry Sanders is the exception to this rule) and teams are rarely broken up and reimagined by their management before they are unraveled by a younger, hungrier and yes … more talented team.

What’s happening to the Pistons in this series is not merely an issue of a “lack of effort.” Yes, the Pistons won a championship and made it to six consecutive conference finals and yes, they are a talented bunch of players. And yes, their lack of effort could probably be the root cause of them not having achieved more (remember wondering where Rip and Chauncey were in Game 7 of the 2005 NBA Finals?).

But let’s not focus on the Pistons right now, because as much as we don’t want it to be this way, the cold, lonely truth is that their effort is irrelevant to the outcome of this series.

The Pistons are simply in the way of a young player who is on the verge of greatness.

Lebron James is willing himself and his team towards the NBA Finals and even without that willpower, I’d propose that Lebron could almost get there on his talent alone.

Last night, James was one assist shy of a triple-double. He is inspiring his teammates to play above their level and contribute their fullest. And that, my friends, is how championships are made.

Yahoo! Sports: Game Recap

In much the same way that the Bad Boys moved past the Lakers, and then became victims to Michael Jordan and the Bulls, the Pistons are outmatched by a younger, faster and more talented team.

The Cavs [...]]]> If it wasn’t painfully obvious to anyone that’s followed the Pistons this year, the end of an era is near.

In much the same way that the Bad Boys moved past the Lakers, and then became victims to Michael Jordan and the Bulls, the Pistons are outmatched by a younger, faster and more talented team.

The Cavs are shooting with nearly picture perfect accuracy and seem incredibly focused and composed while the Pistons seem, frankly, old.

Freep.com seems remarkably unmoved in their recap of the game. If you read the comments thread, you’ll see some interesting comments about Tayshaun Prince and his seemingly stalled development.

NEW YORK (AP)—This didn’t look like a club fighting for a No. 7 or 8 seed. These resembled the old Detroit Pistons, who used to beat up on those types of teams in the playoffs.

Richard Hamilton scored 22 points, Rasheed Wallace had 14 points and 12 rebounds, and the Pistons rolled into [...]]]> From the AP wire:

NEW YORK (AP)—This didn’t look like a club fighting for a No. 7 or 8 seed. These resembled the old Detroit Pistons, who used to beat up on those types of teams in the playoffs.

Richard Hamilton scored 22 points, Rasheed Wallace had 14 points and 12 rebounds, and the Pistons rolled into a tie for seventh place in the Eastern Conference by beating the New York Knicks 113-86 on Wednesday night.

Antonio McDyess added 13 points and 16 rebounds for the Pistons, who pulled even with Chicago for the No. 7 seed and lowered their magic number to one to clinch their eighth consecutive playoff berth. Detroit will be back in the postseason with its next victory or one more loss by Charlotte.

With the Allen Iverson experiment over because of his bad back and with Hamilton and Wallace healthy again, the Pistons believe there’s still time to find their form for the playoffs after a disappointing regular season.

via Pistons rout Knicks, move into tie for 7th in East – NBA – Yahoo! Sports.