Tom Izzo led MSU Spartans ready for Wolverines and March Madness

The Michigan State Spartans and Coach Tom Izzo are seeking their 18th consecutive trip to the NCAA basketball tourney in 2015.  The Spartans took a huge step towards making it to the tourney this year with a last seconds win against #23 OSU this past Saturday.  This team isn't a normal Tom Izzo by any means, the usual great Izzo teams are very talented and play aggressively on both ends of the floor. They are well coached and are mentally sound.  This years team is a good to very good team but they seem to be lacking some of the qualities of an Izzo led team that goes far into the NCAA tournament. Defensively they are good at rebounding but sometimes are a bit lackadaisical  getting back on defense or rotating to cover the open man. Offensively they have the usual pure scorers but depend on the jump shot allot more than going to the basket. The Spartans crash the offensive boards good and get allot of 2nd chance shots. The offense seem to bog down allot and it is hard to really say why, for part of a game they are in sync scoring at will and other parts of a game they go scoreless, do not have any rhythm and stand around looking at each other to make a play. One of the biggest problems for this team is poor free throw shooting.  It has caused them a couple of wins this year when they couldn't shoot free throws at the end of the game  I am sure Coach Izzo has made them shoot free throws over and over in practice.  Maybe the team needs to call an impromptu free throw practice outside of the team practices and do nothing but shoot free throws until everyone increases their FT % by 5 to 10%. Against OSU, Tom Izzo got so pumped up seeing Brandon Dawson make 2 free throws late in the game because Dawson makes less than 50% of his free throws, Izzo's outburst of excitement would make most think that they won the game right there, but he has to get excited when his players make their free throws for it has become a rarity to see the entire team shoot 70% or higher shooting FT's in any game this year. his team also lacks at times the mental tenaciousness that most Izzo teams display over time and in tight games when it is needed. Turnovers and bad fouls plague this team as well. Even with all these short comings, these Spartans are still finding ways to win games. They do not give up and have one of the greatest coaches in the game coaching them. They have a huge game tonight against Michigan and this is a huge game for both the Spartans and Wolverines at this point of the season.This is a rivalry game with bragging rights for the State of Michigan and for the Spartans a chance to possibly improve their seeding for the NCAA tourney and for the Wolverines bragging rights for winning this game. But even with a team not as good as past teams, Tom Izzo has them primed and will have them ready to play when it all matters during March Madness.   @cupofjoeinthed