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Final Four breakdowns
Posted: Sunday April 02, 2000 12:40 AM
Northwestern coach Kevin O'Neill is in Indianapolis and breaks down the Final Four games for CNNSI.com Michigan State 53, Wisconsin 41Michigan State came out early and really tried to post and get to the basket with Andre Hutson and A.J. Granger, but they really weren't successful.So they went to Morris Peterson late in the first half and they were more successful. He does a good job of posting up smaller guys. Once they knew that was going to be successful, they really went to him. He did a great job of making plays in the post, and what Mateen Cleaves did, he only had one field goal and one assist, but he knew who to get the ball to: Peterson. You've got to give Tom Izzo and Cleaves credit -- if you watched their team play any time during the year, if a guy was playing well, they knew to get him the ball. Peterson just took over the game. He had 20 points -- that's 40 percent of their scoring right there! On defense, Michigan State would never let Jon Bryant score. He's got a hand in his face every time, and if he tries to shoot over 6-6, 6-7 guys, he's going to struggle every time. And when Bryant couldn't establish his shot, they couldn't establish their inside game either. Part of it is, Mark Vershaw couldn't score inside because they surround him so much. He really runs their team, and again they really shut him down. I thought Hutson did the best job defensively. He stayed out of foul trouble, and on the offensive end he could score too. Michigan State is a team's team. They have a good feel for each other, they know what they have to do to win. Florida 71, North Carolina 59Florida obviously created tempo early, but the Tar Heels started making shots, they took better care of the basketball and they established an inside game with Brendan Haywood. He was really breaking Florida down and putting them in tough situations.After the first five minutes of the game, Ed Cota did a really great job of breaking pressure. And though Joseph Forte cracked a little bit in the first half, he did a great job of scoring points in the second half. He scored in so many different ways -- he can create shots, get open for jumpers. What happened was, we get to the 13-minute mark and Cota picks up his fourth foul. I thought Bill Guthridge should have given him a few minutes on the bench at that point because once he picked up that fourth, they were in trouble. He goes from being the most aggressive to the least aggressive player on the floor, both offensively and defensively. He couldn't pick up a charge, he couldn't defend people the way they needed him to, and at that point, Florida started to creep back into the game. Florida could sense it, and they went after him. They chased guys down and forced turnovers. When Cota could not take control of the basketball game, it really made it hard on the other guys to handle the basketball.
It was really difficult for Ed, and I feel bad for him. He plays so well, he does so many things, and ends up not being able to play the way he's capable down the stretch.
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