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Michigan State-Florida breakdown
Posted: Sunday April 02, 2000 06:48 PM
Northwestern coach Kevin O'Neill is in Indianapolis and analyzes the Final Four for CNNSI.com. Here he discusses Michigan State and Florida and what might transpire Monday night.
Michigan State breakdownIt hasn't been an easy road for the Spartans. They were over-scheduled all year long, they played great teams from beginning to end, even outside the conference. They had an injury to Mateen Cleaves that set them back an awful lot, and people don't realize that Aloysius Anagonye and Jason Richardson had injuries, as well. Then Mo Pete's grandmother died. Tom Izzo's done a great job holding them together. The Big Ten is a bit of a slower league, but we all tried to figure out all year long, "How do you slow down Michigan State?" People are going to find out Monday night why Michigan State, in my mind, is the best running team in the country. The Flintstones are going to love going up and down, they want to throw alley-oops, they want to make plays. They are definitely a team that can go up and down for 40 minutes. And Michigan State did handle a press earlier this year when they demolished UConn. They got off to a great start, had them down 29 points at one point, and Connecticut's not chipped liver.
Florida breakdownThe Gators do a lot more things than just press. They have a strategy offensively where they try to shoot quickly, then they run the high-screen stuff. They're an awfully good basketball team that believes in what they're doing. One of the keys for them is their bench. They've got guys who can make plays off their bench if the starters aren't making plays. Brett Nelson came out and changed the game against North Carolina. Major Parker also did some great things for them. In talking with Tom Izzo, I think he's concerned at how Florida has two-headed monsters at every position. Everyone who comes into the game to replace someone is almost as good as the guy who's already on the court. That's a great credit to Billy Donovan to have gotten that many good players.
The secretEverybody's made a big deal about how much Florida's bench is outscoring other teams' benches. But think about how much their starters are getting outscored. Michigan State's starters are outscoring Florida's 3 to 1 right now. When Florida goes to its bench guys, Izzo's going to counter with guys like Adam Ballinger, who's not a bad player on the inside. He's going to play Richardson, he's going to play Anagonye, he's going to play Mike Chappell. When it comes down to it, Michigan State's got as much depth as the Gators.
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