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Billy Ball? Bah! Champion Spartans show they can do it all
Posted: Tuesday April 04, 2000 01:55 PM
INDIANAPOLIS -- It feels like a bit of a ripoff, doesn't it, that national championship game? Where was that famed Florida depth, for one? What about that feared press? What happened to Billy Ball? We should have known something was wrong, right from the very start. And if not then, at least at the end of the first half, when the Gators actually walked the ball up and worked for the last shot, for crying out loud. Monday night's title game in the NCAA tournament, in the end, was not anything close to what was advertised. Not that these things often are, of course. The last one notwithstanding, how many good Super Bowls have you seen lately? Still, this one, this title game, was especially disappointing. We were looking for the Gators -- the deep, in-your-face Gators -- pushing the favored Michigan State team into their style of play. Florida wasn't supposed to win -- the Gators were definitive underdogs -- but, darn it, they were at least supposed to be able to force Michigan State into playing Billy Ball. From the beginning, it was the other way around. The Spartans came out running, shredding the Florida press. They forced the action. They went to their bench. They had Florida coach Billy Donovan counter-punching. And so we were rewarded with a game with one tie score (at 2-2) and no lead changes that ended up in a ho-hummer for Michigan State, 89-76. Final Four outcast Wisconsin, for all its so-called ugliness and its supposed lack of pizazz, played Michigan State tighter than Florida did. "Everything comes down to styles," said Michigan State coach Tom Izzo, who would have come in a distant second if a vote were taken this past weekend on the most promising young coach in the title game. "I think people maybe question Wisconsin's style, but ... [Wisconsin coach Dick Bennett] brings up some good points. What's wrong with passing it around for a good shot and doing some of those things?" Not that the Spartans were reduced to that, of course. They got a ton of fast-break points, thanks to their nimbleness in breaking the press. One pass to the sideline, someone cutting down the middle ... so much for the press. They got their usual sampling of offensive rebounds and second-chance points, though the Gators bettered them in both those categories. And, of course, the Spartans had something the Gators simply did not. They had the heart of Mateen Cleaves, the gutsy point guard, who scored 18 points and came back from a sprained ankle to make sure the Spartans did not squander the lead. We got cheated in this title game because we focused too much on flash, too much on the promise of Billy Ball. It's a mirage, really, something even the Gators know. For sure, the Gators showed Monday they are not one-dimensional. As their starting backcourt was being held scoreless, big man Udonis Haslem busted out for a game-high 27 points on 10-of-12 shooting. Still, while we were trying to figure out what Florida was, or what the Gators could be, we missed what Michigan State is. In two diametrically opposed games in the Final Four, the Spartans showed, simply, they are everything. They can do it all. "I guess if I had to be impressed with my own team on a couple of things, one of them would be the versatility to be able to play 50-45, or the 90-80 games," Izzo said. "I'm not sure a lot of teams can do that." Billy Ball? It may not have the same ring to it, but we'll take Izzy Ball anytime. John Donovan is a senior writer for CNNSI.com. Comments? To e-mail Donovan, click here.
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