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NCAA Basketball News | March 28, 2010
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Spartans go to “War” for rebounds
By John Marshall
March 28, 2010
St. Louis, MO — Big teams, small teams, fast teams, slow teams, Michigan State has always found a way to rebound.
It goes back to coach Tom Izzo’s first season in East Lansing.
The Spartans barely beat Chaminade, got crushed by North Carolina, then lost to Steve Nash and Santa Clara, with another tough game against Arkansas coming up.
Michigan State shot poorly in each game, so Izzo figured the only chance for his team to get wins to crash the offensive glass.
That’s when he came up with his famous “War” drill.
It’s a simple drill, really: the five players on the inside have to block out the five on the outside to keep them from getting a rebound. The catch? There are no fouls, no rules. Every man for himself. They’ve even done it football pads a few times over the years.
“It’s whatever goes, goes,” forward Delvon Roe said Saturday. “It gets rough, some fights start to break out, people get a little nasty in that drill.”
And it works.
In the first game after the initial “War” drill, the Spartans hammered Arkansas on the glass and beat the Razorbacks. Michigan State annually has been one of the best rebounding teams in the country since, including this year with a nation-leading differential of nine rebounds per game.
“There is a mentality and the mentality is players play and tough players win,” Izzo said. “I mean that in any sport, any walk of life. It could be physically, it couldn’t mentally, but it’s usually the way it is. And I follow that.”
So does his team.
TAKE A SEAT: Tennessee forward Wayne Chism is easily identifiable by the headband he wears high atop his head.
But it was missing in the second half of Friday night’s game.
“Me and my headband got an agreement that when I get mad, he’s got to come off,” Chism said Saturday. “He understood it was time for Wayne to go play.”
Chism, Tennessee’s leading scorer and rebounder, had just four points on 1 of 4 shooting in Friday’s first half. He shed the headband about eight minutes in and, sure enough, went on to finish with 22 points. Chism made eight of his 12 shots in the second period.
“It was the turnaround point,” Chism said. “Wayne was missing too many layups and that was unacceptable. He (the headband) understood.”
Asked about the fascination with his headband—there’s a Facebook page devoted to it “because Wayne Chism’s headband is the personification of awesomeness”—Chism beamed and said, “It’s nice, isn’t it?”
And to think, this is a relatively new phenomenon.
“I never wore a headband in high school because my coach didn’t believe in too many accessories,” Chism said.
THE STOOL’S NOT COOL: Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski hated sitting on a stool to watch the Blue Devils’ win over Purdue from court level on Friday night. The court at Reliant Stadium is elevated like a stage and both benches sit about 2 1/2 feet below it.
Krzyzewski prefers sitting between his assistants, so he can discuss strategy and hear their advice as games goes on. On Friday night, he was constantly turning around to talk to them and the awkward setup hindered communication.
“I didn’t like it,” he said. “I never got comfortable. I felt like I was back in Catholic school, and I did something wrong—except there are no marbles to kneel on or anything.”
Coach K considered ditching the stool for the second half and joining his staff on the bench, with the court virtually at eye level. Assistant coach Steve Wojciechowski convinced him to stay at court level, because the sight lines were so bad from the recessed benches.
“I said, ‘All right, I’ll stay up there, but I don’t like it,”’ Krzyzewski said. “I have such a great staff. I mean, I listen. They have a good feel for the game. So I like to hear what they’re saying during the game, instead of having to huddle before you talk to the team. It’s just, it’s bad.”
ON THE JOB: Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl wasn’t kidding when he said he’d waste no time savoring the Vols’ victory over No. 2 seed Ohio State in the Midwest Regional.
Midway through the first half of the second semifinal, Pearl had grabbed a vacant seat on press row to scout Michigan State and Northern Iowa. The only distractions were occasional handshakes and pats on the back from well-wishers.
“I’m not big on reflecting in-season, and this is no time to reflect,” Pearl said after the game. “I’m proud to tears, I can’t tell you how happy I am. But we’ve got work to do. We’ll reflect when the season’s over.”
WATCH THE LANGUAGE: Duke may have the squeaky clean image, but Baylor is the team with the no-profanity rule. The Bears are punished if they swear within earshot of coach Scott Drew.
“The reason we do a no-cussing policy is simple,” Drew said. “We know we have a lot of kids and people that come around us, and the right thing to do is not have that type of language.
We don’t want a 7-year-old coming to our practice and going home and telling mom and dad something they picked up. So we try to be good role models, good examples.”
Drew acknowledges that the players don’t have a perfect record obeying the mandate. He joked that anyone who sees the Bears can pick out the top offenders by their physiques.
“When you mess up, you’ve got push-ups,” Drew said. “So you can probably tell the strongest guys on the team, they cuss the most.”
SOFT SHOE: Michigan State coach Tom Izzo scoffs at the notion lightweight shoes may have contributed to Kalin Lucas’ season-ending Achilles’ tendon injury and Chris Allen’s right arch injury. Players, too.
“That’s a new one,” Izzo joked. “I blame these guys for a lot of things and it’s about time I blame somebody else. The shoes did it. All right.”
Forward Delvon Roe sniffed: “They’re just shoes. Whatever they give me, I wear them.” Point guard Korie Lucious added, “You can’t really blame it on the shoes because everybody in the country wears the same shoes, really.”
The Spartans wear the Nike Hyperdunk, touted on the company’s Web site for “ultralightweight support and comfort.” Dr. Jeff Kovan, the school’s sports medicine director, told the Detroit Free Press earlier this week he would investigate concerns the shoes may be at fault.
“I happen to like the shoes,” Izzo said. “I happen to like the uniforms. I happen to like the players. So I’m just going to blame myself from now on when we play bad and I’ll leave everything else up to speculation.”
QUOTABLE: “Coach said we’re going to eat barbecue. That’s fine with us, but if I had my choice we’d go eat at Waffle House. Sometimes we go to these fancy places and they serve you a drink and then don’t come back for an hour. Waffle House works for us.”—Guard Bobby Maze, on Tennessee’s dinner plans.
THAT’S BULLDOGS, NOT UNDERDOGS: Butler’s run to the Final Four is no surprise to Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski.
A few hours before the Bulldogs upset Kansas State in the West Regional final, Coach K said the nature of the NCAA tournament gives a mid-major team like Butler a chance to spring an upset every time they play.
“The basketball gods don’t give you seven games and best out of seven,” Krzyzewski said. “There are still some teams more talented than others. But all you need is one thing to go wrong and you’re out.”
Butler upset top-seeded Syracuse on Thursday night, evidence that the NCAA tournament is as wide open as ever. And Krzyzewski likes it that way.
“Different teams have a chance to win right now, unless you get that super team that has guys sticking together who are pro caliber, for a while,” Krzyzewski said. “It will be like this from now on, which I don’t think is bad. It’s pretty darn interesting.”
ODDS & ENDS: Attendance for regional semifinal games in Houston on Friday drew 45,505 fans, the second-highest total for any preliminary round session in NCAA tournament history. Salt Lake City sold out both of its weekend sessions, but ticket sales have been average in St. Louis and Syracuse. … All-time Michigan State alum Magic Johnson was in St. Louis to watch the Spartans’ two games. Tennessee alum Allen Houston tweeted Friday night that he’s headed to St. Louis for Sunday’s Midwest Regional final.
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