University of North Carolina Athletics
Michigan State Game Guide
December 1, 2009 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 1, 2009
By Lauren Brownlow
The Basics
No. 10/11 North Carolina (6-1) will host No. 9/9 Michigan State (5-1) in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge. Carolina is 5-5 in the event, winning its last three in a row (two outside the Smith Center) and four of the last five. Michigan State has the best record of any Big Ten team in the event (5-4). Carolina is 1-2 against Michigan State in the Challenge with the two losses coming in 1999 and 2000. Carolina is coming off of an 80-73 win over Nevada on Sunday night. Michigan State is coming off of a third-place finish in the Hall of Fame Classic in Atlantic City over last weekend; the Spartans were upset by Florida on Friday night but beat Massachusetts in the consolation game on Saturday, 106-68.
Carolina is 9-3 against Michigan State all-time and has won the last four in a row, three in the NCAA Tournament. Carolina has won all five NCAA Tournament meetings against the Spartans and has won the national championship three times after facing them, reaching the Final Four four times. Michigan State's last victory in the series came in 2000, a 77-64 win over Carolina in November in East Lansing. It has been nine years since Michigan State came to the Smith Center, and on their only trip to that particular arena (second trip ever to Chapel Hill), the No. 8 Spartans knocked off the No. 2 Tar Heels, 86-76. Carolina would end up going to the Final Four that season but would lose over ten games; Michigan State ended up winning the national championship. The lowest Carolina has been ranked when facing the Spartans since 1998 is No. 6 and the lowest the Spartans have been ranked is No. 16.
Game Time: Michigan State at North Carolina, 9:00 PM.
Last Time: Carolina beat Michigan State to win its fifth national championship by a score of 89-72 on April 6, 2009. Carolina got out to a 55-34 halftime lead and never really looked back. It was the biggest halftime lead in the national title game, not to mention the most points scored in the first half. Michigan State pulled within 13 twice in the second half but that's as close as it got. Carolina shot 45.9% from the floor after starting out shooting 52.9% in the first half. Michigan State shot 35.7% in the second half and 40% for the game. The Spartans had 21 turnovers. Carolina had 13 assists to seven turnovers. Ty Lawson led Carolina with 21 points on 15-of-18 free-throw shooting, adding six assists and an NCAA Championship record eight steals. Wayne Ellington had 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting and 3-of-3 from beyond the arc. Tyler Hansbrough had 18 points and seven rebounds. Ed Davis had 11 points on 5-of-7 shooting and a team-high eight rebounds. Goran Suton led Michigan State with 17 points and 11 boards. Kalin Lucas had 14 points, seven assists and six turnovers. Durrell Summers had 13 points.
Radio Coverage: Tar Heel Sports Network coverage will begin at 8:00 PM.
Storylines
The Battle of the Boards: Tom Izzo's teams pride themselves on being among the nation's elite in rebounding every single year. Though Roy Williams' teams are known as a fast-breaking, high-assist bunch, they are also traditionally very good rebounding teams as well. Effective rebounding allows Carolina to generate its offense; the defensive boards can initiate a fast break try while the offensive boards are designed to generate easy putbacks. Michigan State is out-rebounding opponents by over 11 per game (44.7-33.2), as is Carolina (43.1-32.0). Last season, Carolina out-rebounded Michigan State 46-40 in the first meeting and Michigan State turned 12 offensive rebounds into 12 points but turned it over three times. The Spartans out-rebounded Carolina 42-35 in the national title game, though, and they are never going to be an easy team to out-rebound.
It is important to add as a caveat that if Carolina is to get offensive rebounds, it would do the Tar Heels no good to simply get them without doing something with them. Carolina had 19 offensive rebounds against Syracuse but turned four of them over and missed six shots. In the first five games this season, Carolina pulled down 66 offensive boards (13.2 per game) and turned those into 60 points but turned it over 11 times and missed 23 shots. In the last two games, Carolina has 35 offensive boards (17.5 per game) and turned those into 41 points but turned it over just once and missed 11 shots.
Nevada's 16 offensive rebounds were the most Carolina has allowed to any opponent this season and the six field goals made after those rebounds are second-most behind Florida International and Syracuse (7 each). FIU was a guard-oriented team that out-positioned and at times out-hustled Carolina in its season-opener. But it was the Orange that were best able to maximize their second chances, turning 12 offensive boards into seven made field goals. It's certainly a concern that Carolina's opponents have turned 87 offensive boards into 36 made field goals and 11 made foul shots. Carolina has 101 offensive rebounds and turned those into 40 field goals and 23 converted free throws.
Michigan State has averaged 16 offensive rebounds per game this year and is converting those into 17.7 second-chance points per game, grabbing 43.6% of their misses. The Spartans' opponents have averaged 12.5 offensive boards and turned those into just 11.3 second-chance points. It was Florida best able to take advantage of their second chances; though the Gators gained just 12 offensive rebounds, they turned those into 14 second-chance points, which helped negate a huge rebounding edge in the game (Michigan State out-rebounded them 42-24). Gonzaga and Valparaiso each managed 15 offensive boards, but the two teams turned them into just nine and ten second-chance points, respectively. But as Carolina struggled to rebound against a tough Nevada team last week, it was just a warm-up for what it will face against the Spartans.
Intangibles: Just because this isn't an actual rematch of the national championship game doesn't mean that's not what the nation thinks or even this Michigan State team thinks. Just because Carolina is hardly the same team it was last year doesn't mean that the sight of those Carolina blue jerseys won't be more than enough to inspire Michigan State, largely made up of returners from last year's second-place squad, to want to not only beat Carolina, but beat them as convincingly as Carolina beat them last season - twice. "It grows anger in me because `thumped' and `embarrassed' are not two good words that a coach of a very successful program should ever use," Izzo said. "I've had to use that twice in the same year, so it bothers me and I'd hope it bothers my guys. ... It should be a revenge game. When I say it's a revenge game I mean any time you get embarrassed on the biggest stage you can play in, there's got to be some revenge. I just hope we're mature enough to say, more than revenge, it's about can you play well that next year? Can you play up to that competition?"
Ed Davis has been getting text messages from people he knows at Michigan State, including forward Draymond Green, about how much the Spartans want to beat the Tar Heels. He, like the rest of the team, has a lot of respect for the Spartans and he understands that this game will be different than last year's games. "They really have a chip on their shoulder to beat us. I know they really want to beat us bad," Davis said. "If we lose to a team twice, we would really want to beat them so I know they're really going to get after us. ... This is what college basketball is all about - all the hype, Michigan State and Carolina, two storied programs - it's just going to be a fun game."
But for more than the obvious reasons, this game is huge for a young and developing Tar Heel team. The game that made the fans fall in love with the 2006 team was yet another championship "rematch" with Illinois. Carolina didn't win, but it hung in there and that game made everyone feel that this team would never give up and would fight to be in every single game. This team showed flashes of that kind of resiliency against Nevada. It got down by as many as two points late in the second half but showed the kind of resolve it couldn't quite sustain against Syracuse. The panic evident in both the Syracuse loss and the Ohio State win where the Tar Heels nearly lost a big lead was not on display against Nevada, despite the situation. "I was really impressed with my team probably over the last ten minutes of the game more than I have been at any time this year," Williams said. "They were faced with a little adversity and things were not going their way and all of a sudden the other team has the lead. I think we got more competitive at that time. We made some shots, got some defensive stops and if you play like that, you've got a chance. I was more impressed the last ten minutes of the night than any other game that we've played this year, against a good Nevada team."
With an incredibly tough stretch of games coming up, Williams was also careful to temper what the Michigan State game will mean by itself. "They'll be fired up, but I think we will be also. If they beat us, we're not going to give them any trophy and if we beat them, we're not going to get another one. It's a regular-season game and we're going to try and play as hard as we can," Williams said.
At The Game
Listening to the Tar Heel Sports network at the game: The in-stadium frequency in the Smith Center will be FM 92.7. That station will have a non-delayed feed of WCHL 1360, the local affiliate. Watching At Home
Turn down the sound: If you're watching at home while listening to the radio or over the computer via Carolina All-Access, there will inevitably be some delay. For the reason - and a possible solution - click here.
A full list of THSN affiliates can be found here.
ESPN coverage: The game will be available on ESPN. Dan Shulman and Dick Vitale will have the call.
Names To Know
Deon Thompson: When Carolina faced Michigan State in Detroit last December, it was Tyler Hansbrough's second full game back from a stress reaction. Deon Thompson had been having a great season without him and the struggles he had in that game foreshadowed some of the tough times that were to come as he readjusted with playing alongside Hansbrough. Thompson had just ten points on 4-of-10 shooting, but he did add seven rebounds, two steals and a block in 28 minutes. In the national championship game, his struggles continued as he had nine points on 3-of-8 shooting but added three rebounds in 23 minutes. He was in foul trouble in both games, picking up four fouls in each, and he turned the ball over a total of six times in the two contests (four in the regular-season meeting).
Having a big game against the Spartans would do a lot towards reinforcing the fact in his own mind that he is capable of being the go-to guy that Carolina needs him to be, and that he has been so far. After shooting a combined 7-of-20 and turning it over eight times in two games in New York, Thompson has bounced back by averaging 22.5 points and 9.0 rebounds in the last two games on 68% shooting, turning it over just twice. Against Nevada, he had a career-high 23 points on 10-of-17 shooting and he quietly had some of the bigger plays down the stretch, including an offensive rebound on an Ed Davis missed foul shot with 44 seconds left that set up Will Graves' two free throws to put Carolina up eight.
"I think he has been consistent. Even in the Syracuse game, I thought he was more consistent that game than anybody else we had that night," Williams said. "You expect that kind of thing from seniors who have been through the wars before. I think he made big baskets for us tonight. I don't want to say I expect that, but I am counting on Deon to be a big-time player for us." That might seem like an odd thing to say, considering Thompson shot just 3-of-8 from the floor in the Syracuse game. But Thompson has become consistent in that he is maintaining his composure and continuing to fight, even if he struggles in the first half. In limited second-half time, he had five points and four rebounds, getting to the foul line four times and making three (as a team, Carolina got there 11 times and made seven in the second half). So Thompson continued to fight and did little things, like drawing charges in the first half and tapping in his misses in the second. It's his ability to do that and lead by example that has helped keep this young team afloat and it will need his leadership against the Spartans.
Ed Davis: Williams likes to say when one of his players does not get a rebound that they had the same number of rebounds as his wife Wanda. Well, the closest Davis and Wanda came last season was two rebounds. Davis had five or more rebounds in 28 of Carolina's 38 games last season and seven or more boards in 20 games. He has out-rebounded Wanda handily this season as well, pulling down no fewer than six rebounds in a game and ten or more boards in four of seven games. Carolina's sophomore forward won his first defensive player of the game award for his work against Nevada, and considering he grabbed a staggering 15 rebounds (ten defensive), that seems like a good choice. But his rebounding was so crucial to the Carolina win on both ends.
Carolina had out-rebounded Nevada 23-16 in the first half but was struggling mightily on the boards and had been out-rebounded 14-7 in the second half. Carolina found itself down one with 10:31 to go. Davis had been out just over two minutes but it was time to put him back in. When he came back at the 10:09 mark, Carolina was down by one. By the time 46 seconds remained, he had pulled down seven of Carolina's 14 rebounds in that span and scored seven of the team's 19 points, adding an assist and a block. Carolina out-rebounded Nevada 14-8 down the stretch; Davis nearly did it alone. "The last ten minutes of the game, I was like, `I have to get every rebound myself, do what I've got to do for the team to win,'" Davis said.
Last year against Michigan State, Davis averaged 10.5 points and 7.5 rebounds, shooting 7-of-9 from the floor and 7-of-12 from the foul line. Davis had eight double-figure scoring games last season and two came against the Spartans. Davis added one assist, two blocks and four fouls (six in the national title game) combined in the two games. He played just 15.5 minutes per contest on his way to those totals and it was his 11-point, eight-rebound performance in the national title game (in just 14 minutes) particularly that led to NBA interest.
Considering he has 15 rebounds in 31 minutes of action against one of the nation's best rebounding teams, and the way that he battled against a game Nevada team, Davis should be ready for one of his biggest tests of the season. When asked if the Nevada game was the best he had ever seen Davis, Williams pointed out that he had some big games last season as well. "Ed, he's had some big moments for us. At Virginia Tech last year, he blocked 7-8 shots and he was pretty competitive at that time," Williams said. "But it was a man's game on the backboards and 16 points, 15 rebounds is a big night for anybody. I thought he and Deon were both really big for us on the backboards. ... We need that kind of production."
Kalin Lucas: The star junior is perhaps the best point guard in the nation and he has not disappointed so far. He has gotten off to a very good start this season, averaging 17.2 points, 3.7 assists and 1.5 steals in 28.5 minutes. He has averaged over five free-throw attempts per game (making 74.2% of them) and has shot very well, 53.8% from the floor and 45.5% from beyond the arc. He has already had a great moment this year with a game-winner against Gonzaga; in that game, he has 19 points on 7-of-16 shooting and added five assists. Last weekend, he shot 14-of-20 from the floor (70%) despite an ailing foot and added 5-of-7 three-pointers (71.4%), averaging 18 points and 3.5 assists in 27.5 minutes in the two games.
He has been turning the ball over - as has Michigan State - a bit more often than he used to, averaging 2.2 turnovers per game. But he is the engine of this team and even as the Spartans became turnover-prone against Florida, he only had three, which is the most he's had in any game this year. And the normally-careful Lucas struggled against Carolina last year as well, turning it over seven times in the two games, including six in the national title game alone. He shot just 27.3% from the floor and 0-of-4 from beyond the arc, averaging ten points against the Tar Heels (6.0 free-throw attempts per game) and adding 12 assists to seven turnovers in the two games. He will be eager to prove he is every bit the superstar that he has shown himself to be in the past, even against Carolina. It will be a tough challenge for Larry Drew II but both have something to prove.
Raymar Morgan: The 6-8 senior forward has been through quite a bit in the last two years, struggling through both mono and walking pneumonia and a broken nose as a junior and beginning this season limited with a high ankle sprain. He struggled against Florida with no points on 0-of-7 shooting but added six rebounds, five assists and just two turnovers (the rest of his team combined had 21) in 19 minutes. He bounced back very well against Massachusetts with 17 points on 8-of-10 shooting (1-of-1 from beyond the arc), adding five rebounds, four assists, a steal and no turnovers in 24 minutes. He turned in a gutty performance in the Gonzaga win with 16 points on 3-of-8 shooting (10-of-11 from the foul line) and added five rebounds, two assists and two steals, but fouling out in 22 minutes.
But to show how important he is to the Spartans, his mere presence for 20 or more minutes last season meant Michigan State won 20 games and lost just two (one to Carolina in the national title game two games after a broken nose). He fought through his ailments to play in 35 of the 38 games, remarkable considering his condition, and when he hit double digits in scoring, the Spartans were 14-1. Again, that only loss was to Carolina, but this was in the regular-season meeting when Morgan led the team with 21 points on 8-of-14 shooting (5-of-5 from the line) and adding six rebounds, two assists and two blocks in 30 minutes. He played 19 minutes in the national title game that Michigan State also lost. He was unanimously voted a captain along with Lucas, and he no doubt has the respect of his teammates for his perseverance. When he gets early confidence in a game, he can be very dangerous. His athleticism makes him a tough matchup for Carolina.
Quotables
"I sent a message to Brandan Wright because he had the same (shoulder) surgery and he said he was in bed for ten days. I told him I practiced the second day, just to show him I was tougher than he was." -Roy Williams
"I keep telling her (his wife, Wanda Williams) I'm worth more to her alive than I am dead, but I don't know - she may have some more insurance policies that I don't know about." -Roy Williams, joking about his wife's concern for him as he seemed to be in pain during the second half
Lauren Brownlow is the executive editor of Tar Heel Monthly.
