In the column, the senior Sparty all but scoffed at Syracuse's chances of knocking off Tom Izzo's Green Machine of East Lansing. After all, he said, Jim Boeheim's Orangemen still employed a "goofball" 2-3 zone on defense.
And let's not forget that Michigan State was ranked as high as #1 in the country earlier this season. They also won the Big Ten regular season title. True, they slipped to a mere #3 seed in their own bracket after a less than stellar performance in the conference tournament, but caught a huge break when their first two games of the NCAA tourney would be just down the road from their campus. Home court advantage, so to speak. What could go wrong?
As it turned out, plenty. Not so mighty Syracuse, which had to play it's way into the tournament by getting past Arizona St. in a qualifier, was a mere #11 seed. In an oft repeated phrase from the same columnist, the Orange should have been mere "plankton" to the whale of the Green.
On MSU would march to another showdown with the Dukies, their nemesis in recent times, having lost 11 of the last 12 to Coach K's crew. But still, it was going to be the Sweet Sixteen, and anything could happen. The Blue Devils aren't exactly unbeatable this year.
But then the most unthinkable thing since overall #1 Virginia got knocked off by #16 UMBC. No, I didn't know what the latter stood for either, so I looked it up. Turns out it's University of Maryland Baltimore College. Ever heard of them before? Me neither. Yet they not only defeated the mighty Cavaliers, but obliterated them by 20 points. The first time in history a #16 has defeated a #1, and very convincingly at that. Who saw THAT coming?
Michigan State is supposed to have all these super-duper NBA lottery bound players. But the same Syracuse "goofball" 2-3 zone mentioned above absolutely stymied them. Hey, if these same supposed "locks" for the NBA look that bad against a play-in team like Syracuse, it's probably not a stretch to think the NBA scouts in attendance have to do some serious re-evaluating. Translation? Their draft stock likely took a bit of a tumble.
Nevertheless, the same scribe continues year after year during football season, to find a way to rub it into rival Michigan's blue noses the embarrassing home defeat the Wolverines suffered at the hands of upstart Appalachian State. UM was supposed to win that "patsy" game easily as well. Thing is, that was a decade ago. Definitely ancient news, but some people never get tired of rubbing it in, though it's about as relevant as "hanging chads" these days.
What yon scribe doesn't want to hear is the very same thing happened to his beloved Spartans just recently when they were supposed to be title contenders and got thrashed by Middle Tennessee State in the opening round of the NCAA tournament.
And now this similar embarrassment against Syracuse?
If a Michigan fan wanted to pile on, he/she could say they went into Michigan State's own building earlier this year and throttled the Spartans, who were supposedly so much better. Not only that, but kicked their butts again in the Big 10 conference tourney.
And now the Wolverines are into the Sweet Sixteen, and the Spartans take a bus back home with their heads hung in shame.
And that's not even mentioning the cloud the Michigan St. basketball and football programs remain under for alleged hanky-panky by their players and the coaches not going through the proper channels to address the matters. That's been put on the back burner while the tourney went on, but make no mistake. The NCAA and those pesky law enforcement types are still digging, investigating, and interviewing folks trying to get to the bottom of it.
In the end, just who is/are the goofball(s) indeed?
[Idle thought. The mighty Tar Heels of North Carolina just got blasted by 20+ points by Texas A&M?
The good news for Michigan is UNC is gone.
The bad news is their opponent, the same A&M, is evidently pretty good.]
But it's not supposed to be easy, right?
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