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| U.SportsFriday, March 7, 2008 6:47 PM CST |
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Michigan State pulls away from Illini
CHAMPAIGN — For the first time since 1999, Illinois almost certainly won’t be glued to the television on Selection Sunday, waiting for its name to be called for the 65-team NCAA Tournament. | Big Ten scores, stats | Photo gallery The one and only long-shot hope is an improbable four-victory run in the Big Ten Tournament, which could secure the league’s automatic NCAA Tournament bid. But once again Thursday night, this frustrating, inconsistent Illini basketball team served up a reminder of why that’s not likely to happen. An excellent start was followed by costly turnovers, defensive lapses and another volley of poor free-throw shooting as Michigan State broke a halftime tie and rolled 59-51 at the Assembly Hall. Drew Neitzel scored 17 points for the 17th-ranked Spartans, but key baskets by Drew Naymick and Goran Suton helped keep Illinois at arm’s length. The loss guarantees that Illinois (12-18, 4-13) will be the No. 10 seed in the Big Ten Conference Tournament, most likely meeting No. 7 seed Iowa in a game slated for 1:30 p.m. Thursday at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. And while Illinois won’t be on the NCAA Tournament radar screen, Michigan State (24-6, 12-5) will be. And it begs this question: Just how good is Michigan State? “Boy, I wish I knew,” said Michigan State coach Tom Izzo, who led the Spartans to the national championship in 2000. “I think it’s a talented team and most of our talented players are young guys. “I think it’s a good team with a chance to be a real good team. We still play good defense and we rebound good, although not as good as we used to. We’ve shot it pretty well and when we are running, we can make a run at something. “But right now we’re not consistent enough to be compared to some of our real good teams.” Tied 31-31 at the half, Michigan State scored the first seven points of the second half to take charge. Consecutive baskets by Naymick and a 3-pointer by Neitzel gave Michigan State a 38-31 lead. Illinois hung tough and trailed 46-43 when Neitzel and Suton delivered for the Spartans. First came Neitzel’s 3-pointer to give Michigan State a 49-43 lead. Then, after Chester Frazier missed a long 3-pointer for Illinois, Suton dribbled and spun down the lane for a pretty basket that made it 51-43. Shaun Pruitt scored 13 points for Illinois and was 5-for-5 shooting in the first half. But Pruitt got just one shot in the second half, although he did make his way to the free-throw line. That was no bargain for the Illini, as Pruitt went 3-for-9 and the team made just nine of 19. “I thought we played with pretty good energy, especially in the first half,” Illini coach Bruce Weber said. “We built a 10-point lead but couldn’t sustain it. And like most of the season, when you don’t shoot it well or shoot free throws well, it takes a toll on you. “We had four turnovers at halftime and eight in the second half. When you are not a good shooting team and give away opportunities, it puts you in a bind.” Demetri McCamey had six of the Illini turnovers. Illinois was 2-for-15 from 3-point distance and one of those was a desperation shot by Frazier as the shot clock was ticking down. Michigan State’s victory came despite an apparent bout of flu that hit three of the Spartans during the game. Izzo said Raymar Morgan, Kalin Lucas and Durrell Summers were all vomiting and, referring to a stretch when Michigan State was having trouble pulling away, Izzo said, “I thought I might throw up, too.” Brian Randle, who has missed the past two-plus games after separating his shoulder, was a surprise participant for the Illini. Randle, who was not expected to return to action until Saturday, entered the game with 17:17 left in the second half. He scored seven points in 10 minutes. and at first appeared to be wincing in pain as he stretched out his shoulder. But he got more comfortable as the game went along and finished with seven points and one rebound. And while Randle returned, Illinois may have lost Rodney Alexander for a bit. Alexander suffered a concussion and played only three minutes in the second half. Junior college recruit Dominique Keller was in attendance, making his official visit just two nights after Weber watched him score 27 points in the second half and 36 overall in Baytown, Tex. Weber wasn’t alone as he evaluated Keller. He was joined on the recruiting trip by former Illini and current Houston Rockets guard Luther Head. The regular-season finale will take place at noon Saturday when Illinois will celebrate Senior Day against Minnesota. It’s the final home game for Pruitt, Randle and walk-on Chris Hicks. E-mail this story | Print this story | Search archives | RSS Show comments |  Hide comments | Hide comments on all stories |
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The Real Illini Fan wrote on Mar 7, 2008 9:12 PM:
Krande wrote on Mar 6, 2008 11:58 PM:
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