I’ve rerun the final play of No. 9 Michigan State’s 58-57 loss to fourth-ranked Michigan in my mind a thousand different times. Rewatched and rewound the replay from different angles as well. Listened to my postgame interviews with Tom Izzo and the principal players over and over. Talked about it ad nauseam with colleges after the game.
Still, so many things don’t make sense.
First, let’s be clear. Gary Harris’ turnover as time expired didn’t cost MSU the game, nor did Keith Appling’s 25 seconds earlier. The Spartans crumbled after halftime by allowing the Wolverines to erupt for a 14-4 burst over the first nine-plus minutes of the second half. That portended their death knell.
We also know what happened in the final minute (and in case you missed it, here’s my story on the frantic finish). Appling got stripped of the ball by Michigan’s Trey Burke en route to his game-winning dunk with 22 seconds to play.
So let’s fast forward to 4.9 seconds left.
Izzo called a timeout after Adreian Payne rebounded the ball and boldly dribbled up the court. It was the right call by Izzo – you don’t want your big man to turn it over there, especially with three Wolverine defenders closing quickly on him. Payne said he was never looking to do anything but get the ball toward half-court and was awaiting his coach to call time to set up a play.
Timeouts in that situation are customary and expected from the Spartans. What happened next, in the huddle mapping out the final possession, is where things get strange.
Cue Izzo: “I didn’t know where Keith was (mentally) at the time. He was frustrated from turning the ball over, so I thought I’d go to Gary.”
So the Spartans turn to junior point guard Appling to pass in the ball on the sideline out-of-bounds play, placing freshman shooting guard Harris on the right low block.
Oddity number two. Normally, it’s Harris passing it and Appling coming to get it. This time, it was vice versa.
Said Appling of being the passer, “This is one of the rare times I did. I’d never done that before. That’s just how the play was drawn up.”
Here’s the anatomy of what happened on the inbound pass (and a good overhead video of the entire final 4.9 seconds):
* Denzel Valentine starts on the right wing and sets the first screen for Harris, and Michigan’s Glenn Robinson III switches and follows Valentine. Tim Hardaway Jr., who was on Valentine, follows Harris up the left side of the key
* Payne – who began the play in front of Appling near the MSU bench – then cuts across the lane to deliver the second screen near the right elbow. Hardaway hops around it.
* Derrick Nix looks like he’ll set a third screen for Harris at the top of the key. However, he’s positioned about a foot inside the arc, and both Harris and Hardaway go wide of Nix before he can recover to make contact. Harris catches the pass from Appling a half-step from midcourt.
Izzo explained that the first option was for Harris to get a shot at the top of the key. The second, both he and Harris said, was for Appling was to float into the corner after inbounding the ball and to be ready for a return pass. Appling said he was open in the corner, and he was momentarily.
Payne and Valentine, after Harris gets the ball, fill almost the same spot on the right wing, bringing both of their defenders (Robinson and Caris LeVert) along with them. Nix popped out and stationed to Hardaway’s right for a pick. Harris dribbled once to his right, then crossed over toward his left.
Appling started drifting into the left corner, with Burke shadowing him some but also watching in case Harris cut toward the middle. As Harris neared the 3-point line with about 2 seconds left, Burke takes one hard step backward to fake like he’s going to cover Appling. Instead, he plants his right foot and hops right in front of Harris.
Harris appears to lose his handle on the ball, then tries to make a last-ditch pass to Appling. Burke leaps and gets his hand on the ball, then pulls it in right in front of the Spartan bench as the buzzer sounds. MSU doesn’t even get off a shot.
Here’s what Harris said: “I just turned the ball over. If I didn’t have a shot, it was gonna be give-and-go and (Appling) was gonna get a shot.”
And Izzo: “We didn’t run it right. We had a couple freshmen in there, and we struggled with it. That’s my fault. … We did the right thing, we just didn’t execute it right.”
Here’s where my feeble mind gets confused on a few points.
* Appling says he’d never made that inbounds pass before. He’s usually the guy getting the ball to run the offense in end-of-game scenarios. Izzo not trusting his junior captain and point guard to receive the pass there is perplexing, regardless of the previous turnover.
* That means Harris has not run the offense in an end-of-game situation as the point guard. And the right-handed Harris is deployed to his weaker left side. That’s a difficult position on a difficult possession for a freshman unaccustomed to creating off the dribble and as a facilitator. It is possible that he was supposed to go right off Nix’s screen, but that would make for an awfully long and dangerous cross-court pass to Appling as the second choice to shoot.
* All three – Appling, Harris and Izzo – say that Appling shooting a fadeaway 3-pointer from the corner was one of the two primary options. However, Appling had made just 2 of 14 shots in the previous two losses and finished 3 of 9 on Sunday, missing all three of his 3-point shots. He’s now 2 of 26 from behind the arc in MSU’s last five games.
* Payne, conversely, has made five of his last 10 3-point attempts, including 2 of 5 against Michigan on Sunday. Could he and Nix have switched roles on that play, giving Harris one more outside option to his right side?
* And then there’s the most head-scratching thing of all: Why did the entire play revolve around a 3-pointer or long shot with MSU needing only a 2-pointer to win?
It’s certainly an overload of questions, a lot of nitpicking and micromanaging one play and 5-second sequence well after the fact (with the luxury of multiple camera angles). I’m not sure if either Izzo or his players really knew the right answers in the immediate aftermath. Clarity in sports tends to come with time and the ability to rewatch the tape over and over to breakdown who did what right and who erred.
My guess is Izzo will have a firm grasp on it during Monday’s Big Ten coaches teleconference and even more of an explanation when he reconvenes with the media on Tuesday.
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Last play didn’t mean anything, it just made the outcome of interest – game was lost to the 17 other t/o’s and valentines inept crew of officials.
Like this and the last statement is oh, so true.
“It’s criminal that the best conference in the land year in and year out has to put up with the worst set of Officials. Is it like Military Acquisitions, where Mattel gets the contract to manufacture the M-16, lowest bidder?”
While the refs were horrible, MSU turned it over 18 damn times which led to dunks and layups. MSU gave the game to Michigan, the refs certainly helped, but MSU did themselves in.
Bad calls from the refs were pretty much even . Gotta wonder if this clown even watches the games, same excuses for every loss!
Agree 100% the officials stole that game. Give no credit to the Wolverine. Assign blame to the Coach, the players , the refs or a combination of the above but give no credit to the Wolverine they did not earn that game so I wont use the v word, we gave it to them.
Always the officials, More like Burke took the game, he did more in 10 seconds than Appling did the whole game ! Nobody seems to mention one of Mich. top scorers only played 5 minutes.
brian, that’s the story of scUM’s season, Burke putting them on his back. Burke is good. I agree with TI that Appling generally had a decent game. The ending was awful.
I disagree that the officials gave the skunkbears this game. Pretending it’s even partially true, no team should put themselves in a position to let the outcome be decided by a ref. MSU is the better team. The better team did not win on Sunday.
We contributed we should have won by ten but those charging calls cost us points which would have swung the game, watch those charging calls again especially the one on Nix and the one against Appling that was not called. It intimidated us made us less agressive and we went the first 14 minutes of the second half with 11 points because of it. Now its time to move on, proud of our team and we need to fix those things that made us vulnerable
Go Green
Sorry, not buying.
Good analysis Chris, the only good that can come from the final play is that hopefully they learn from it and don’t make the same mistake in the future.
C’mon Spartan81, give no credit to the wolverines? You are a better fan that. Burke came up with the big play in the end, something Appling couldn’t do.
Lancelot
Was Michigan exhibiting good sportsmanship when they opposed MSU entry into the Big Ten?
Was Michigan exhibiting good sportsmanship when they opposed MSU having a law school.?
Was Michigan exhibiting good sportsmanship when they forced Biggy Munn and his players
To dress and stand in four inches of raw sewage?
Was Michigan exhibiting good sportsmanship when they purchased the Orange Bowl away from MSU in 1999?
Was Michigan exhibiting good sportsmanship when they purchased the Sugar Bowl away from us in 2011?
Was Michigan exhibiting good sportsmanship when they purchased Chris Webber and Jalen Rose for Six Hundred thousand dollars, after Coach Izzo had put in the time to recruit C-WEB?
Until the University of Michigan issues a written apology for the above I will never give them credit, any one else sure , not them, not ever.
Ha ok, I can see your hatred goes way back. And I also agree with you about the officials. Flopping is probably my biggest pet peeve in all of sports so this game was very hard to watch. I am very glad that Izzo does not teach flopping, hard to respect a team that does. I can’t understand why the officials keep getting fooled by it…
It was taught to me by my father he started drilling the story of the sewage in the locker room and other stories to me when I was five years old. He told my brother and I that he would send us to any college in America except Michigan. He swore he would never pay one penny to the University of Michigan. I sent him a picture of him shadow boxing a stuffed wolverine that Lupe Izzo brother has hanging from a noose for his 81st birthday next weekend.
Incredible list of calculated gnavery…The Powers that be are Spartan Powers…and all things will indeed work to the good for MSU…stay humble, learn, stay hungry…desire and grit is our banner…we must take our “hits”…and show in our “growth response”…that our path is the right one.
Spartans, I am Proud of you guys
First, congratulations are in order to the Wolverines. Some of us don’t hate you, we just hate to lose, to you…. Well, OK, Many of us hate you and I’m sure the feeling is mutual, but in the spirit of good sportsmanship, I’ll go with hate to lose.
The way the Spartans hung in there, fighting, scraping, trying, plugging away. Good job. Sure, not everybody had their “A” game. Some didn’t even have their “a” game, and yes, there were times, an “Eh?!” game reared it’s ugly head, abetted by a couple of, Ehhhhhhh!!!! what the heck just happened? voodoo, missed, ignored, I’m blind in one eye and can’t see out of the other, or just plain I’m not gonna call a foul on him ’cause he’s, well, you know…………..
It’s amazing, how, when February 14 graces your game with his “presence” how your “A”game, can be diminished to your “a” game, and with just a little tweaking, and many of his royal pronouncements, sometimes turns into your Eh? or Ehhh!!!! game. A sometimes unpleasant and painful experience.
He has mastered that art to the highest degree. I guess you could say that February 14, truly can be described as a pain in the Ehness…………….
+ a lot. Nice Chuck.
Probably would have been a little different if one of their top scorers been knocked out of the game in the first five minutes!
It might have been different if anyone of “their” players hit a 3 point shot, but the trey’s weren’t part of the game, either…..
With 4.9 seconds I would’ve preferred to see Payne, Dawson on the block looking for a tip in, Harris, Trice, and Appling. That’s 4 players capable of shooting and a guy who can jump out of the building. Get a shot within 2 seconds and see if there’s a rebound to be had.
Momentum was with us…we are better “wild and flyin” in those moments…it is what got us to that point…Izzo should have let it play out whatever the outcome…Valentine was in the lane and Payne did see him after the second dribble…transition opportunity stopped cold.
I, for one, do not criticize Izzo for his in game decisions. He had proven more than once that he is more than proficient in making the right calls. As far as the last play, the fact is that UM did what it needed to do to defend the play. It always stings more when MSU loses to UM but it is important not to let that sting cloud our vision and start placing blame where it might not be warranted.
Despite getting down 10 with 4 minutes left and brushing off some very questionable officiating, the boys came back and actually had a chance at the end.
While I am disappointed and stung that MSU lost, I applaud the boys for not giving up and look forward to a deep run in the Tourney!
That was supposed to read Sparty in Ohio!!! Darn auto-correct on the iPad!!,
Spartys are Smarty, no matter where they live.
My previous comment is now gone?
Sorry, new posters’ comments need admin approval. Was in a meeting. Everything should be here now.
Chris in your opinion does MSU stay in the top 12 today to keep us in that 3 seed line, needing to beat Wisconsin to stay there of course.
I see that, thanks!
We’re # 10 in AP, which I think is about right. Thing that bothered me most about yesterday (besides the loss, of course): when we were behind 52-42 w/about 4 minutes left in the game, that meant we had scored 11 points the entire second half. If we have a 10-15 minute stretch like that in the tourney, we could lose to anybody. Still, I was impressed and even a little amazed that we had a chance to win at the end. Let’s beat Bucky Badger, grab a 2 seed and prepare for a patented run by Izzo’s boys.
Absolutely thats the plan no reason we cant make the adjustments against BO.
You know, another play at the end of the game that nobody is talking about is the Derick Nix miss and foul – where he missed the front end. Nix had position in the post with 2 defenders to his left and nobody to his right. Instead of laying it in with his off hand, his right hand, he decided to lay it up to his left and right into the defender. He got the foul, but missed the “and one” opportunity by simply making a point blank off hand layup. And thus, continuing his dismal showing in that game. Nix played soft again. He let the freshman win positioning battles. Inexcusable performance from Nix. USE YOUR BULK, because you certainly can’t shoot over anybody.
Also, the Harris play at the end was a mistake by Harris. He should’ve taken the Nix screen and got his shot off to the right of Nix instead of dribbling into open space on the left.
The Appling turnover was at least partially caused by Izzo yapping at Appling while he’s bringing the ball up with a tight defender. Why exactly does the ball handler have to make the timeout call? They always do this, with a defender swiping at the ball. I don’t get it. How about the ball handler just dribble up and someone else call the timeout, so he’s not distracted?
All around disastrous execution at the end of the game. Soooooooo disappointing. But the silver lining is that the Spartans have played poorly and still been in position to win against top 10 talent. This team can still go on a major run. Especially once we are out of the B1G schedule!
I watched that ball “Applings” like a dog stares at a bone…do not let Burke swipe and steal this thing…it happened…I agree…ALL year that possibility lurks against Appling and Izzo “eye contacting” let someone else call the time out…just humiliating for that to happen to a Spartan…like stealing our “sword”…just ridiculous…Never Again…Never!
Dawson really should be the one looking in the mirror. His play since the Purdue game has really beome a disaster for the team, especially on offense . He looks out of control and lost as far as what he needs to do. When he starts dribbling on offense, I can hardly watch. You know if people close on him, he will turn over the ball. His out of control pass actually created a critical foul on Harris that put Harris on the bench. Dawson’s stats don’t show how poorly he played against UM, but he was involved in much of the poor play in the first half. He is making some heads up steals on defense, but his defense just does not compensate for his offense. Lets hope he doesn’t let Appling or anyone else on the team take responsibility for the game yesterday without admitting his part in it. He needs to call himself out.