COLUMBUS, Ohio — Make it 112-0 in favor of the No. 1
seeds now.
Long Island University gave it the old low-major try, but its dream of becoming
the first No. 16 seed to beat a top seed in NCAA tournament history ran into a
very big problem.
It came in the form of Michigan State’s 1-2-3 punch up front, led by forward
Draymond Green, who recorded the third triple-double of his career in leading
the Spartans to an 89-67 victory Friday night at Nationwide Arena in a West
Region opener.
Green became only the third player with multiple triple-doubles in NCAA
tournament play, joining Oscar Robertson (three) and Magic Johnson (two). Green
finished with 24 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists.
Both of his other triple-doubles came last season, in an NCAA tournament loss
to UCLA (23 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists) and a regular-season victory
over Penn State (15 points, 14 rebounds and 10 assists).
“It’s great to be mentioned with names like that,” Green said of Oscar and
Magic. “You’re talking two of the greatest players to ever play the game.
It’s great to be in company like that.
“If my guys didn’t make shots, I wouldn’t be able to do it. You have to give a
lot of credit to my guys, especially my bigs. They were 8 for 11 (Adreian
Payne), 8 for 13 (Derrick Nix). That’s where a lot of my assists came
from. They finished a lot of baskets. That was huge for me being able to get a
triple-double.”
The Spartans trio combined for 58 points and 27 rebounds. The Spartans outscored
LIU 62-26 in points in the paint. MSU also had a rebounding advantage of 43-20.
Just domination up front. LIU (25-9) hung around for a while, but Michigan
State (28-7) started to pull away for good in the middle of the second half.
The Spartans advance to the next round Sunday against No. 9 seed Saint Louis,
which defeated No. 8 Memphis 61-54 in Friday night’s first game.
“Those guys are monsters,” Long Island coach Jim Ferry said of Green, Payne and
Nix. ”They’re really good players and they’re really skilled. That’s why
they’re a No. 1 seed.
“We don’t see that very often. I thought we did a pretty good job in the first
20 minutes (trailing just 42-37 at halftime) of using our quickness and
athleticism to kind of negate that.
“I just thought it was a little overwhelming in the second half.”
When the brackets were announced Sunday night, many thought the Spartans’ road
to a possible seventh Final Four in 14 years would have to go through No. 2
seed Missouri, which had won the Big 12 tournament.
That’s no longer a concern. There will be other challenges, but Mizzou isn’t
one of them. The Tigers were stunned Friday afternoon by No. 15 seed Norfolk
State.
That caught the Spartans’ attention not long before they took the court. Green
said the team also felt "disrespected" when Long Island's leading
scorer, Julian Boyd, said Thursday that they were glad to be playing Michigan
State as opposed to a team like Missouri.
Payne and Nix, meanwhile, took exception to some other comments that suggested
Long Island expected to run the MSU big men ragged.
“When somebody’s talking like that, they personally say players’ 6-10, I’m the
only 6-10 player on our team,” Payne said. “They said something about Derrick’s
weight. He’s the only one who weighs that much on the team.
“People take that personal. They said they were going to try to outrun us. Nix
lost all that weight (down from 340 in high school to 270 now). He didn’t lose
it for nothing. He was able to get up and down the court. I was able to get up
and down the court and stop them in transition.”
Payne, a 6-10 sophomore, was just too tall and too long for the Blackbirds to
handle inside. He finished with 16 points, tying his career best, and seven
rebounds.
Nix, a 6-9, 270-pound junior, added a career-high 18 points plus eight
rebounds.
“We knew we had a size advantage on them,” Green said. “We didn’t want to play
to their strength like we did in the first half. We shot jumpers, played
outside. That wasn’t good for us. It was better for them. We knew we had to get
the ball inside more and more. We did a better job in the second half.”
The NCAA announced afterward that Sunday’s matchup with the Bilikens, an
Atlantic-10 team, will begin at approximately 2:45 p.m.
“This is going to be a war, I think, because both teams are going to play
physical,” Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said.
A victory there would move Michigan State into the Sweet 16 against No. 4 seed
Louisville or No. 5 seed New Mexico next Thursday in Phoenix.
While No. 2 seeds like Missouri and Duke were getting upset Friday, Michigan
State took Long Island’s best punch. The Spartans were not fazed. They kept
pounding back and eventually wore down the Blackbirds.
That’s 28 years and counting that the No. 16 seeds have failed to win. Green
and company simply were not going to be the ones who allowed that streak to
end.
