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Post by Life's too short. on Apr 6, 2009 10:16:19 GMT -5
Michigan State coach Tom Izzo has put his own spin on tonight's NCAA championship game at Ford Field. To hear Izzo tell it, the contest is a battle between mighty North Carolina - a team that defeated his Spartans by 35 points in December at this same football stadium - and his gritty band. "If we play good and they play good, we're losing," Izzo said yesterday. "That's the way I look at it. I mean, I don't look at that in the negative. They are the best team in the country. They have earned that rank probably over a year and a half. "But we've found a way to have some teams not play as good as us. So, all we've got to do . . . We've just got to play good and have them play a little less than good. That's how we hope to beat them." When that evaluation was relayed to North Carolina coach Roy Williams, an avid golfer, he reacted as if he had just hooked a tee shot into the trees at Pine Valley. "Tommy can sell," he said. "It doesn't mean I have to buy. We caught them [in December] at an absolutely perfect time. The bottom line is, I personally don't think that game will have much, if anything, to do with the game we play on Monday night." Contributing to what Williams called the "absolutely perfect time" was the fact that 6-foot-10 Spartans center Goran Suton sat out because of a knee injury and that Michigan State had played three games in four days at a tournament at Disney World in Florida, then traveled and had two days to prepare for the Dec. 3 contest.
Philadelphia Inquirer
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Post by tophb21 on Apr 6, 2009 10:18:29 GMT -5
When you got beat by 35 by the exact same team in the exact same venue only 5 months ago, I can see how Izzo feels like the underdog.
I do think that MSU has progressed quite a bit since then. Not to mention, they were coming off a lengthy tournament (forget which one) and UNC was coming to play quite rested.
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Post by Geaux Tigers on Apr 6, 2009 10:19:44 GMT -5
Well, Izzo is not trying to sell it to Williams, just his team!
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Post by maestrojpl on Apr 6, 2009 10:58:27 GMT -5
Well, Izzo is not trying to sell it to Williams, just his team! Exactly GT, he is clearly a great coach and if he can convince them that the world doesn't think they stand a chance then maybe it gives them an edge.
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