Tom Izzo is a tough love coach. His best teams have been warrior tribes whose grit, discipline, will, and relish of intangible dirty work is a direct extension of their head coach. His practices are reportedly unmerciless sessions that turn teammates into two hour combatants, where rebounding drills have been conducted in football pads, where blood, contusions and the occasional broken bone are de rigeur. Izzo demands a lot from his ballplayers. He demands even more from his upperclassmen. And if you’re an upperclass guard and co-captain? You better have the thickest skin of the bunch and be ready to lead and execute to his perfectionist standards.
Apparently Drew Neitzel is making himself at home in the hottest of Izzo’s seats. To be fair, Neitzel isn’t exactly new to it. He’s been a starter for the Spartans since the midpoint of his freshman year. By the end of his first season he was running a team that took out Duke and Kentucky consecutively en route to the Final Four. Last season he was in charge of distributing the ball to a trio of All-American candidates. His role both years was as a pass first, shoot last point who took care of the ball. The statistics suggest he did a pretty good job, finishing third in the conference in assists and first in assists to turnovers last season.
While the Spartans underachieved last year, it would be misguided to pin the problem on Neitzel. The biggest factor was the inconsistency of that team’s marquee seniors, Paul Davis and Maurice Ager. For two preseason All-Americans, they failed to produce statement games when the team most needed them. Izzo made allusions to a lack of toughness on that squad and promised that 2006-07 would be different. And I don’t think he was talking about Neitzel. He’s already on the record this year saying he’s putting a lot of this season’s load on his junior guard: “Drew’s got his hands full and I probably won’t back off Drew. Thank God he’s tough enough.”
Neitzel has not only responded to Izzo’s faith and ever increasing leadership burden this season, he’s done it while completely reinventing himself as a two guard and primary offensive weapon. What for many players might have been a thorny transition doomed to failure, Neitzel has exceeded all expectations. Put another way, he’s carried the Spartans so far this season. The fact that this relatively young team that has struggled with injuries to two key producers (Marquise Gray and Raymar Morgan) is 13-2 with a big win over Texas and quality losses to Maryland and Boston College can be credited in large part to Neitzel. On a team whose offensive identity has been very slow to develop, Neitzel has stepped up as a lights out shooter/scorer. Remarkably, he’s done it while maintaining his potency as a passer. The reinvention of Drew Neitzel in numbers form:
2005-06 8.3ppg 5.6apg
2006-07 18.3ppg (4th in Big Ten) 4.9apg (5th)
And Neitzel’s field goal percentage has increased from 40.8% last year to 45% this season while almost doubling his shot attempts. Maybe Tom Izzo and Drew himself are not surprised by the startling advancement of his offensive game, but we at Hoopraker think it is one of the big individual stories to emerge at this juncture in the season. In a season where every inhalation of Greg Oden is being described with the lyricism of Keats, it is the play of a Big Ten upperclassman that perhaps deserves the most attention.
Now, much of the pundit nation has already hung Izzo’s Spartans with the damning “rebuilding, down year” noose. And, granted, if Neitzel continues to be the only Spartan who can consistently put the ball in hole, the conference slate will be a steep climb for Izzo’s team. But, with the recent emergence of Goran Suton and the return and rounding back into shape of Gray and Morgan, Hoopraker believes Neitzel’s not going to be the only threat. This is a team that will be very hard to deal with by mid-January. The first month of the conference schedule is also relatively favorable and may allow Izzo’s bunch the healing time they need.
Lastly, Hoopraker will be the first on the record to say that not only will Izzo and the Spartans defy the doomsayers this year, they will be on the short list for the National Championship next season. Izzo has a monster trio of guard/swingmen in Chris Allen, Kalin Lucas, and Darrell Summers arriving on campus next year. Add them to this year’s no senior roster and Drew Neitzel could very well be bookending his career with a pair of Final Fours.
[...] Through 20 games, it’s Izzo’s Spartans who have persevered and have subtly positioned themselves for not only a run to the NCAAs but, more significantly, the Big Ten Title. With a showdown looming in Columbus this Saturday, the 16-4 Spartans once again look like the Spartans. While it’s debatable, if numbers can even partially reflect the nuance of what happens during the course of a game, possession by possession, consider this: among other gaudy team statistics, the Spartans are 1st in scoring defense at 56 points a game; 1st in field goal defense; 1st in rebounding offense; 1st in rebounding defense; 2nd in assists, field goal offense, three point defense and three point offense. Perhaps lost in the ballyhoo of Ohio State and Wisconsin, the Spartans aren’t so subtle after all. After thoroughly pounding Purdue 91-64 on Saturday, it’s obvious Tom Izzo utilized the week of practice following the comeback win against Illinois to reiterate the meaning of Spartan basketball on his pupils. Led by the most dramatically improved player in the league, Drew Neitzel, the Spartans were efficient and tenacious. Read more about the evolution of Neitzel here. Thus far, however, the defining 20 minutes of Spartan basketball is the second half of the Illinois game on January 14. Confronted with a 34-23 halftime hole, Izzo served notice he would not be humiliated in the Breslin Center. The Spartans came out of the locker room with intensity and focus. The Illini were not prepared to match the onslaught on defensive pressure and quickly succumbed with numerous turnovers in the backcourt and quick possessions that reflected the panic of playing on the road. As it has for years in East Lansing, defensive effort fueled the victory.         [...]
Left by Hoopraker · Ballasts: Izzo and Weber on January 23rd, 2007