Drew Sharp: Michigan State's nice March reputation can't carry team

EAST LANSING -- There is no magic wand Tom Izzo hides in his office until March.

"People always wonder what the secret is," Izzo said this week, "but there's no secret. It's a combination of confidence and hard work. That's probably not sexy enough for some people."

Izzo cringes at the label "Mr. March." He considers it dismissive. It suggests a program that doesn't take matters seriously until everything suddenly clicks at the end.

He can fight it all he wants, but Michigan State's unexpected annihilation of ninth-ranked Purdue on Friday only reinforced the perception that the Spartans don't get it until they absolutely need it.

"When it's March, people expect us to hit our stride," forward Draymond Green said. "But we expect it as well."

It's why a No. 10 seed that remains severely limited on offense is a popular dark-horse pick to advance through the first weekend of the NCAA tournament.

March matters most because it's when people give full attention to college basketball. But for MSU to attain super-elite status like Duke, Kansas and North Carolina, it must realize that the three-month prelude to the Madness is relevant. The Spartans must do more than simply schedule tough competition in November and December. They have to start winning those games with regularity.

MSU must have a strong season overall, not simply an impressive finish.

"People look at 14 losses as a sign of weakness," forward Delvon Roe said, "but I would think that most of the teams we lost to are in the tournament."

Indeed, 13 of their 14 losses came to teams that made the NCAA tournament. Only their loss at Iowa came to a team with a losing record.

"The regular season should be all about preparing yourself for the tournament," Roe said. "I think that's what's great about college basketball; you get the opportunity to play at Duke or North Carolina, you go through a grueling conference season, and then the tournament gives you the opportunity to still make good a season that might not have gone the way you expected."

The Spartans were lucky this time. Only one 14-loss team made the NCAA tournament in the previous five seasons -- 19-14 Arizona in 2008. But there are five 14-loss teams in this year's tournament. There are a record seven at-large teams with a minimum 13 losses. There were a total of seven 13-or-more-loss teams in the previous five NCAA tournaments.

"Nobody's going to have sympathy for us," Green said. "Nobody's going to feel sorry for us because of the struggles we've had this season. It doesn't matter. This is a fresh start. It's a clean slate. We've built a reputation that we're at our toughest when the pressure is the biggest."

If there's a word that embodies MSU's NCAA tournament formula, it's trust.

The coaches trust the players' commitment.

The players trust the coaches' preparation.

And those who have motion sickness from following the Spartans' ups and downs this season trust that Mr. March will find another answer.

Contact Drew Sharp: 313-223-4055 or dsharp@freepress.com.

Free Press columnist Drew Sharp will answer your questions about MSU basketball in a live chat at 11 a.m. Thursday at freep.com/sports. Then come back Thursday night as special writer Anthony Fenech live-blogs the MSU-UCLA game.

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