Spartans' versatility let them play all styles
By Andy Katz
ESPN.com
INDIANAPOLIS -- Michigan State learned a few years ago that simply being tough wasn't enough to climb to the top of the Big Ten pile, let alone all of college basketball.
|  | | The Spartans celebrated the same way they won the title -- as a collective group. |
The Spartans needed to be more athletic, a bit more versatile and certainly more entertaining.
The mandate was given by coach Tom Izzo to find players who were a little bit of everything -- shooters, rebounders, defenders, and certainly agile enough to win outside of the rough-and-tumble Big Ten.
The additions of Duke transfer Mike Chappell and freshmen Al Anagonye and Jason Richardson were the final pieces in creating a team that could be the
model for other programs to emulate.
"We knew with the athletes we had and the point guard we had, we wanted to run," said Izzo after the Spartans' 89-76 victory Monday night over Florida
at the RCA Dome earned him his first national title and the school's second.
"That's our style," Izzo said. "We do want to get it up and down the court. Because we're a good rebounding team, we think we have a lot of fastbreak
opportunities. But if I had to be impressed with a couple of things, it would be the versatility that we had to play in the 50s or the 45s or the 90- or 80-point games. I'm not sure a lot of teams can do that."
Throughout the NCAA Tournament, the Spartans were thrown into situations where they had to adapt. Valparaiso forced them to defend and shoot 3-pointers. Utah
was physical in the interior. Syracuse zoned the Spartans and made them create in the lane or shoot over the top. Iowa State was closest to the
Spartans in skill and desire but the Cyclones couldn't keep up in the final few minutes. Wisconsin ... well, the Badgers, simply made it tough to score -- and ugly to watch.
Florida let the Spartans run, exactly the way Michigan State always wanted to this season.
"There was just as much versatility at Duke," Chappell said. "We had guys there who could play a bunch of positions. You'll see a lot of teams like
that. Florida is like that. That may be the trend in college basketball."
Florida might be more like the Spartans than most, but the Gators have to develop into better scorers and find a mental and physical toughness. Florida coach
Billy Donovan has looked for versatile players when he recruited, in the same fashion that Izzo's staff did over the past four years. If the Gators stay
together, they could become a team like Michigan State.
"We want to have multidimensional players, guys who can play inside and outside, guys who are athletic," Michigan State assistant Stan Heath said.
"That's the blueprint for our team. I definitely think (the Gators) have a young team that has versatile players. They're very physical and have good
toughness and are very deep. I could see them here next year."
The easy thing is to pencil in Florida in the 2001 Final Four. But, don't forget about Duke, Stanford, Arizona, Illinois, North Carolina and UCLA ... and Michigan State.
"This Michigan State team is a Big Ten team, and in Big Ten play we are physical, run around or do whatever," Anagonye said. "We're a model for
ourselves. We know what we need to do to perform."
The Spartans will add a pair of versatile players in point guard Marcus Taylor and forward Zach Randolph. Heath said Taylor can run the team as well as shoot (most likely better than Cleaves). Randolph gives the Spartans a tough, inside-outside presence. Richardson, Chappell and Anagonye will see their roles expand with more looks while Andre Hutson will be a staple inside and Charlie Bell a lock to be the go-to player on the wing.
But the Spartans still will blaze a trend of how to get to the Final Four in an age when 'tweeners dominate the player profiles.
"We can play any style, any game," said Magic Johnson, Michigan State's most famous and versatile alumnus. "We've done it all season long."
It worked, just like Arizona's quickness sparked a trend in '97. Now, Michigan State's versatility is the model that sets a team apart from the
rest.
Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.
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