Forgotten

Ump commented:

Is it possible their struggles have anything to do with Mr. Izzo being courted all summer by the Cavs and the possibility of coaching in the NBA? He strung the Cavs and MSU along. Maybe he lost some focus and that trickled down to the players losing some focus, maybe thinking about playing in the NBA rather than having a good upcoming season.

I don't actually think Izzo lost focus. But, the players probably got caught up in everything, not completely knowing Izzo's intentions.

There's no way he was going to the Cavs, but the players could have had a little uncertainty.

It sure seems like a possibility, even though they should have had plenty of time to get focused again before the season started. But when you're dealing with expectations of competing for a national title maybe it doesn't take much to throw things out of whack.

One thing I've seen commented on is a lack of leadership from the seniors. MSU is a team that, for whatever reason, doesn't tend to have many super-talented (one and done) underclassmen, so the leadership provided by the seniors is very important. In the fifteen or so years I've paid attention to MSU basketball this is almost always the case. Mateen Cleaves is the obvious example, but there's one or two guys every year. Summers and Lucas, Lucas especially, aren't getting the job done. But it's bad enough that, according to FSN Detroit, former player Tim Bograkos has posted an open letter to the team on his blog. A notable excerpt:

At this point I find myself straddling a very difficult fence. On one side, I am extremely proud alum of Michigan State and our basketball program. On the other side I’m very disappointed in some of the things that seem to be happening this year. It appears that, in some sense, this team has forgotten what kind of program they signed up to play for. I prided myself as a player who protected the core values that our program stands for every time I stepped on the court. At this point, I’m far less concerned with wins and losses and all I can hope is that we finish the season with the same intensity as Scotty Skiles, with the swagger of Steve Smith, and the true grit of Antonio Smith and Mateen Cleaves.

Bograkos was a walk-on who eventually earned a scholarship because of his hard work and intensity. This team could take a lesson from him.