Tom Izzo’s Spartans Ready for Rick Pitino's Louisville Attack

It isn’t a shock that the Spartans and the Louisville Cardinals will face one another in the Sweet Sixteen of the 2012 NCAA Tournament in Phoenix on Thursday. Two great coaches, two storied programs and two teams that are good. What may come, as a shock is that the Spartans coming in as the #1 seed aren’t arrogant, but are confident in their ability to handle the Cardinals attack.

Not shock from a confidence standpoint, but shock that they game is still a few days away. Tom Izzo said of the Cardinals, “It's kind of ironic when I look at the two teams and see some of the similarities. It's interesting that Kentucky's leading the country in field goal defense percentage, and I think us and Louisville are tied for second. Doesn't seem to change no matter what sport, no matter what we talk about it, those are always common dominators.”

These two teams last faced in 2009 in the NCAA tournament and MSU won that game. This time should be no exception and the Spartans are confident and poised. Izzo elaborated on the Cardinals, “The field goal percentage, as I said, about Louisville is good. They create a lot of turnovers. They're a pressing team, create 16 turnovers a game, average nine steals a game. They've been a hot team, winning four days in the Big East tournament, and yet I'd say we've been kind of a hot team now lately, too.

I'm just proud of where we are and what we've done, get to another Sweet 16. It was a war of a game. I think we learned a lot. I think we're going to grow from that. I think our young guys are going to grow.” 

Izzo knows that the Spartans will be facing a different Louisville team this year then the one from 2009, but he doesn’t sound worried. “This is not the greatest shooting Louisville team, so they score a lot of points off their press, off their defense. I think they'll press us a lot, I really do.
I don't think they'll change what they've done. It's kind of a matchup zone. It's a zone/man. We call it 'you pick 'em'. That will be the hardest thing for us to adjust to, I think. It's kind of a completely different zone than most we've ever faced, different than the one there was in '09. Starts out similar, but it changes. Look at their field goal percentage, it's been successful for them.”

Personnel can change, but coach’s philosophies and ideals don’t. That helps Izzo, but also gives Louisville and idea of what to game plan for, “We know he's going to press. We know they're going to play a lot of zone. Their offense has changed a little bit, but I think for the most part you do get to know programs, and I think these guys have had success for a long time. They tweak their systems, but they don't change them all the time. So, you know, unless we can bring Suton back, '09 does very little for us except makes us realize where we can attack some things. But they are playing that zone a little different than they did then.”

The Saint Louis Billikens on Sunday made the decision to play off of sophomore point guard Keith Appling and dare him to beat them. Does Izzo expect Rick Pitino to employ the same idea? “I hope they do. I mean, he scored 19. If they play off him, that's good for me. But, you know, I think that was his way of figuring that they could hurt us, and Louisville plays a completely different style. If they do that, in all fairness to Keith, I don't know how as coaches we could have been prepared for something like that.
But, like Eric Snow said to me, Coach, I can help you with that. They did that to me four years in college, 10 years in the NBA, and there's ways around it. I think we learned some of them. Some are getting the inside‑out pass, some is cutting them through, some is getting them to the weak side. If they do now, I say great. We've been there, done that. We'll have some things in to adjust to that. But I don't think Louisville will use the same kind of defense 'cause it's not like it took him away or our team away even though it maybe hurt us for a little bit of that game.”

The Spartans are ready. Tom Izzo lives for this time of year and has an air of confidence, not arrogance that certainly was lacking last year. This is his time of year. Whereas Pitino was once feared in March the mantle has changed. It is Izzo who the opponents fear.

The Spartans arrived in Phoenix last night and already preparing for the 7:47 PM tip off on Thursday night and getting closer yet to another Final Four.