Spartans' Chris Allen, Delvon Roe ready to endure pain with Final Four trip on the line

Allen says he would have gone 30 minutes against UNI if not for foul trouble, but also says he tweaked the foot early in the second half and was in quite a bit of pain. Quote: "I don't care what happens tomorrow because I've got a week to recover. I'll just go all out."

Roe says his knee "has as much as it needs to help get this team to the championship. I am sore but it’s hard work to get to the Final Four."

I love the attitude, but I worry about what the impact of the quick turnaround will be on the two players' ability to compete at a high level for 20+ minutes on Sunday afternoon.

Tom Izzo, meanwhile has installed some plays in which Draymond Green functions as the point guard.

Top seeds are falling like flies. Is Izzo's bag of tricks deep enough to take advantage?

P.S. Game preview is here. I've added some information from the good folks at Rocky Top Talk on Tennessee's defensive tendencies in the comments.

almost 2 years ago KJ@theonlycolors 6 comments 0 recs |

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Davis and Digger go with:

Tennessee & Baylor.

Dickie V goes with US & Duke.

by MSULaxer27 on Mar 27, 2010 10:19 PM CDT reply actions

Based on last year ...

That is tantamount to the SI curse. If Tennessee plays undisciplined, as Kentucky did and the Volunteer bigs are a concern, I think we win this one. The coaching matchup is an Izzo slam dunk.

by MSU1978 on Mar 28, 2010 7:42 AM CDT up reply actions

Rocky Talk Top

has their game preview up now.

Fight for The Only Colors: Green and White!

by KJ@theonlycolors on Mar 28, 2010 7:56 AM CDT reply actions

Come to Tennessee

We’re playing their song and that song is DOOM!!!

Seriously, I’m as excited for this game as I have been in a long, long time. Final Fours are such a benchmark. On top of that, this is anyone’s tournament. There’s no UNC waiting to demolish any comer this year. Beat Tennessee, beat Butler, beat Duke or Baylor. All three of those things are tangible. At the same time, I think this game will be as tough as any of those potential next steps.

by intrpdtrvlr on Mar 28, 2010 8:39 AM CDT reply actions

Ugly Game?

Pearl is going to send waves of players at us and will look to pick up Korie end to end, trap him when they can, and wear him down: with Hopson, Prince and Tatum, they are really long. There are going to be some bad turnovers and we will have to live with it (and hope that it is balanced out by our half-court defense against their sometimes inconsistent offense): I just hope we attack when we break the press. I love Kebler, but I don’t want to see him playing a ton of minutes against an aggressive press because Lucious picked up a couple of silly fools. How this game gets called will determine a lot.

If we can weather the first half and the start of the second, and if the game is close near the end, I’ll feel good. I think we can more than hold our own on the boards, and if they play a lot of zone, we need to be really disciplined with the ball (none of these floating passes around the perimeter against a long, quick team). It is really nice to have someone with Day-Day’s skills in the high post, and he will really need to be sticking his jumper from the elbow.

Nearly all of our guys have been here before, and we’ve played three tough, tight games so far: I like our chances if it’s close. So let’s not lose it in the first thirty minutes.

by RobbingGormanThomas on Mar 28, 2010 9:13 AM CDT reply actions