Nix said the Spartans' size should be a big advantage, but "we don't always take advantage of it."

Why not?

"It's not a big man's school," he said. "This is a guard's school. You know, Coach, he's a little man, so I guess he likes the guards better. I'm not sure. But lately we've been taking advantage of me, Adreian and Draymond. So I think if we continue to do that, we'll continue to be successful."

A guard's school? As in: Tom Izzo wants scoring to come from guards?

"Yes," Nix said. "That's why I say that. There are other pretty good big men out there, and we don't do the stuff they do. And I don't feel like we're not as good as them. I just feel like that's the way our program is set up."

I asked if he thought MSU should run more plays through its big guys, and Nix said: "I don't even know how to respond to that. My response would get me in trouble, so I'll just leave it alone."

http://www.freep.com/article/20120310/COL22/203100443/Michael-Rosenberg-Its-big-guys-make-Michigan-State-still-deadly?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

This is something I have thought for a long time - specifically that Izzo's physical stature is determinative of his offenses. It seems to me that we rarely recruit and develop post players for offense purposes, and instead elect to run a perimeter offense (for dreaded example, the weave), and mostly use our post players for rebounding and defense.

This year appears to be the result of consecutive years recruiting-sequence aberrations in the form of Derrick Payne. Not only that, Nix and Payne are getting significantly better before our very eyes.

Kudos to Izzo and his staff. It's a wonder he has not used this approach more often over the years given his football inclinations. I hope this indicates a fundamental change in scheme. Using players like Nix and Payne as cornerstones of the offense is like jamming the ball down the opponent's throats a la Baker Caper and Bell.

I wonder what this offense would look like if Nix got his way.