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LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds hope their game soars vs. Spartans - Detroit Free Press

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LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds hope their game soars vs. Spartans - Detroit Free Press
Mar 16th 2012, 06:01

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Long Island University Brooklyn has not one but two forwards who were good enough to be the Northeast Conference player of the year.

Jamal Olasewere, a 6-foot-7 junior, averaged 16.8 points a game. He was edged out for the award by teammate Julian Boyd, also a 6-7 junior. Boyd averaged 17.4 points.

What really stands out to Michigan State's Draymond Green, however, is how Boyd leaks out onto the break. LIU likes to run. Boyd is a big part of the strategy.

"He's very athletic. He runs the floor very well," Green said.

So well that Olasewere has his doubts about whether Green and the MSU front line can keep up with him and Boyd.

"Michigan State, they have 6-10, 6-9, 6-7. Most of their bigs are heavyset. Like I said ... with me and Julian, with the mobility of us, I said they couldn't catch us with our quickness and speed," Olasewere said. "I guess you could say that's kind of the plan going in, to put them out, me and Julian trying to create it, and hopefully that will work."

Such comments beg the question: How much film has LIU watched? Certainly Derrick Nix is not a burner down the court, but Green and Adreian Payne can both run, and Keith Appling is one of the fastest guards in the nation.

The perception exists that these Spartans are brutish, intent on clogging, clawing and rebounding. On Thursday, Green was asked why the notion persists.

"Like I said to y'all the other day, a lot of teams always talk about how they run-and-gun, and I look at them like they really don't run like they say they do," Green said. "I look at the opportunities when I'm watching the other games, like if we would have got that ball right there, we would have pushed that so fast."

What about the perception that his team doesn't have quickness and speed?

"I think the main reason why people think we don't run is because we can play a half-court game and we can play a full-court game," Green said. "We have a lot of sets. So I think people kind of get screwed up with that when they see us having running a lot of sets, and we run our sets very sharp. They kind of think, 'Oh, they're just a slow-it-down team. They slow it down and they run their offense.' But we push the ball as well."

Perhaps LIU's confidence in dictating its style of play has to do with last season, when the Blackbirds played North Carolina in the second round and gave UNC a game into the second half -- the Tar Heels won, 102-87.

"I feel we're a lot better than a 16 seed would usually be," Boyd said. "And with this team I think we've proven a lot over the past two years. So we've won a lot of games. We've come together."

LIU is 25-8 this season. But the 87 points the Blackbirds hung on North Carolina in last season's NCAA tournament showed their potential. The Tar Heels love to run and only occasionally play defense. That isn't so with Michigan State.

Still, said Olasewere, "We might be a 16, but I feel like this tournament is built for upsets. So being a 16 playing against a 1, it's not too much of a big deal."

Contact Shawn Windsor: 313-222-6487 or swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @freepspartans.

Join Free Press special writer Sean Merriman for a live blog of the MSU-LIU Brooklyn game Friday night at freep.com/sports. Support the Spartans on Facebook and Twitter with these Twibbons or this Facebook timeline photo.

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