Michigan State a fun-loving bunch, but gets serious when it needs to - The Detroit News

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Michigan State a fun-loving bunch, but gets serious when it needs to - The Detroit News Mar 18th 2012, 00:39 Columbus, Ohio— It's the biggest time of the year in college basketball and many times, for teams that are seeded high and saddled with plenty of expectations, it can be the most tense time of the season. No. 1 seed Michigan State, however, has decided it will enjoy every second of its NCAA Tournament run. "It's an opportunity for the young guys to embrace it," senior Austin Thornton said before practice at Nationwide Arena on Saturday. "If you haven't been through it before, the NCAA Tournament is something that is a special thing to be a part of. There are times you enjoy it and embrace it and other times you've got to focus. Right now is a time to enjoy being here and once practice starts and film sessions start, it's time to be locked in and focused." As the Spartans got ready to hit the floor for their game with No. 9 Saint Louis at approximately 2:45 p.m. Sunday, the mood was light, to say the least. In one corner of the room, Derrick Nix took shots at his own weight, saying again that he likes playing a team that doesn't run. "It's better to be slower," he said. In another corner, assistant coach Dane Fife stood near a dry-erase board that said "Dane Fife interview line begins here. Take a number." And a few feet away, Adreian Payne was teasing coach Tom Izzo about his latest television appearance while decked out in oversized, black-frame glasses, taking his position as a scholar-athlete to another level. Nix rolled his eyes and said his fellow center "lives in another world." Keith Appling and Brandan Kearney just shook their heads and Thornton was at a loss to explain the fashion choice from his teammate. While Payne admitted he thought his glasses were cool, he did have another purpose. "I like to get people smiling and I like to make people laugh," Payne said. "A lot of people are tense around this time. Coach Izzo has his Dove commercial where he says he's comfortable in his own skin. Around this time of year he's really not comfortable, I don't really know why he said that. He did a really good job other than saying he's comfortable in his own skin. He should have done it when we come in at halftime and see how comfortable he really looks." So that's what it's like as the Spartans continue on a run they hope ends in the Final Four in New Orleans — guys taking playful shots at their teammates, taking playful shots at their coach, and trying not to take things too seriously. It's something Izzo has admired about his team all season, even if it took him a while to appreciate the camaraderie of this team. "At first, the beginning part of the year, Coach didn't really know how to handle us," Draymond Green said. "Because we used to joke so much with each other, he just really didn't know how to handle it. It was something new." But as the season progressed, Izzo began to see how close the team was and what it meant on the floor. Before the Big Ten championship game last week, he talked about his guys acting like 4-year-olds — and loving it. It's something he's been able to enjoy from early in the season. "I think when Coach really saw how this team was together when we went to Gonzaga," Green said. "We had a team dinner at a restaurant — Coach didn't even sit with us, he sat away from us and just watched. Nobody knew what he was doing, but he was watching how we interacted with each other, and it was smiles everywhere, everybody having fun together. "And I think that's really what makes us so enjoyable to coach because everybody listened. There's nobody on this team who feels like they're bigger than another person or bigger than the program. When you have a team like that with a bunch of guys who love being together, I think it makes it enjoyable for us to be around each other, but it also makes it enjoyable for Coach to be around us as well." Winning certainly helps the atmosphere around the team and the Spartans have done plenty of that. To reach the Sweet 16 and earn a trip to Phoenix, they'll have to knock off a team that is, in many ways, a mirror image of themselves. The Billikens are a tough defensive team that has no intention of backing down to the Big Ten champions. "Yesterday was an upset, supposedly, and everyone said we weren't going to win that game," senior Brian Conklin said of the win over Memphis. "We've already done one, so why not a second one? (Michigan State is) a great team, but we know we have a great team in that locker room, too. We're going to muck up the game like we did yesterday and play dirty basketball, but it's going to be fun and we're excited." The Spartans will be up for it. They faced a fast-paced team against LIU Brooklyn on Friday and say they are just as comfortable playing a slower style against Saint Louis. "We go against ourselves every day," Brandon Wood said. "So we're used to playing a physical team, a physical defense." Michigan State expects to handle the change of pace without any problems. That's not to say the Spartans are overconfident, they're just not playing tight. Much of that has to do with their approach, a loose, fun style that could lead to more locker room fun in Phoenix next week. mcharboneau@detnews.com twitter.com/mattcharboneau This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

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