New Players, New Assistant, but Same Old Great Coach Have Michigan State Basketball on a Roll!

Coming into this season I said that Michigan State would lose their first two.  I also said it didn’t matter.  What would matter is how this team would respond.  Well I think we have our answer.

The Spartans have rolled off 14 straight wins and hold in their hand a national ranking of #10.  They will almost certainly early this week move up from there when the new poll comes out.

So what can we surmise from this start?  First of all I thought they would be 12-4 at this point.  They have come together faster than I thought they would and they are 14-2.  Having a team full of new players and Keith Appling moving to the point made me think the process of this team coming together would take longer than it has.

The Spartans are play selfless and that is a step up from being selfish which is what they were last season.  That is something that can’t be taught.  This group of players at times has given up great shots only to pass.  It hasn’t been an exception, but more like a rule to hear Izzo scream, “Shoot” to his team.  Last season terrible shots were taken when great passes to open men were available.  This season it is the opposite.

Keith Appling has grown into his role at the point.  With each game he is learning that when he drives the game opens up more for his teammates and frankly for him.  Derrick Nix has brought his game to a new level that at times makes him a force.  All everything freshman Branden Dawson is learning to play the defense Izzo demands and transfer senior Brandon Wood has been everything we expected.  He is a calming influence that started playing almost as to prove he belonged, and now he is just playing basketball.

This team on paper is still a ways away from being a Final Four team.  What they are is a team that is getting better every game and that means when March comes they could be.

One big key addition that people don’t seem to be talking about is Dane Fife.  He left a head-coaching job to be an assistant for Izzo.  Twice Izzo recruited the tough as nails player from Michigan.  When he was in high school and committed to Indiana and when he was at Indiana and considered transferring to MSU, which obviously he did not.

When Michigan State recently beat Indiana at the Breslin Center I purposefully watched Fife.  With his great relationship with his alma mater I am sure it couldn’t have been easy to coach for MSU during that game.  I was wrong.

I asked Fife after if it was difficult.  He said, “Not at all.”  He went on to add, “Do I love Indiana?  Yes I do, but I am a coach and I am a Spartan so that is the way it is.”  Was it bittersweet at least?  “No bittersweet feeling at all!”  I must admit judging by his sideline demeanor he was telling the truth.  With a raucous crowd (the best the Breslin has seen in years) no one was cheering each possession and great play as loud as Fife.

As with any new relationship there are some adjustments and there has been with MSU and Fife.  He had to figure out his role within the offices and with the team, and they did with him.  That adjustment has gone well.  He is a great basketball mind and a teacher of the game with a high level of understandings.  I have not asked him this, but he came to a team that didn’t give him respect.  Having been a head man that had to be a real tough adjustment.  The good thing is that he has earned it and for Fife and his character that has to matter and feel good.

As I started to walk out of the locker room after the Indiana game Fife said to me, “The Hoosiers are in my heart, but no doubt I am a Spartan.”  His actions prove that.

Fife wasn’t just given respect when he came to MSU, but what makes it nice for the coach is that he has earned it.  Photo courtesy of Mark Boomgaard.  Quinnly  Blair

When watching Fife leave the Breslin Center with his lovely family you can tell the type of support network his has. I have to tell this story.

Earlier this year after a big win I was walking out with Coach Fie.  Coach was walking out hand in hand with his wife Blair.  Amongst the fans looking for autographs there was one sweet little girl that didn’t care that people were yelling his name. 

She didn’t even think that she was leaving one of the most storied venues in college basketball or that the tall man in front of her was a coach.  For her it was her Daddy and she didn’t care about any of the other stuff. 

As Fife stooped down to pick up his little girl Quinnly, Blair looked on with admiration for the bond that the love of her life and her little girl had.  If you ever watched Bob Knight coach Dane Fife, or even his father coaching him back in the day you understand Fife can handle the heat of big time basketball.  What you wouldn’t know was that snapshot of him with his family proved he isn’t a coach who defines himself by his profession.

He has the balance to know that coaching is what he does, but being a family man is who he is and he is comfortable and more importantly happy with that.

This Spartan team is having a great season because of many people.  When you talk about all the new players you can’t forget a new assistant and the old coach who once again is showing the nation why he, is one of the best…ever.