As Goes Raymar Morgan, So Go the Spartans!

Indianapolis, IN  There has been talk all week about Butler. The home team and of course their alleged Cinderella status. The Spartans have only won

Indianapolis, IN

 

There has been talk all week about Butler. The home team and of course their alleged Cinderella status. The Spartans have only won their four games by a combined 13 points. All of those make nice stories, but they are not the story, as the Spartans get ready for a Final Four match up with Butler.

 

“Raymar’s impact is bigger than what anyone has really noticed,” was what Tom Izzo told me after the Tennessee win and he is right. No player on this team holds a bigger key to a Spartan win and a second consecutive birth in the championship game than the senior from Ohio.

 

“I have a role and I know that for us to be successful I have to fulfill it,” was what the mild mannered Morgan told me after practice. “He gets it and he plays so hard, he is a special player and how he goes the team goes,” was Delvon Roe’s praise for Morgan.

 

No matter how much tape you watch and no matter how you break it down, Morgan is the key for the Spartans. Can he play well and others not and the Spartans win? Of course not! What can’t happen is a disappearance that at times in his career has plagued him. Games where he gets frustrated with early fouls or missed shots and he essentially checks out of games and disappears from the final stat sheets. Others can play great and the Spartans lose if Morgan is not on.

 

Raymar is so critical.  Izzo said earlier in the season, “We know when he gets on the bus, when he gets dressed what kind of a game he is going to have,” based on his emotion and how he carries himself.

 

Morgan has done an incredible job the last third of the season playing at a high level. No one wishes the injury on Kalin Lucas, but since that time he has stepped up his game even more. 

 

In the second half of the Maryland game, and since, Morgan can be seen getting the ball and putting it on his hip as he directs his teammates like a point guard. He is more vocal with instructions and encouragement and has become the Morgan we all suspected he would be as his career wound down.

 

When the season is over he will leave statistically as one of the best Spartans of all time. When the season is over he will have been part of back-to-back Final Fours. When the season is over, if he maintains his current level of play, he will leave as everyone thought he would with the way he is performing. When the season is over, if he maintains that level of play, he could leave here as a national champion, or at least having led his team to back-to-back national championship games.

 

If you ask Raymar, like I did after practice, all he wants to talk about is, “I am ready to play.” As Izzo said you can tell early about Raymar early on, and I am here to tell you that he is ready to play!