Spartans Win One for Zeke Here in Minneapolis: 65-64!

Minneapolis, MN Williams Arena  The Gophers came out on fire. They hit threes, they made their shots inside and they were on fire. What made that even

Minneapolis, MN

Williams Arena

 

Win one for Zeke was the Spartans battle cry!

The Gophers came out on fire. They hit threes, they made their shots inside and they were on fire. What made that even more impressive was that the Spartans weren’t, and they had their customary poor start. At the Breslin they can get away with it, on the road could they? They did and credit them for playing hard when they looked bad doing it.

 

Tom Izzo has said that when your shooters aren’t hitting their shots, you can live with that because they will. The concern is if they don’t get those shots. The Spartans were not getting them to fall in the first, but they kept shooting and they came. 

 

Kalin Lucas was the superstar that he is. He had 22 points, five assists, three rebounds and a steal, but he did all of that with the Gophers literally all over him. “He was the best he’s been this year,” was Izzo’s take on his star.

 

The Spartans went to the locker room at the half down 36-26, and frustrated. They should have been. They shot an abysmal 28% from the floor in the first half while Minnesota hit 50%. One thing the Gophers learned today is that a frustrated team does not equal a team that has quit.

 

Could Minnesota continue to play at that level in the second half? Could MSU remain that cold? Don’t count on it!  Here is a question for you. When was the last time Raymar Morgan played with four fouls, let alone as long as he did in the second half and DIDN’T foul out?

 

This was a coming out party that people have been waiting for. Raymar’s 17 points and six rebounds combined with suffocating defense and discipline playing with those four fouls won this game for MSU. He had his best performance as a Spartan and Kalin Lucas said it best to me, “Without Ray we don’t win this game.”

 

It was far from a pretty game, but to win championships you have to have some of these. To their credit, even when playing poorly, the Spartans kept fighting. It was that grit in the first half when they couldn’t hit a basket that Izzo said, “I think we needed to win a game like this.”

 

Today they had that grit and that fight. Today that grit that Izzo craves showed itself. On the road, playing poorly they fought and clawed and today they got a win and moved to 7-0 in the Big Ten. You could point to a lot of things that weren’t good, but I am tired of pointing out the bad with a win. 

 

The turning point of the game wasn’t seen on TV. Draymond Green screamed in the huddle, “Let’s win this for Zeke.” As in Zeke Dahlman the Spartans guard from Minnesota. It is nice to sit courtside here at the Barn and watch and emotional Dahlman family as I type this, hug and rejoice with one another. This team isn’t about one player. None of them wanted credit and all differed to a young man who may not end his career worthy of the MSU athletics Hall of Fame in Dahlman, but there will never be another as popular. Some will come and go as popular with their teammates, but none more.

 

Today the Spartans grew up. Today they took a step. If they win in Ann Arbor this team will have put a gigantic footprint by having the best start in MSU history in the Big Ten. If they do it, they can point to this ugly win as the time they grew up. Today they won one for Zeke, but if you ask Zeke, they just won.

 

65-64 final, enough said! Bring on the Wolverines.