MSU not lacking for motivation

EAST LANSING - One of the greatest recruiting pitches in college basketball is on the line for Michigan State this season.

Come here and you will go to the Final Four.

Every player recruited to MSU by Tom Izzo who stayed four years has been to at least one Final Four. That includes this year's fifth-year seniors - Goran Suton, Marquise Gray, Idong Ibok - who were redshirting freshmen on the 2004-05 national semifinalists.

But senior guard Travis Walton has not been to one, so the 2008-09 Spartans must earn a trip to the Final Four at Detroit's Ford Field to keep the streak alive.

And that's fitting considering no one wants to get there more than the winning-obsessed Walton.

"That's a big thought," Walton said at Wednesday's basketball media day of extending the tradition. "That's for the program, for the coaches to be able to talk about it to recruits. 'If you come to Michigan State, look what you'll get.' I don't want to be the person to break that."

We now interrupt football season for some hoops. Izzo talked almost as much about Saturday's MSU-Ohio State football game as he did his own team, but it's time to shift some attention to the hardwood with Midnight Madness set for Friday and the season opener just one month away.

The Spartans are coming off a 27-9 season that marked the fifth-most wins in school history and ended with a 92-74 loss to Memphis in the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16.

It featured some great moments (wins over Texas and Pittsburgh), some ugly moments (losses to Iowa and Penn State), an 11th straight trip to the NCAA Tournament (fifth-best nationally), a seventh Sweet 16 in that time (second only to Duke), no Big Ten title for the seventh straight season, and a humbling finish.

"Memphis" may have been as much of a motivational cry for MSU in the offseason as was "Detroit."

"We got embarrassed, first of all, so we've got everything to improve on," Walton said. "That game just brought light to everything and it's still a burning feeling when you say that name."

MSU enters this season with one of its deepest, most talented rosters in recent memory, despite the loss of starters Drew Neitzel and Drew Naymick.

The Spartans are picked first or second in the Big Ten in the preseason magazines (alternating with Purdue), and are ranked between No. 2 and No. 14 nationally by various outlets.

Jeff Goodman of FoxSports ranks MSU No. 2, behind consensus No. 1 North Carolina. Andy Katz of ESPN has the Spartans at No. 4. Blue Ribbon (No. 13) and Athlon Sports (No. 14) are more skeptical.

Despite the abundance of talent, there are many questions about this team, starting the status of celebrated freshman forward Delvon Roe. He has had surgeries on both knees in the past year and is just returning to full contact on the court.

MSU will need big improvement from sophomore guards Chris Allen and Durrell Summers, more consistency from junior forward Raymar Morgan, and a continuation of the excellence sophomore guard Kalin Lucas and senior center Goran Suton displayed in March.

"Just be consistent," Morgan, last season's leading scorer at 14.0 a game, said of this team's mission. "Not let little games slip away and have a confidence and swagger."