Draymond Green: U-M's loss, MSU's basketball gain

EAST LANSING - The celebration was minimal on that hot day of June 28, 2007, when Draymond Green accepted a Michigan State scholarship that was only available because of the transfer of Maurice Joseph.

Green was a late addition. A complementary piece. In the eyes of many, a nice role player some day - maybe, if he lost some weight.

The reaction from MSU fans may best be summed as: "At least we kept him from going to Michigan." It was nothing like the cyber-parade that greeted Delvon Roe's verbal commitment two months earlier. How large does that day loom now?

"Lucky is probably a good word," MSU coach Tom Izzo acknowledged Monday, "especially the way it all happened."

Green is the all-purpose glue for a Michigan State team that stands at 17-3 overall, 7-0 in the Big Ten and No. 5 in the nation entering tonight's game at U-M. He is a rebounder, passer, defender, leader and versatile scorer - in other words, exactly what the struggling Wolverines (10-9, 3-4) need right now.

"I loved his versatility, I loved the way he could pass the ball," U-M coach John Beilein said Monday of his recruitment of Green. "You're seeing that right now. It's rare that you get kids with his size and strength that have such a soft feel for the game.

"He's got soft hands, great passing touch - just really a guy that if you play through him a lot, whether it's in the high post, low post, perimeter, he's very adept at making good passes. That's what we've always prided our past teams on, is having big guys who could really pass the ball and shoot."

The Spartans are indeed fortunate to have Green. Tom Izzo admitted that he had his doubts, as did many, about how effective Green would be at this level of basketball.

"Yeah I was," Izzo said when asked if he was at one point a Green skeptic. "As a sophomore, I liked him more than other guys on that (Saginaw High) team that went Division I. And then you started questioning some things. He got that injured ankle and that hurt his weight and hurt everything.

"So yeah, I have no problem admitting that I questioned some of that too. And when I got him I didn't say, 'Oh boy, we're gonna be national champs with him.' But, boy, now I say, 'Man, am I glad we have him.' "

'Got to get him'

Green has been an MSU fan for so long, he once said he remembers being "scared of Sparty." He came to Breslin often as a child to watch aunt Annette Babers play for the women's team.

He tried to commit to MSU as a sophomore, but he did not yet have a formal offer. When then-Kentucky coach Tubby Smith came through with an offer during Green's junior season, he jumped at it.

"Ever since I was a child, MSU was my dream school," Green told the State Journal in March 2007. "Even this year I wanted to go there, but then Tubby Smith came and presented his program to me. I didn't have an offer from Michigan State and I can't just constantly wait, so I committed to him."

But Smith left Kentucky for Minnesota. Green considered following him there but instead reopened his recruitment.

Beilein and the Wolverines made a "huge push," Green said, along with Indiana and new coach Tom Crean.

MSU knew Joseph was considering a transfer because the 2007 class of Kalin Lucas, Chris Allen and Durrell Summers was on the way to take his minutes. MSU got serious about Green.

"Got to get him," assistant coach Mark Montgomery - Green's biggest proponent on the staff - said of the feeling at the time. "We always wanted him from the beginning, too. That's how recruiting happens sometimes. I wouldn't use the word lucky, but we're very fortunate to have him. I'd use that word."

Considering how crucial Green has become to the Spartans' offense, defense and locker room makeup, Izzo sometimes thinks about how crucial it was that things worked out just right.

"Yeah, I do think about that," Izzo said. "I don't tell him that, but I think about that."

Changing minds

Doubts trailed Green to MSU. Former Ann Arbor News columnist Jim Carty quoted some Division I coaches who believed he would never make an impact at this level.

Izzo figured Green would redshirt as a freshman. Fans weren't buzzing about a guy who looked like he would fit in on their softball teams.

But the 6-foot-6 Green dropped weight - about 35 pounds from his senior year high of 270 - and rose to prominence during MSU's run to the NCAA title game.

This season he is displaying all the skills and instincts that led Saginaw High to consecutive Class A state titles. And he's being recognized by just about everyone.

If Green were a movie, he'd be up for an Oscar.

Among the opposing coaches who gushed about him was Illinois' Bruce Weber after MSU's 73-63 win on Jan. 16.

"I think he might be the key to the team," Weber said. "He plays with emotion, he does all the little things, he plays his butt off, he understands the game and he's a big difference maker right now for them."

CBS and Big Ten Network announcer Gus Johnson has called Green "the Albert Einstein of basketball" and on Saturday said Green is "my favorite kid in college basketball."

"I think he's just scratching the surface," Izzo said. "I think he's gonna have the leadership skills, he's gonna get himself in better shape, he's gonna improve his shooting even more. This kid has a chance to really grow because he wants to, he cares about people and he understands me and I understand him."

And he'll no doubt have a major impact on tonight's game. Just think how different it might be if Green were draped in maize and blue.

"It probably would be," Green said. "But who knows? Who cares? I don't really think about that anymore, I'm a Spartan."