UConn, Michigan State, North Carolina, Vilanova Advance to Final Four

The first two rounds of the 2009 NCAA Tournament are over. The 65-team NCAA Tournament field has been whittled down to four remaining contestants. Connecticut, Michigan State, North Carolina and Villanova have survived and advanced, and, thus, constitute the field for the 2009 Final Four.

On Saturday, April 4, Connecticut will play Michigan State and North Carolina will play Villanova in Detroit's Ford Field.

As 1-seeds, North Carolina and Connecticut were expected to reach the Final Four. Michigan State and Villanova, while both seeded highly (2 and 3-seeds, respectively) upset 1-seeds in the Elite Eight in order to advance to the Final Four.

Michigan State's presence in the Final Four is particularly noteworthy. As members of the much-maligned Big Ten conference, most college basketball "experts" expressed the opinion that the Spartans did not have what it takes to reach the Final Four. Most experts expected Louisville to defeat MSU handily in the Elite Eight, and thus, become the third 2009 Final Four participant from the Big East conference. In fact, it was widely believed that Louisville would run Michigan State off the floor.

But Tom Izzo and the Spartans had different ideas. Izzo's superior game plan put his team in position to take advantage of its strengths (superior guard play, strong play in the paint), and neutralize Louisville's strengths (full court pressure defense, athleticism, three point shooting, switching zone defenses, depth). Most analysts expected Michigan State to wilt under Louisville's famed full court pressure. But the backcourt duo of Kalin Lucas and Travis Walton (along with occasional help from big man Goran Suton) broke the Cardinals' pressure with ease. And the Spartans' torrid three point shooting relegated the zone defense ineffective.

Also of note, since his promotion to the position of men's head basketball coach prior the 1995/96 season, Tom Izzo has taken Michigan State to five Final Fours. Even more impressively, since becoming head coach, every one of Tom Izzo's who has completed his four years of eligibility has participated in a Final Four.

Although he's regularly overlooked by the Big East & Atlantic Coast Conference-obsessed national sports media, Tom Izzo is clearly one of the top coaches in college basketball. What's more, he's widely regarded as one of the true good guys in a notoriously shady sport (college basketball) that is filled with smooth-talking, but often unscrupulous coaches.

Drive and Dish expects Connecticut to beat North Carolina to win the 2009 National Championship (as we've said all year), but we tip our hats to Tom Izzo and Michigan State. We thought MSU would probably make it to the Elite Eight, but fall short of making the Final Four (even though we picked Kansas in our final official bracket). But we're thrilled to see Izzo and the ever-tough Spartans back in the familiar territory of the Final Four.

Izzo in Running For Chicago Job?

Yahoo! Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski and Dan Wetzel are reporting that along with Rick Carlisle, Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo may be in the running for the Chicago Bulls' coaching job:

"When reached on Tuesday night, Izzo told Yahoo! Sports that he hadn’t been contacted by the Bulls, but sounded willing to discuss the job with them.

'I’m not counting out any (job openings) because you can’t,' Izzo said. 'College or pro.'

'I go back and forth on (coaching in the NBA),' he continued. 'I still think it’s the ultimate level. There is something about it. I look at it and say, ‘It’s a real challenge.’ But I love what I do too. I go down and look at what the Pistons (coaches) do in preparation and I think, ‘That’s insane.’

'But I look at what I do in terms of recruiting and I think, ‘That’s insane.’”

Wojnarowski and Wetzel continue:

"The Bulls are under the impression, sources said, that Izzo is eager to speak with them. Some believe he has grown restless in East Lansing, and it’s believed he would’ve become the Kansas coach had Bill Self taken the Oklahoma State job."

Kentucky and Iowa Pull Shocking Upsets

Saturday, Kentucky upset Vanderbilt, who was previously undefeated and ranked #13 by the AP, 79-73 in double Over Time. It was UK's first big win of the Billy Gillispie era.

Vanderbilt is an interesting team. Last year's team made it to the Sweet Sixteen, and would have been in the Elite Eight, if not for a missed traveling call on Georgetown's Jeff Green that produced Georgetown's game winning basket. And although they lost some key players from last year's team, they've managed to be one of this season's runaway successes. But despite this season's impressive record, they've turned in some very underwhelming performances. And they've escaped with squeaker wins over some less-than-stellar opponents (see: Bradley, DePaul).

Vanderbilt didn't look terribly athletic or strong against Kentucky. And even though the Wildcats are ecstatic that they pulled off their first big win, Vanderbilt just never quite looked like a legitimate top tier team in that game.

Michigan State Falls to Iowa

Although it didn't get the attention that Kentucky's nationally televised win over Vanderbilt did, #6 Michigan State's 43-36 loss at Iowa was the biggest upset of the day. Iowa may be the worst team in the Big Ten (Drive and Dish has previously noted the Hawkeyes' profound Godawfulness). Yet they managed to slow the game down and "ugly" the whole thing up, which got Michigan State to play down to their level.

I'm glad that I didn't see that game. It would have been brutal to watch, as most of Iowa's games are. But I feel bad for Michigan State. They're a legitimate top 10 team, and there's no way that they should have lost to Iowa -- let alone only score 36 points in the entire game.

Tom Izzo is probably running his team into the ground right now. Each one of his players will probably drop five to seven pounds of water weight before their next game (thanks to all the running they will have done).

Look, Iowa is a tough place for visiting teams to play. With the exception of the Iowa Presidential Caucuses (which only come along once every four years), there really isn't much going on in Iowa. That's why Iowa Hawkeyes' football, wrestling and basketball are so important to the locals. As such, far too many Iowans derive their sense of self worth from the success of Hawkeye athletics. So, for Iowans, it's win at all costs -- which is why visiting teams often find that their hotel rooms have no warm running water, have no functioning air conditioning or heat, have mysterious power outages, have an unusually high number of fire alarms in the middle of the night, etc.

What's worse, when the visiting teams arrive in the visitor's locker room, they often find that -- in addition to being painted pink, from ceiling to floor (including lockers, benches, toilets, urinals, sinks, fire extinguishers . . . literally everything in the room) -- the visitor's locker room lacks running water. Which really sucks because, since their hotel rooms frequently lack warm water, teams often bypass using the showers and the toilets in their hotels, and wait until they get to the locker room to take care of those necessities.

But that stuff is par for the course in Iowa City. Ask the 2005 Illinois Fighting Illini. They went to Iowa City undefeated and ranked #1 in the nation. But, after they found it difficult to get restful sleep in their hotel rooms, and couldn't find warm water in either their hotel rooms or in the locker room, the Illini played their ugliest game of the season. Illinois was lucky to sneak out of that place with a win that year. They almost didn't.

By the way, I wouldn't necessarily trust the food in Iowa City either. I think that if I were coaching a team that had to play at Iowa, I'd pack enough sack lunches to take care of each of my team's meals.

Iowa is just that way.

In fact, many Iowans actually pride themselves on that kind of stuff. I know some of those kinds of Iowa fans.

But that's still no excuse for Michigan State's horrible loss in Iowa City.

Tom Izzo, Michigan State Survive Scare at Bradley: Drive and Dish Shows Izzo Some Love Just for Scheduling Game

This past Tuesday, #9 Michigan State traveled to Peoria, IL to play the Bradley Braves, an unranked, but scrappy team from the underrated Missouri Valley conference. A crowd of 11,500 braved a winter storm in order to set a Peoria Civic Center/Carver Arena record for attendance (the arena has a capacity of roughly 11,000). Tuesday's game marked the first time in over twenty years that Bradley played host to a team ranked in the AP top ten. After being behind for most of the game, Michigan State rallied to escape with a hard fought 66-61 win. A major factor in Michigan State's shaky performance was the hostility of the Bradley crowd. Bradley students, alumni and fans packed the normally sterile Carver Arena to create what Michigan State coach Tom Izzo termed an "electric environment."

Tom Izzo should be commended for scheduling a "two and one" series with Bradley. It's difficult for Missouri Valley teams to find non conference opponents from BCS conferences like the Big Ten. The MVC is widely considered to be one of the best conferences in college basketball. And Valley teams have a reputation for playing a tough, scrappy, defensive-minded brand of basketball. But the Missouri Valley is still technically a "mid major" conference. Thus, teams from major conferences stand to gain little by playing Missouri Valley teams: the Valley teams are almost certain to challenge the "major" conference teams (and maybe even beat them) but the "major" conference teams aren't likely to be rewarded for close wins over "mid majors" in the RPI rankings or by the NCAA Tournament selection committee. So they usually won't play the good Valley teams.

Give Izzo credit. He knew that Michigan State didn't stand to gain much by playing that game (in either the RPI rankings or in the eyes of the selection committee) -- and he knew that if they were to lose, or even struggle with Bradley, they could pay for it all season long (and that it could, ultimately, affect their Tournament seeding).

But Izzo took his Spartans to battle an unheralded opponent in a hostile environment. And after surviving Tuesday night's scare, he's relieved to get out with a win and thinks his team will be tougher in the long run for having played the game.

That's why Drive and Dish is showing Tom Izzo some love (actually, Tom Izzo is probably my favorite coach in college basketball -- I've respected and admired him for many years -- so it's hardly a surprise that D&D is showing Izzo love). We believe that you've got to give credit where credit's due.