A joy ride for Izzo and Michigan State

DETROIT -- They're 92 miles away. Ninety-two miles and one game. The team
from the state of Michigan, the state of euphoria, Michigan State, is riding to
where the road ends, an underdog under full head of steam and believing in a
dream.

The script is joyful
and remarkable. The not-so-little team that, as coach Tom Izzo points out, is
playing for the university, for itself, for this city of Detroit 92 miles from
campus at East Lansing, indeed all of Michigan, a state struck hard by the
economic downtown, comes through when needed.

One weekend it
knocks off the No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, Louisville, and then, with all
sorts of subplots weaving their magic – not to be confused with alumnus Earvin "Magic" Johnson, who was present and accounted for – the Spartans give a
virtual repeat performance.

On Saturday night,
before the largest crowd in NCAA tournament history, 72,456 at Ford Field, MSU
literally runs past Connecticut, 82-73, to reach the Monday night final against North Carolina.

And Izzo, who knows
full well the problems of the American auto industry, Detroit's failing engine
as it were, stands on the court and through the screams and cheers shares the
appreciation of a region that knows well the pain and pleasure of a job well
done.

"We're a blue-collar
team," said Izzo, "and this is the blue-collar city. It was amazing, amazing to
walk out that tunnel. Give the people of Detroit, the Ford Field people,
credit.

"Yes, there were a
lot of Michigan State fans. I'm appreciative for all the people. I hope we were
a ray of sunshine, distraction for them, a diversion ... We're not done
yet."

Two Big East teams
in a row, Louisville and Connecticut, victims of Michigan State's tenacity. And
depth. "We want to run," said
Izzo. "I thought we could wear them down a bit. I thought depth worked on our
side. We knew that going in."

The Spartans used 11
players, belying the basic rule a team can't function with more than eight or
nine regulars. Connecticut had its eight. And its troubles. Michigan State's
bench outscored Connecticut's 33-7.

"That's the type of
player (Izzo) recruits," said Magic Johnson, hard-nosed, hardworking. Thirty years ago, in that memorable game
against Larry Bird and Indiana State, the game some believe was the birth of college
basketball interest, the Magic man led the Spartans to the NCAA
championship.

Saturday night, in
his green-and-white pullover, the one with "State" across the front, he sat in
the fourth row behind the Michigan
State bench and cheered. After visiting the pre-game Spartan locker
room.

Magic; former San
Francisco 49er coach Steve Mariucci, Izzo's boyhood pal; and Minnesota Vikings
assistant Pat Morris, another Spartan, were in the MSU locker room pre-game,
extolling, advising.

"A couple of
football guys, a big basketball guy (told) our team that it's going to be a
football game, so you might as well get ready for one," Izzo said. "I thought they were the
most physical team we played all year."

Just before
halftime, Connecticut's Jeff Adrian grabbed a rebound under the MSU basket and
was grabbed by the Spartans' Travis Walton, trying to extricate the ball. There
was grappling and shoving and glaring. But the officials stepped in, and the end
result was a couple of free throws for Adrian, who unlike some of his teammates
actually made them.

"Our league is
physical," said Izzo of the Big Ten. "Our league is tough. Our league is good
defensively. That helped prepare us for this tournament."

Izzo, whose team won
the title in 2000, who is coaching his fifth Final Four, helped prepare his
team. His tactics were brilliant, his substituting astute. Kalin Lucas, the
sophomore guard, had 21 points and five assists for Michigan State. Raymar
Morgan, with a broken nose and other ailments and seemingly as depressed as the
auto industry, awoke for 18 points, nine rebounds and impressive defense against
anyone Izzo chose.

"Sometimes it's hard
for me to find the right buttons," Izzo said of provoking Morgan. "Today the
button was, 'Ray I need you.' All but get down on my knees and beg. And it
worked pretty good."

Everything's working
for the Spartans.

"You know, after the
Louisville game," said Izzo, "I got to admit, I felt joy. I felt joy for the
university, our team, our conference, our city, our state. It's just a
once-in-a-lifetime thing. Those other Final Fours have been great, but boy, when
people you really care about can go right around the corner and see you play,
that's a special time, a special feeling.

"After the game, it
was surreal, impressive. Now it all turns to whoever we play and to see if we
can make the dream, the miracle, everything, come true one more
time."

Around here, they believe in Magic. And Tom Izzo.

RealClearSports: Road Ends Where It Once Began

By Art Spander

The slogan is both appropriate and ironic. “The Road Ends Here.”
That's what the NCAA is telling us. Here, in Motown, the city where if
the American road literally didn't begin, America's freedom of movement
did by using all that Detroit Iron.

It's the last weekend of the college basketball season, the Final
Four, as others contemplate a last hurrah of an industry that
metaphorically is 10 points down with 20 seconds to go. Wheels, that's
what Detroit thought about. And now for a few days, it's thinking
hoops, basketball, the NCAA championship, and the end of the road.

Now for a few days Detroit is offered an escape from the headlines,
from the economy, from the collapse of the automobile business. Or so
we're told.

So much has been made of Michigan State, which faces Connecticut on
Saturday evening in the first semifinal, becoming a savior, creating an
opportunity for Detroit, Southeastern Michigan, to find the pride and
satisfaction once found in building Chevys and Fords. You wonder. Even
if the Spartans win, the potholes will remain on the beat-up highways.
Even if the Spartans win, the jobless rate will remain much too high.
Even if the Spartans win it won't counter the loss of citizens,
460,000, which obligated the Detroit News to banner, "Eight-year population exodus staggers state."

And by most estimates, the Spartans won't win. The forecasters say
Connecticut will beat Michigan State and in Monday's final, play North
Carolina, which in the other semi meets Villanova. But who knows?
Predictions can be unreliable, maybe even those the last few days
insisting the auto business here is finished.

Tom Izzo, the Michigan State coach, is from the state, the Upper
Peninsula, one of the guys known as "Yupers." He and boyhood pal Steve
Mariucci, the football coach, grew up having to prove themselves.
Izzo's Spartans play basketball with that same chip-on-the-shoulder
mentality.

"I think players play," was Izzo's observation of the competition, "and the toughest players win."

In a region of mills, factories, and unemployment, the tough survive. The tough are admired.

Michigan State, as perhaps Detroit, gets too little respect. There was an interesting quote the other day in the Washington Post from Larry Alexander, president and chief executive of the Detroit Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"America thinks we are dying," said Alexander. "Unfortunately, when
you say 'Motor City,' they think that's all we have to offer. People
assume that if the auto industry is dying, Detroit is dying. But give
us a break. If Wall Street is dying, you don't say 'New York is dying.'"

Except New York is more than Wall Street. Detroit for decades hasn't been much more than cars.

The media hotel for this weekend, the Marriott, is in the GM
headquarters building, the Renaissance Center. The ground floor looks like
an auto showroom, with shiny new models here and there. The hallway
walls are embellished with photos of 1953 Cadillacs and 1957 Chevrolets.

The Michigan State players mostly are homeboys, from towns such as
Saginaw, Flint, Rochester, kids whose fathers, and often whose mothers,
built engines or attached axles. They have an understanding of what has
happened, over the years in the factories, the last few weeks on the
basketball courts.

"Detroit has been struggling," said Kalin Lucas, the excellent
sophomore point guard. He is from Sterling Heights, a suburb north of
the city. "A lot of people have been getting laid off and stuff like
that. So us playing here in the final, us being a Michigan team
playing, it can bring a smile to everybody in the city of Detroit."

The Final Four, with a Michigan team. Will this be any more
uplifting than the Stanley Cup, won by a Detroit team, the Red Wings?
Or the 2004 NBA finals, won by the Pistons, a Detroit team? Or the 2006
World Series, in which a Detroit team, the Tigers, was beaten by the
St. Louis Cardinals? Sections of old Tiger Stadium still stand,
resisting dismantling, now that the baseball team has shifted to new
Comerica Park. The NFL Lions last season, resisting dismantling, went an
unprecedented 0-16. Sporting history is never far away in Detroit.

More will be made. Maybe by Michigan State, which as skill and fate would have it, is in a Final Four in its home territory.

The auto industry clings to life. The state of Michigan clings to
Michigan State. So far the Spartans have taken every correct turn on a
road about to end here.

As a reporter since 1960, Art Spander is a living treasure of sports
history. A recipient of the Dick McCann Memorial Award -- given for his
long and distinguished career covering professional football -- he has
earned himself a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. And he has
recently been honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the PGA of
America for 2009.

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© RealClearSports 2009

Newsday: Prahalis showing everyone her game is huge

BY ART SPANDER
Special to Newsday

BERKELEY,
Calif. -- If she had something to prove, as Sammy Prahalis believed she
did, it has been proven. At 5-7, she looks up to most of the women in
college basketball. Then again, as her first season draws to a close,
nobody symbolically looks down on Sammy.

"It doesn't affect me that much," Prahalis -- the former Commack star who now plays point guard for Ohio State -- said of her size. "I go out to play. But I guess, because I am the
smallest, I had something to prove because everyone else is so big."

Prahalis is the Big Ten Freshman of the Year, and she and Big Ten
Player of the Year Jantel Lavender led Ohio State to victory in the
first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament.
Prahalis had a career-high 23 points to go with seven assists in a
first-round victory over Sacred Heart. Ohio State met second-seeded
Stanford late last night in a regional semifinal.

Prahalis, a two-time Long Island Player of the Year and second-team Parade All-American, averaged 30.1
points, 7.7 rebounds and 7.9 assists per game as a senior for Commack
and finished with 2,373 points, second in Suffolk history. Now she has
become the quintessential point guard, making all the pieces fit for
Ohio State.

"Three times I've been in similar situations where freshmen were given the ball," said Jim Foster, who became the Buckeyes'
coach in 2003 after long stints at Vanderbilt and St. Joseph's. "In all
three situations, it was a byproduct of their intensity and how hard
they played.

"Samantha is an absolutely terrific athlete that
people enjoy watching play. She plays the same way at practice as she
does in games. There is no saving herself ... Size is just one aspect
of basketball. I think Samantha [may be] the smallest player on the
court, but I think people will enjoy watching her."

Foster
enjoys utilizing Prahalis' multiple skills. She led the Big Ten in
assists with 5.79 per game and was first in assist-turnover ratio,
seventh in steals and 23rd in scoring at 10.0 points per game.

"I definitely like fast-paced basketball," Prahalis said, and no one
who has seen her would ever argue with that. Her New York accent has
been quite noticeable in Ohio, too. "Yes," she said with a smile, "they
kid me about it."

Nobody chides Prahalis about her style:
aggressive and determined. College ball has been rewarding, especially
since Ohio State won the Big Ten championship.

"High intensity
and a lot of fun," Prahalis said of conference play, which culminated
in a 67-66 win over Purdue in the Big Ten Tournament final March 8.
"But that's what basketball has always been for me. Coming from
Commack, it has been a bit of a change, but not too much."

Prahalis has an attitude, a requisite for anyone who's in command. "You
have to play with one," she agreed when told that Stanford coach Tara
VanDerveer said she is "cocky, in a good way."

"You have to
play with a winning attitude," Prahalis said. "If we play with passion
and confidence, we will be just as good as any team."

Prahalis went up against Stanford freshman Nnemkadi Ogwumike last night. She was Prahalis' roommate last summer on the U.S. team that went 5-0 at the FIBA Championships in Argentina.

"I haven't talked to my teammates about her," Prahalis said of the 6-2
Ogwumike. "She is a really good player. She is long and can run and
very versatile."

For Prahalis, two out of three ain't bad. She
can run and is incredibly versatile. She ranked in virtually every team
statistical category except rebounds.

"It's always been in my head, 'Work hard,"' Prahalis said. "If you work out every day, it will all come out in the end."

No matter the final score of last night's game, it was only the beginning of Prahalis' college career.

"This is something I've been waiting for my entire life - to play in
the NCAAs," Prahalis had said before her first tournament game.

When you're not even 20, an entire life doesn't consist of all that
much - but in her case, it's a tease on how great she eventually can be. team that went 5-0 at the FIBA Championships in Argentina.

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Copyright © 2009, Newsday Inc.

The city that can't stop hurting

OAKLAND – This is
the city that can't stop hurting. The city that can't stop weeping.

Once, Oakland was
known as the home of the Raiders, the Athletics, the Golden State Warriors. Once
the questions were about Al Davis' disconnect or Billy Beane's “Moneylessball.’’

Now they're about
death, about the killing of four policemen by a parolee who should never have
been let free.

Now the area that proudly labeled itself the "City of Champions" is a chump, an
embarrassment.

This is my city, Oakland, where I live, where I've worked, where I've watched the sporting heroes come and go, where I saw
Reggie Jackson and Jim Plunkett and Rick Barry lead franchises to
titles.

This is where
Catfish Hunter pitched a perfect game, Art Shell, Gene Upshaw and Bob Brown
blocked their way to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Sleepy Floyd scored a record
29 points in the fourth quarter, 51 overall, in the NBA playoffs against the
Lakers.

This is the town to
which sports gave an identity, the town that no longer needed a postscript to
note it was across the Bay from San Francisco.

Now it's the town
that has lost its way and its soul, a town infamous for a crime instead of
famous for any team.

So shocking. So
disturbing. So jarring.

Here we were
wondering if the A's would have pitching, or if the San Francisco Giants would
have any hitting. Whether JaMarcus Russell would take his role as Raiders
quarterback seriously enough to stay in shape. Whether Warriors management was
interested in anything except the large crowds, which persistently supported a
perennially losing team.

The city turned out
en masse for the funeral Friday. Law enforcement officers from throughout the
land came to services held at Oracle Arena, where the Warriors play. What a
strange linkage, a reflection of grief in a building designed for
enjoyment.

You may have read. Two of the murdered policemen spent time assisting the
local teams at Oracle or the McAfee Coliseum next door. They were known by the
athletes, appreciated by management. By all counts, they were good guys.

By all counts Oakland is a good city. Or was. Now its already tarnished
reputation is stained even more. Now rather than debate whether Al Davis ought
to sell the Raiders – he won't – or if Lew Wolff's intent in buying the A's was
to move them to San Jose, people will talk about lawlessness and
pain.

Talk of terror rather than elation. Of residents saying they no longer can tolerate living here.

Cities struggle to get on the front pages. But not this way. They want
tourists, new businesses, satisfied citizens. They want teams that bring
spectators to the arenas or stadiums. Not situations that bring
disgrace.

It's going to be a difficult
road back. This isn't like a few toughs throwing flashlight batteries at a
leftfielder at the Coliseum, or members of the Black Hole harassing a spectator
at a Raiders game. This is virtually beyond comprehension, but it is all too
real.

Plaques in the so-called Court of Champions, the concourse between Oracle
and the Coliseum, call attention to winners, the A's World Series titles, the
Raiders Super Bowl victories, the Warriors 1975 NBA crown. In another part of
town, the names of the four slain policemen already have been etched onto a
granite wall.

Who dared imagine we would be compelled to remember this tragedy the way
we do the triumphs?   

Oakland is forever tainted. There is no escape. Journalists do not
forget, even when writing about sports. Oakland, a story about the A's will
remind us, is the city where four policemen were shot and killed. It's
unavoidable. It's understandable.

The A's, Warriors and Raiders sent their condolences, showed their
support. The teams that shared in the elation of better times properly shared in
the sadness of this terrible time.

Oakland, on the landfall the Spanish settlers originally called the
contra costa, or the other shore, the one on the east side of the water, has
suffered in comparison to San Francisco.

In one of the most misunderstood of observations, Gertrude Stein,
returning to her razed childhood home in Oakland, said, "There is no there,
there." The line became a mantra.

Kicked around, razzed, chided, Oakland battled image and derision
to gain its sense of self through sports. To those who never knew where the city
was located, the success of its teams figuratively put Oakland on the
map.

It's still there, under an ocean of teardrops.

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© RealClearSports 2009

Newsday: Ichiro comes through as Japan wins WBC title

By Art Spander

Special to Newsday



LOS ANGELES -- There have been some
memorable games at Dodger Stadium, Sandy Koufax's no-hitters, Kirk
Gibson's stunning pinch-hit homer in the 1988 World Series. And now the
final of the 2009 World Baseball Championship has wedged itself into
the group.



It was a game that had seemed
destined to go on forever, and the boisterous record crowd of 54,846,
with probably more Koreans than Japanese, certainly wouldn't have
minded.



But Japan, after 10 innings and four
hours, finally was the 5-3 winner Monday night, defending the
championship it won in the first WBC three years ago and setting off a
celebration highlighted with the Japanese players circling the field
under a mammoth flag of their home country.



Ichiro Suzuki, who playing for the
Seattle Mariners is as well known on this side of the Pacific as the
other, broke a 3-3 tie with his third straight hit and fourth in six
at-bats.



The Japanese, leaving 14 men on
base, should have won easily, but unlike the semifinal win over the
United States on Sunday night Japan couldn't hit with runners on. Until
Suzuki came through.



Daisuke Matsuzaka, who pitched the
win over the U.S., was named tournament most valuable player, but
Monday night's starting pitcher for Japan, Hisashi Iwakuma, very well
could have earned the award. He retired the first 11 Korean batters and
allowed only two runs and four hits before being relieved with two outs
in the eighth.



The huge turnout of fans, the
Koreans banging their Thundersticks incesstantly and repetitively
chanting "Dae Han Min Guk,'' which is another way of saying Korea,
verified the WBC has a place on the sporting calendar. Even without an
American team in the finals.



In 39 games throughout the world,
Asia, Latin America, Canada, the United States, the WBC drew a total of
801,408. The two semis had attendance of more than 43,000 each, and
Monday night's crowd was a virtual sellout.



Venezuela, with a ton of major
leaguers, and the Dominican Republic, also with numerous stars from the
American and National League, were the pre-tournament favorites, but it
should be apparent Japan and Korea, with their discipline and
mistake-free play, have become the dominant teams in international
competition.



Korea won the gold medal at last year's Beijing Olympics, and now Japan takes its second WBC title.



"I believe we were the two best
teams in the world,'' said Jungkeum Bong, Korea's starting pitcher.
"Asia is the best in the world, and Korea and Japan were able to fight
until the end. It was great glory for all of us.''



Japan had three major leaguers in
the lineup, Ichiro, Kenji Johjima of the Mariners and Akinori Iwamura
of the Tampa Bay Rays. Korea's only big leaguer on the roster, Shin Soo
Choo of the Cleveland Indians, was the one who ended Iwakuma's shutout
when he homered in the fifth to tie the game temporarily, 1-1.



The two teams had played four times
previously in the tournament, splitting the games. "That we were able
to come up to the stage together, I really feel great respect for the
Koreans,'' said Tatsunori Hari, the Japan manager.



"And at the same time I feel like this was the game of the century.''



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Copyright © 2009, Newsday Inc.