MSU Basketball Related

Cool article from the Lansing State Journal

Joe Rexrode
EAST LANSING - After putting 21 media members through two hours of practice Thursday, Tom Izzo showed us a highlight video of Michigan State basketball, interspersed with scenes and sound bites from the recent war film about Sparta, "300."
"Tonight," King Leonidas screamed, "we dine in hell!"

For most of us, that will be breakfast today.

But the soreness, stiffness, aches, bruises and bunions will be well worth the experience. This was a chance to see the process of an MSU basketball practice from the inside, to live it and to match skills with our peers.

After all, most sports media types used to be athletes, thought they were athletes or wished they could have been athletes. There seemed to be a lot of the latter in the auxiliary gym at Breslin Center's Berkowitz complex.

MSU associate sports information director Matt Larson came up with the idea for a media practice about a month ago. Izzo loved it and they put together a comprehensive experience. Empathy was a big motivator here.

Reporters got a feel for what it's like to be a player. Players got a feel for coaching (they drilled us and coached us in a scrimmage) and reporting (they interviewed us afterward). Coaches got a feel for what it's like to watch reporters eat, at the post-practice training table.
Plus, Izzo now has video evidence of half the media in the state wearing MSU basketball jerseys. That has to come in handy at some point.

The day began with the signing of waivers. Gotta have the waivers with this group.
Then we suited up and filed into Berkowitz's plush film room. There, Izzo laid out what we'd be doing, with examples of each drill on the video screen.

Everything would be timed to the second. This was serious, much more regimented than a high school practice. Many of us have seen the MSU team practice many times, but this gave us a better understanding of the detail involved.

We hit the court and stretched out. Then came the practice.
Ballhandling drills. Passing drills. Shooting drills. Defensive drills. All at a brisk pace, or at least they were supposed to be. Izzo got frustrated with our sloppiness a few times. We ran some sprints.
"Listen to learn and learn to listen!" he bellowed.

By the time we learned three plays and ran through them, botching them to various degrees, Izzo was laughing.
"Some of you have written about teams collapsing in the second half," he said. "Well, right now you're collapsing."

The print and broadcast media were split apart. We shot pressure free throws against each other, with the losing team forced to run. Before my foul shot, WLNS-TV 6 sports director Fred Heumann jumped in front of me and lifted his shirt to expose his belly.
Oh my lord.

Somehow, the shot rattled home. We ended in a draw. No running! Everyone wins!

Then we finished the practice with a scrimmage. Print against broadcast. We were coached by Drew Neitzel, Goran Suton, Drew Naymick and others. The "talkies," as I call them, were coached primarily by Travis Walton, whose frustration was evident early.
Thanks to our guards, Dave Birkett and Sam Hosey Jr., we raced to an easy 15-7 win. Our running neutralized the inside ... size ... of Heumann and WLAJ-TV 53 sports director Hondo Carpenter.

I managed six points, although that was mostly the result of shooting from two feet away with no talkies near me. On the defensive end, I received a facial from TV-6 reporter Lisa Byington, who drove on me for a bucket, plus the foul. (Byington played college ball for Northwestern, you know).

Late in the game, Walton benched Heumann, preferring four players to a five-man lineup with Heumann. Then, Walton raced onto the court and picked off a pass I was trying to get to teammate Larry Lage, with the clock winding down in a sure victory for the "typies."
Izzo was asked for his assessment of the media as basketball players.

"It was actually better than I thought," he said, which means the bar in his mind must have been set pretty low. Like, cockroach low.

We finished back in the film room, watching the MSU "300" video, then the highlights of the practice. It was a hilarious finish to a memorable day for those of us in the reporting business. A fortunate day.

And today? I think I'd rather face Leonidas' sword than this morning's creaky walk to the breakfast table.