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		<description>RUWT? News for Michigan State vs. Louisville 3/29/2009</description>
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		<pubDate>Sun, 22 Nov 2009 06:58:34 GMT</pubDate>
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				<title><![CDATA[Michigan St. beats No. 1 seed Louisville]]></title>
				<description><![CDATA[INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Even before Michigan State's first game of 
the season, coach Tom Izzo gathered his players and spelled out 
their goal.

"Ford Field," he wrote on a dry-erase board.

That part of the Motown mission is now complete.

The Spartans gave the Final Four a hometown feel, stopping 
overall No. 1 seed Louisville, 64-52, on Sunday to win the 
Midwest Regional.

Goran Suton had 19 points and 10 rebounds as the second-seeded 
Spartans (30-6) played the pace game to perfection and reached 
their fifth Final Four in 11 years - the most trips of any team 
in the nation during that span.

Only 90 miles from their campus in East Lansing, the Spartans 
will play Connecticut on Saturday at Ford Field in Detroit. A 
crowd of 72,000, the largest ever for college basketball's 
signature event, is expected for each game.

"Detroit, here we come," said Izzo, a Michigan native. "I can't 
tell you how much I'm looking forward to that."

The Spartans made it 30 years after Magic Johnson led them to a 
national title over Larry Bird and Indiana State.

"Detroit needs something, Michigan needs something to feel good 
about," said Johnson, who was at the game. "And right now, the 
whole state is feeling good about this Michigan State team."

Along with advancing, the Spartans prevented a Big East blitz in
the Final Four - coach Rick Pitino and Louisville (31-6) were 
trying to become the third school from the power-packed 
conference to make it.

"They were the better team," Louisville's Terrence Williams 
said. "They were quicker than us, their defense was more 
physical and we couldn't turn them over like we wanted to."

Next week's short trip will be a special treat for many Spartans
- eight Michigan residents are on the roster.

Durrell Summers, who delivered 10 second-half points, grew up in
Detroit. Kalin Lucas, the Big Ten player of the year, was raised
10 minutes from the giant stadium.

Michigan has one of the nation's highest unemployment rates and 
Detroit's economy, which is heavily reliant on the flailing 
auto-making industry, has been reeling. The team is certainly 
aware of the state's plight.

"I'm just hoping we're a silver lining in what's been kind of a 
cloudy year for us," Izzo said. "I'm hoping that we're the 
sunshine, I'm hoping we're something to embrace."

After traveling to Indianapolis, Minneapolis and back to 
Indianapolis the last three weekends, the Spartans showed their 
zeal at the end.

Exuberant players were hugging with more than a minute to go, 
and as the buzzer sounded, Isaiah Dahlman tossed the ball high 
into the air as players and coaches jumped for joy, then took 
part in a group hug just in front of the bench.

"One thing we told ourselves was that we was going to get back 
there (Detroit)," Lucas said.

The game went nothing like Louisville expected.

Its vaunted pressure defense produced no fastbreak points. After
committing nine turnovers in Friday's 39-point rout over 
Arizona, the Cardinals matched that total in 18 minutes Sunday. 
They opened the game on a scoring drought that lasted nearly 
four minutes.

And two days after scoring 103 points, they barely avoided 
setting a new a season-low point total thanks to Earl Clark's 
3-pointer with 12 seconds left. Louisville scored 51 points 
against Connecticut on February 2.

The biggest problem was Michigan State's aggressive man-to-man 
defense, which kept Louisville out of sync all day.

"I think that was our biggest problem, the fact that the last 
six, seven games we probably have had 90 percent zones," Pitino 
said. "We got very good at going against zones, but that 
man-to-man gave us trouble tonight because our inside attack 
wasn't there."

The combination sent Louisville to its second straight regional 
final loss and marked the third straight year Pitino's team was 
eliminated on the second day of a weekend.

But Pitino didn't blame this one on fatigue.

Instead, he credited Michigan State for playing a physical, 
deliberate style that finally broke the Cardinals - just as Izzo
choreographed it.

"The game plan was beautiful. The guys executed the game plan to
perfection," Johnson said. "The key to the game was going to be 
the pace of the game and our defense. We got the pace and we 
played great defense and that was the key."

The Cardinals never figured it out, and never managed to produce
one of those trademark scoring runs.

Clark led Louisville with 19 points, but the only other player 
to reach double figures was backup guard Preston Knowles, who 
had all 11 points in the first half. Williams finished with five
points, six rebounds and four assists.

Just about everything went the Spartans' way.

Although Louisville trailed 30-27 at the half, Williams 
acknowledged the sluggish start affected the Cardinals' 
second-half performance.

They did manage to take a 34-32 lead with 15:33 to go, but then 
the Spartans took control.

With Suton on the bench, Michigan State went on a 9-2 run to 
rebuild a 41-36 lead. Then Summers got going. He hit a long 
jumper, just inside the 3-point line, followed that with a 
basket from the arc and ended the 17-7 spurt with another three 
to give Michigan State an insurmountable 58-43 lead with 5:50 to
go.

Louisville had only one more basket the rest of the way, 
finishing this part of Michigan State's drive to the Final Four.

"It's as big a win as our school has had because we're going to 
Detroit, and that's been a dream and a goal since they announced
where the Final Four was in 2009," Izzo said.]]></description>
				<category><![CDATA[ncaab]]></category>
				<link>http://areyouwatchingthis.com/ncaab/news/92723-Michigan-St-beats-No-1-seed-Louisville</link>
				<guid>http://areyouwatchingthis.com/ncaab/news/92723-Michigan-St-beats-No-1-seed-Louisville</guid>
				<pubDate>Sun, 29 Mar 2009 23:31:17 GMT</pubDate>
			</item>
		
			<item>
				<title><![CDATA[Back in regional final, Louisville faces Michigan State]]></title>
				<description><![CDATA[By Michael Marot
AP Sports Writer

(2) Michigan State (29-6) vs. (1) Louisville (31-5), Midwest Region, 2:20 p.m. EDT

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Terrence Williams spent part of Saturday 
restating the lessons Louisville learned from its last regional 
final.

Play harder. Be yourselves. Play like a team devoted to winning 
the national title, and accept nothing less.

On Sunday, Williams and his teammates will finally get a chance 
to exorcise those demons from last year and deliver on a pact 
they made to themselves by claiming the school's first Final 
Four bid since 2005.

"Losing last year, we kind of know what it takes to lose. 
Meaning that, last year we didn't play 40 minutes," Williams 
said. "This year, we know that coming out, to get to the Final 
Four, you have to play all 40 minutes. You have to play your 
game."

Clearly, these aren't the same Cardinals that ran out of steam 
against top-seeded North Carolina in Charlotte.

They won the Big East regular-season and tournament titles, 
earned the school's first No. 1 ranking, the top overall seed in
the NCAA tournament and just delivered the most crushing rout 
since the expansion of the NCAA field in the 1970s, 103-64 over 
Arizona in Friday night's semifinals. Louisville has won 13 
straight and 23 of 25.

Now the season really kicks into gear.

After going 31-5 and earning all those accolades, the Cardinals'
season comes down to this: Win and go to Detroit, lose and go 
home again.

"We don't want to be in the locker room feeling the same way," 
Williams said. "Especially myself, because I'll be done. What 
you take from that (loss) is do everything in your power in 40 
minutes to not feel that way again."

But in Sunday's Midwest final, they face Michigan State, one of 
the most successful tournament teams over the last decade.

Coach Tom Izzo has led the Spartans (29-6) to four Final Fours 
in 10 years, the most of any team in the nation, and he won the 
national championship in 2000 across the street from Lucas Oil 
Stadium.

For second-seeded Michigan State, the emotions are just as high.

After winning the Big Ten regular-season title, the Spartans 
lost in the Big Ten tournament semifinals two weeks ago in Indy 
and now they're back playing for a chance to go to nearby 
Detroit.

"It will be the biggest game I've probably ever played in 
because of what you just said," Izzo said. "For a guy like me, 
who just loves the state, I've lived there all my life, to have 
that opportunity to play there is just special. You know, I'm no
different than a player."

The contrasts Sunday will be intriguing, too.

Izzo and Louisville's Rick Pitino both have tournament winning 
percentages that rank among the top four of active coaches. Both
have one national championship ring.

Yet they've been successful with vastly different styles.

Pitino has always preferred relentless defensive pressure and an
up-tempo pace to take advantage of his usually strong 3-point 
shooters. The good news is he's 9-0 in regional semifinal games.

The question is whether that style wears down his team.

Louisville has been eliminated on the second day of an NCAA 
tournament weekend in three of its previous five appearances and
has been eliminated on the second day of a conference tournament
two other times since 2002, though the Cardinals have shown no 
signs of weariness in either the Big East tourney or their first
three NCAA games.

"I believe sometimes during this time of year, teams can get out
of shape because they lay around hotels, they don't work real 
hard," Pitino said. "We're in very good shape right now. We 
haven't lost our conditioning."

Another problem for Izzo is the status of forward Raymar Morgan,
one of the Spartans' most athletic players.

Morgan, who is second on the team in scoring (10.5) and 
rebounding (5.4), broke his nose in Friday night's 67-62 
semifinal win over Kansas. He'll wear a protective face mask in 
the final but acknowledges that it may affect his vision.

Still, Izzo will rely on his traditional approach. He prefers to
employ half-court offense, an opportunistic defense and tries to
overpower teams with strong rebounders and a deep rotation. 
Michigan State led the nation in rebounding margin this season 
(plus-9.7) and grabbed a staggering 40.9 percent of its missed 
shots.

But players don't believe that style is the reason Izzo is 13-2 
on the second day of NCAA weekends.

"One thing coach says is if we get through Friday, he'll get us 
through Sunday," Big Ten player of the year Kalin Lucas said.

It has worked in the past.

Whether it does Sunday, against a Louisville team that is 
determined to atone for last year and might be playing the best 
basketball in the nation.

"We could taste it (the victory) almost," Cardinals guard Jerry 
Smith recalled from last year's game. "It was crazy. We sat in 
the locker room for about 20 minutes, all of us, and just shook 
because we fought so hard and left it all out on the floor. To 
come so close, it was very disappointing.

"You've got to seize the moment. Today's practice was great, so 
hopefully we can play almost as well as we did yesterday."]]></description>
				<category><![CDATA[ncaab]]></category>
				<link>http://areyouwatchingthis.com/ncaab/news/92656-Back-in-regional-final-Louisville-faces-Michigan-State</link>
				<guid>http://areyouwatchingthis.com/ncaab/news/92656-Back-in-regional-final-Louisville-faces-Michigan-State</guid>
				<pubDate>Sat, 28 Mar 2009 22:34:41 GMT</pubDate>
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