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		<description>RUWT? News for Michigan State vs. Connecticut 4/4/2009</description>
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		<pubDate>Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:51:04 GMT</pubDate>
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				<title><![CDATA[Michigan State defeats UConn to reach title game]]></title>
				<description><![CDATA[DETROIT (AP) -- The Michigan State players walked to the edge of
the floor and held up their index fingers, basking in the love 
of an entire state.

Laid low by the economic crisis, Michigan desperately needed 
something to rally around. The Spartans were more than happy to 
oblige.

"It means so much, so much. It's been all bad news the last 
couple of years," said Magic Johnson, who sat just a few rows 
behind the Michigan State bench. "This was the right time, the 
right coach, the right team, the right mind-set."

Raymar Morgan broke out of his late-season slump with 18 points,
Kalin Lucas added 21 and the smaller Spartans ran roughshod over
Hasheem Thabeet and Connecticut in an 82-73 upset in the Final 
Four on Saturday night.

The Spartans will now play the winner of Villanova-North 
Carolina for the NCAA title Monday night, giving the city and 
state at least two more days to forget all the bad news and 
revel in their Spartans' success.

It's Michigan State's first appearance in the title game since 
2000, when the Spartans won their second title.

How's this for some karma? Johnson, Spartan-in-chief since 
leading Michigan State to its first title in 1979, will present 
the game ball before Monday's title game along with Larry Bird.

"Detroit's been unbelievable to us," Michigan State coach Tom 
Izzo said. "We've had some great games here, and the best is yet
to come."

Flashbulbs were popping as the final seconds ticked down. The 
crowd of 72,456 was the largest-ever for a Final Four, and about
two-thirds of it was wearing green.

"It was a memorable game that I won't forget," Izzo said. 
"Except we've got another one."

The loss is the latest blow for Connecticut, the best team in 
the country until Jerome Dyson went down with a knee injury in 
mid-February. The Huskies have been dealing with distractions 
since last May, when coach Jim Calhoun was diagnosed with his 
third bout with cancer, and are now facing questions about 
alleged recruiting violations.

The loss snapped Calhoun and Connecticut's perfect run in the 
Final Four. They'd made it twice before - 1999 and 2004 - and 
went on to win the title each time.

The UConn players walked slowly off the court, looking 
shell-shocked that their season had ended.

"I've got a lot of kids in there crying right now," Calhoun 
said. "But they had a great season. It hasn't been that easy to 
stay focused the past few weeks. But I give (Izzo) a great deal 
of credit."

This was expected to be a battle of big men. UConn's Thabeet had
been a one-man block team, averaging a double-double and winning
defensive player of the year in the burly Big East for a second 
straight year. Michigan State's Goran Suton led the equally 
gritty Big Ten in rebounding and had averaged a double-double in
the NCAA tournament.

But the matchup never developed, with neither a factor. Izzo had
said all week the Spartans planned to make the game a sprint to 
keep Thabeet out of his comfort zone.

"That's one thing we've been doing since Day 1: We just 
rebounded and we ran," Lucas said.

And Thabeet couldn't keep up. He led the Huskies with 17 points 
and six rebounds, but it was the quietest 17 points anyone's 
ever had. The 7-foot-3 center looked gassed from the opening 
tipoff, leaning over, tugging on his shorts and gasping for air 
not even six minutes into the game.

The most aggressive he got was at the end of the first half, 
getting in Marquise Gray's face after Jeff Adrien and Travis 
Walton got tangled up under Connecticut's basket. There was some
pushing and shoving, prompting Calhoun to come all the way from 
the other end of the floor to calm his players. But the dust-up 
fizzled quickly, and no technicals were even called.

Suton, who had the main job of corralling Thabeet, didn't score 
his first field goal until early in the second half and finished
with four points and seven boards.

Stanley Robinson and A.J. Price had 15 points each for 
Connecticut, and Robinson added 13 rebounds.

Morgan was Michigan State's best player early on, but he's 
struggled to find his groove since missing three games in 
February with walking pneumonia. He had just seven points in 
Michigan State's last three games - that's combined - and was 
0-for-2 in the big win over Louisville in the Midwest Regional 
final. Granted, he's playing with a broken nose and a plastic 
mask, but Izzo has been all over him to be more aggressive.

Apparently, he finally got the message.

"I said Raymar Morgan was a kid that I feared was gonna bust 
out," Calhoun said. "Unfortunately, I was too much of a 
prophet."

Morgan scored 11 in the first half, including a couple of big 
buckets when UConn was threatening to take off. Little Korie 
Lucious, the back-up point guard who's never met a shot he 
didn't like, was a key contributor early on, too, scoring nine 
points in a one-minute span at the end of the first half.

And it was Morgan again in the second half, stripping Craig 
Austrie to start an 8-2 run that caught UConn flat-footed, all 
but ended the game and threatened to bring down the roof at Ford
Field.

Morgan stripped Austrie and dished to Draymond Green, who 
lumbered down the floor for an easy layup. Austrie missed a shot
at the other end. Lucas - generously listed at 6-feet - grabbed 
the rebound and sprinted upcourt, splitting two Connecticut 
defenders with a shake-and-shimmy that gave him a wide-open 
layup. Wide open because those two defenders didn't have any 
help. Thabeet didn't even bother to run up the court to play 
defense, gasping for air with his hands on his hips.

After another Huskies' miss, Morgan grabbed the rebound and 
fired it to Chris Allen, who scored on a finger roll to give 
Michigan State a 53-49 lead.

The ball had barely dropped through the net when Calhoun barked 
for a timeout, and the Michigan State fans erupted. If Calhoun 
hoped the break would re-energize his team, he was wrong.

Green made a jumper, Durrell Summers a 3-pointer and Green 
converted a pair of free throws. After Price missed a jumper, 
Green made his own from the top of the key to give Michigan 
State a 72-54 lead with 7:52 to play. He and Lucas slapped hands
as the crowd roared.

UConn did manage to get within three with a minute to go, but 
the outcome was never really in doubt and Summers converted a 
three-point play to put the game out of reach.

"We love y'all!" Lucas yelled to the crowd during a postgame 
interview. "We love Detroit!"]]></description>
				<category><![CDATA[ncaab]]></category>
				<link>http://areyouwatchingthis.com/ncaab/news/93132-Michigan-State-defeats-UConn-to-reach-title-game</link>
				<guid>http://areyouwatchingthis.com/ncaab/news/93132-Michigan-State-defeats-UConn-to-reach-title-game</guid>
				<pubDate>Sun, 05 Apr 2009 01:48:44 GMT</pubDate>
			</item>
		
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				<title><![CDATA[Michigan State preparing for physical battle with UConn]]></title>
				<description><![CDATA[DETROIT (AP) -- One look at the thousands of fans waiting in the
rain an hour before the gates at Ford Field opened, and it's 
clear where Michigan State's motivation comes from.

For Connecticut, the focus is much narrower, though no less 
powerful. A year removed from that crushing loss to San Diego in
the NCAA tournament, two from that unUConn-like 17-14 record, 
their program buffeted this season by coach Jim Calhoun's latest
health scares and other distractions, the court is the Huskies' 
refuge, the one place they are truly in control.

"This team has given me incredible joy this season," said 
Calhoun, a Hall of Famer who was diagnosed with his third bout 
of cancer last May. "They were the tonic, quite frankly, the 
best medicine I could ever possibly receive."

You can say the Michigan State-Connecticut matchup in the Final 
Four on Saturday night is only a game, even though the winner 
advances to play for a national title. But when real-world 
problems -- unemployment, cancer, possible recruiting violations
-- are a constant companion, those 2 hours they play give fans 
and players alike an escape.

Connecticut (31-4) was expected to be good again this year -- 
when, really, are the Huskies not? Then came the news in late 
May that Calhoun had skin cancer again and would need radiation.
The treatment killed the cancer cells, but it also sapped his 
strength and energy.

Yet when practice began in the fall, there was Calhoun on the 
sidelines.

"He brushes it off, and the next day he's at work," Jeff Adrien 
said. "We really learned from Coach the mental side, and that's 
what makes us who we are."

They would need every bit of that strength.

With big man Hasheem Thabeet looking like a newer version of 
Dikembe Mutombo, A.J. Price recovered from a torn ACL and Jerome
Dyson patrolling the perimeter, the Huskies raced out to a 24-1 
start. North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Louisville -- none of them 
looked as good as Connecticut -- and it sure looked as if the 
Huskies were on their way to a third national title.

But in UConn's Feb. 11 game against Syracuse, Dyson collided 
with another player and suffered a season-ending knee injury. 
Two weeks later, Calhoun went on a tirade after a freelance 
journalist peppered him with questions about his $1.6 million 
salary, an exchange that became an instant YouTube hit. The 
Connecticut governor later called it an "embarrassing display."

Calhoun missed the Huskies' first-round rout of Chattanooga 
after being hospitalized for dehydration.

"I don't know this to be true, I don't think it is a medical 
fact ... if that 'dehydration,' all that stuff, was because I 
was trying to take care of everything," Calhoun said. "I'm not 
someone who's going to just let something happen without at 
least trying to attack it or find a better way to do those 
things. I think that short trip might have been caused from me 
trying to handle so much, because they're my responsibility."

Six days later, news broke of possible recruiting violations 
involving former UConn player Nate Miles. The NCAA is reviewing 
the allegations, and Calhoun and Connecticut are barred from 
commenting on the situation.

Yet through all of this, the Huskies have barely flinched. Sure,
they lost in the Big East tournament quarterfinals, but it took 
Syracuse six overtimes to knock them off. They've won their 
first four games in the NCAA tournament handily, including a 
26-point shellacking of Texas A&M.

So to be at the Final Four, playing Michigan State (30-6) in 
what essentially will be a home game for the Spartans? Go ahead 
and bring it on. The Huskies have been through worse.

"We go into every game with the us-against-the-world mentality,"
Price said, defiance in his voice. "With everything going on 
now, us basically having a road game out here, will make that 
more apparent."

A friendly environment is the least the basketball gods could do
for Michigan State.

Few states have been hit worse by the economic crisis than 
Michigan, the heart of the U.S. auto industry, and it's personal
for the Spartans. Each of them knows someone -- some more than 
one -- who has been laid off or is struggling just to make ends 
meet. Both of Durrell Summers' parents were laid off from their 
jobs and now work at a local post office.

Having the Final Four here would have been a diversion for the 
hardluck state, regardless of who was playing. To have one of 
their beloved teams here, well, it really doesn't get any 
better. The Spartans are greeted by well-wishing fans every time
they walk through the door of their hotel, downtown buildings 
are decked out in green and a line of people snaked around Ford 
Field in the rain when the Spartans pulled up two hours before 
their practice began Friday.

The open practice drew 30,000 fans, triple what some teams get 
for actual games.

"We're trying to put smiles on people's faces," said Michigan 
State point guard Kalin Lucas, a Detroit-area native. "We have 
the city on our back and we're going to come out tomorrow and 
we're going to make sure we hold it down for the Motor City."

The Spartans are the first team to make the Final Four in their 
home state since Duke in 1994.

For those not up on their basketball history, the Blue Devils 
made it to the final before losing to Arkansas.

"I don't think it's any extra pressure. We put enough pressure 
on ourselves because even though we're here and it's a good 
thing and all that, we're not satisfied," said Marquise Gray, a 
native of Flint, another hard-hit area. "It makes no sense 
stopping here. We want to go all the way."]]></description>
				<category><![CDATA[ncaab]]></category>
				<link>http://areyouwatchingthis.com/ncaab/news/93023-Michigan-State-preparing-for-physical-battle-with-UConn</link>
				<guid>http://areyouwatchingthis.com/ncaab/news/93023-Michigan-State-preparing-for-physical-battle-with-UConn</guid>
				<pubDate>Fri, 03 Apr 2009 23:51:16 GMT</pubDate>
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