Spartan way of life

Steve Addy

Tuesday, April 4, 2000 | 10:26 a.m.

INDIANAPOLIS -- There are worse things than having Magic Johnson as the symbol of your school's basketball success, so Michigan State has never intended to shove him into the background.

The Spartans have only been trying to give him some company, that's all.

More than two decades after Johnson defeated Larry Bird and Indiana State for the 1979 title in the highest-rated game in NCAA history, Michigan State finally returned to the summit on Monday night -- and the new champions are perfectly worthy to stand alongside Johnson and his teammates.

Barely stopping to wave at Florida as they sprinted past, the top-seeded Spartans beat the Gators with their own game plan 89-76 before 43,116 at the RCA Dome. It was a win that had Johnson dancing in the aisles and affirmed Michigan State's ability to play any sort of style with equal success.

After proving themselves capable of thwarting Wisconsin's push-me, pull-you style in Saturday's semifinals, the Spartans (32-7) had even less trouble with the up-tempo Gators (29-9), throwing the ball over their vaunted trapping defense and running the fast break at every opportunity.

Michigan State was better than the Gators in virtually every way, especially by making 11-of-22 3-pointers and shooting 56 percent overall. The Spartans even countered Florida's supposedly deeper bench, easily weathering the four-minute absence of Mateen Cleaves after the senior point guard turned his right ankle early in the second half.

"Oh, my God, this is what I came back for," said Cleaves, who briefly considered going to the NBA after last season's loss to Duke in the national semis. "It was totally worth it."

Cleaves was terrific with 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting (that's not his forte), Morris Peterson scored 15 of his 21 in the second half, and unsung forward A.J. Granger scored 19, many on momentum-changing shots that finally forced Florida to wave the white flag.

Defensively, MSU held the Gators' starting guards scoreless and limited star forward Mike Miller to 10 points. Sophomore center Udonis Haslem scored 27, but he was the only Florida player who played consistently well. The rest of the young Gators simply looked overwhelmed by the Spartans' experience and composure.

Afterward, the Spartans danced at center court -- even the gimpy Cleaves -- and turned the nets into stringy souvenirs, unleashing a wave of green-and-white pandemonium in the packed dome. It had been 11 years since a Big Ten team won the title, but the Spartans did it in style, beating all six NCAA opponents by double-figures despite some anxious moments in the Midwest regional.

Michigan State coach Tom Izzo, an NCAA champion only five years after succeeding Jud Heathcote, said, "The feeling is just overwhelming, and so satisfying. We worked so hard for this. I take my hat off to our four seniors. They came here four years ago and we made some promises. Now we have answered those promises."

Izzo built his program mainly by mining the talent out of Flint, a rugged auto-building city 50 miles north of Detroit. Cleaves, Peterson and Charlie Bell (nine points, eight rebounds) come from there, as did Antonio Smith, whose used up his eligibility last season.

As good as the Flint guys were -- Bell even played point guard when Cleaves was injured -- they were joined on the all-Final Four team by Granger, whose final game at MSU was his best ever.

Granger's 19 points matched his career high, and he made two key 3-pointers in the second half. The first stretched the lead to 58-49 after Florida had climbed within six, and the second gave the Spartans a 71-58 lead with 7:30 to play. They quickly pushed the lead as high as 20.

"Granger played a great game," Gators coach Billy Donovan said. "Every time we would get the lead down to six or eight, he would open the game up for them. I knew we could not allow him to step up and make 3-point shots, and he made some tough ones."

But the biggest element in Michigan State's victory was its ease in handling Florida's trapping defense.

Reams were written over the weekend about the Gators' havoc-creating pressure, but the Spartans acted as if they were playing against invisible men. From the start, they threw the ball over the top and hurried past Florida's defenders for quick shots and easy baskets.

Donovan realized the folly of his game plan soon enough and put his team in a halfcourt mode. It didn't help, as Peterson, Granger and Cleaves -- each with three 3-pointers -- bombed away.

"We were in attack mode," Granger said. "We knew the way to beat a press was to get the ball upcourt quickly and take care of it. We had to take the initiative."

Bell said, "We didn't want to sit around, hold the ball and get trapped. We wanted to move the ball and get it in Mateen's hands or my hands so we could make something happen."

"I liked the way we attacked immediately," Izzo said.

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