The Duke Basketball team will face the Michigan State Spartans on Sunday evening in the Elite 8 with a berth to the Final Four on the line.
Before Duke’s Elite 8 game against the Michigan State Spartans, the team at Ball Durham got a chance to catch up with Connor Muldowney of FanSided’s Michigan State Page, Spartan Avenue, for a Q&A prior to the showdown.
Q: Michigan State has endured its share of injuries this season. After Nick Ward aggravated his hand injury against LSU, what does his availability look like against Duke and if he’s not 100% against Duke, what does that mean for the Spartans?
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A: Injuries have been out of this world unlucky all season long, starting with a Matt McQuaid injury early in the year, followed by Kyle Ahrens and Josh Langford, but Nick Ward’s seemed to be the most devastating, at the time. Fortunately, Michigan State was able to hold it together without him and they only lost one game with him on the bench. He actually hurt a different part of his hand against LSU so it wasn’t the same injury aggravated and he should be good to go against Duke which gives the Spartans another big body to hang with the Blue Devils. It’s huge for depth, but Ward is still trying to gain confidence in that hand.
Q: It seems like Michigan State will go as far as Cassius Winston will take them. Is that a fair statement and what has Winston meant to this Spartan team?
A: That is 100 percent fair to say. Michigan State has been solid all season long and you could argue this is Tom Izzo’s most cohesive team ever but if Cassius Winston isn’t on his game, there’s a good chance the offense will stall out. Michigan State has had other guys step up (Aaron Henry, Gabe Brown vs. LSU), but he needs to have one of his best games against Duke to make it to the Final Four. He’s meant everything to Michigan State and there’s talk that he might be the best point guard Izzo has ever coach — and that includes Mateen Cleaves.
Q: How will Michigan State try and defend Zion Williamson?
A: Is there actually an effective way to guard Zion Williamson? All joking aside, there’s no real way to slow the Duke star down so the best bet is to put Xavier Tillman on him and double him whenever he drives. Tillman has been the Spartans’ best big man defender and his athleticism allows for him to match up with guys like Zion and not get totally out-worked. If Michigan State can cut off his drives down the lane and force him to take jumpers, that’s a big defensive win.
Q: Aaron Henry, Xavier Tillman, and Gabe Brown all reached double figures against LSU, when players other than Cassius Winston are making shots, how hard is it to beat Michigan State?
A: I’ve said it all season long, if other guys can consistently step up, Michigan State is one of the top three or four teams in the nation. Getting contributions like that out of Aaron Henry and Gabe Brown were huge because those guys don’t typically put up 15-20 points. Xavier Tillman isn’t as big a surprise as I think he’s averaging at least 10-12 points over the past month, but if Michigan State can get even a combined 10-15 points out of Brown and Henry, beating the Spartans is tough. Because even with Winston and the two seniors not having their best games, those guys picked up the slack and they beat a tough LSU team by 17, not surrendering the lead even once.
Q: Other than a slow 35 minutes against Bradley, Michigan State has been on a roll in the postseason, the Big Ten and NCAA Tournament included, how have the Spartans done it?
A: It may sound corny, but team chemistry and believing in Tom Izzo’s game plans. This team has bought it from day one and even when it lost Josh Langford for the season. The experience has helped a ton since there are a few three-year guys and two important seniors, so being able to stay calm, cool and collected in stressful situations has been huge. Plus the fact that Cassius is always calm and collected helps. This team feeds off the crowd’s hostility so when Minnesota got back into the game, cutting the Spartans lead to nine, Winston went on a 7-0 run of his own to put the game out of reach. The same happened against LSU when it cut the Spartan lead to four — Michigan State went on a 12-0 run not long after. This team bounces back from adversity well and mental toughness is key, which was lacking a year ago.
Q: Obviously we can imagine who you are rooting for and what you hope to happen in this game so we won’t ask you for a prediction, but what’s a key matchup that you think will have a major impact on the outcome of this game?
A: The key matchup might be Zion Williamson vs. Xavier Tillman, but I’m actually more curious as to how Aaron Henry and Matt McQuaid fair against RJ Barrett and Cam Reddish (assuming the latter is healthy). Both have been incredible defenders this season and have come up big against elite scorers, so it’ll be interesting to see if they can limit Barrett’s drives and Reddish’s long-range jumpers. If they do that, Zion can score 20-plus and it’ll still be a game.
We’d like to thank Connor for his time and you can see the Blue Devils and the Spartans battle for a Final Four berth at 5:05pm ET on Sunday from the Capital One Arena in Washington D.C. and the game can be seen on CBS.
Stay tuned to Ball Durham on Twitter, @Ball_Durham, and here at our website, balldurham.com, for complete coverage of the Duke Blue Devils vs. the Michigan State Spartans.