Suzy Merchant has the Michigan State women's basketball team atop the Big Ten and ranked ninth in the country.EAST LANSING -- Facing arguably the most sizable test to date in her tenure as Michigan State women’s basketball coach, you could say Suzy Merchant passed with flying colors.
The No. 9-seed Spartans, hosting the first and second rounds of the 2009 NCAA tournament at Breslin Center in East Lansing, had the dramatic fortune of facing No. 1 Duke -- led by Joanne P. McCallie, the coach responsible for leading the Spartans program into prominence, including a Final Four trip just four years previous.
The hometown underdogs shocked the Blue Devils that day, advancing to the Sweet 16. It was a springboard for the new regime -- Merchant’s first signature win on a weekend that featured the first NCAA tournament victory of her career. But it also was a flash from the past, a reminder of how excellent Michigan State women’s basketball could be, and with McCallie came recollection of the 2004-05 Big Ten champions and national finalists.
It begged the question: Could that magic once again be captured in East Lansing?
Two years later, Merchant has the No. 9 Spartans (16-1 overall, 4-0 Big Ten) perched atop the Big Ten. They’ve defeated three ranked teams -- including Thursday’s win against No. 16 Iowa -- and haven’t lost since a 78-52 defeat at the hands of No. 1 Baylor in November.
FRONT-RUNNERS
The Spartans are first in the Big Ten Conference standings, and in a number of statistical categories:
FIRST
• Scoring defense: 52.9 ppg
• Scoring margin: Plus-17.2
• Rebound margin: Plus-8.1
• FG percentage defense: 36.4
• Steals: 11.0 average per game
• 3-point FG made: 7.1 per game
• Offensive rebounds: 40.3 per game
TOP 3
• 3-point FG percentage: 43.3 (third)
• 3-point FG percentage defense: 27.5 (second)
• Rebounds: 41.1 per game (third)
• Blocks: 4.8 per game (third)
• Turnover margin: Plus-2.94 (second)
• Turnovers forced: 17.3 per game (second)
If the program is back, you’ll have to convince these Spartans it had ever fallen off in the first place.
“There’s always going to be a target on Michigan State basketball because of our tradition,” forward Lykendra Johnson said. “But we don’t look at it that way. We’re just out to win.”
On a campus typically enamored with Tom Izzo’s men’s squad, Merchant’s team plays Michigan State basketball the way Izzo drew it up. The Spartans are the Big Ten’s best rebounding team despite the absence of a true center (Johnson, at 6-foot-1, pulled down 17 boards in Sunday’s win against Michigan and averages 12 points and 10.4 rebounds per game in conference play).
Their chemistry, a litmus test for success, is unflappable.
“It’s, like, you worry about things like, ‘Let’s hope, this year, somebody doesn’t get picky because they’re not getting playing time and they don’t work as hard in practice.’ Things like that, as captains, you kind of keep your head up for and try to nip it in the bud,” said co-captain and point guard Brittney Thomas. “But there hasn’t been that problem at all.”
The Spartans also lead the conference in scoring defense, field-goal percentage defense and steals. Defensive specialists on the perimeter including Cetera Washington provide opposing backcourts with headaches, while Johnson makes up for what she lacks in height with physicality and quickness.
“Defense wins games,” Washington said. “We keep playing defense and holding each other accountable like we are, the sky’s the limit with this team.”
The Spartans have finished at least nine games over .500 in each of Merchant’s three seasons. The Traverse City native has dominated in-state recruiting -- including this year’s highly touted freshman class, which includes Miss Basketball Klarissa Bell (7.25 points per game in Big Ten play), McDonald’s All-American Madison Williams (out for the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament) and Miss Basketball runner-up Annalise Pickrel of Catholic Central (11.5 minutes per game) -- all the while prolonging a dominant streak against in-state rival Michigan.
But every step the program takes forward comes with comparison to the past. The Spartans’ No. 9 ranking is their highest since early in the 2006 season, a byproduct of the 2004-05 team’s success. Names of those players -- former All-Americans Lindsay Bowen, Liz Shimek, Kristin Haynie -- adorn Michigan State record books.
But Bowen, this team’s self-proclaimed “biggest fan,” said there are so many similarities between the two teams that it’s easy to see why the 2010-11 Spartans are having so much success.
“Toughness, grit, blue collar,” Bowen said, describing Merchant’s team. “They’re working hard, they push each other. They want it, you can tell.”
So, if Merchant has helped this batch of Spartans emerge from the shadow of past teams, what’s next for this talented group?
“It’s really about having a game plan, having focus, having some fight and, at the end of the buzzer, hopefully you win,” Merchant said. “I like that about our team. We keep it simple and people are fighting out there and they’re focusing on the game plan, the personnel, what we’re trying to do and not letting people do things that aren’t their strengths.
“So, we’ll see.”