Spartans are Peterson's team now
Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS -- By his own admission, Morris Peterson was an
immature, out-of-shape freshman when he enrolled at Michigan State.
Five years later, he has helped lead the Spartans close to their
first NCAA title since 1979.
|  | | Morris Peterson scored 18 points in the Spartans' win over Iowa State. |
Peterson, finally stepping out from behind Mateen Cleaves to
become a possible NBA lottery pick, has scored in double figures in
all four NCAA Tournament victories. He's averaging 16.6 points and
6.1 rebounds this season.
"Pete's been a main contributor to this team all year long,"
forward Andre Hutson said. "He's done so much for us."
He'll try to do even more Saturday when the Spartans (30-7) play
Wisconsin (22-13) in the national semifinals.
The 6-foot-7 forward used his great leaping ability to score 16
of his game-high 21 points in the second half of a comeback win
over Syracuse in the Midwest regional semifinals. Two nights later,
he scored 18 points in another comeback, this time against Iowa
State.
After the victory, the 22-year-old Peterson was told his
grandmother had died earlier in the day. He attended her funeral
Thursday in Mississippi.
"Everybody has really stuck with me," Peterson said. "That
really shows how close we are."
The Spartans show it on the court, too.
On a play Peterson suggested during a timeout late in the Iowa
State game, he scored on a soaring dunk off an alley-oop pass from
Cleaves. The play made it clear Michigan State was going back to
the Final Four.
"I think Mateen said it best: This is Pete's team now," coach
Tom Izzo said. "He's the one we look for to take the big shots and
kind of carry this team."
Things haven't always been this way.
The Spartans had always relied on Cleaves. But he was sidelined
for the first two months of the season with a broken foot.
The team needed Peterson to take over. And he did.
He scored 31 points in an early game at North Carolina, 17
against Arizona, 18 against Kentucky and 16 in a win over
Connecticut.
"People think Morris turned his game up because I was out,"
Cleaves said. "But he was a great player before I was out."
Many people helped Peterson turn his game around -- including
Peterson, himself.
"He's the most fortunate player that I've ever been associated
with, in how he came in and how he came out," Izzo said. "I think
he's made great progress in all parts of his life."
Peterson was a shooter -- and little else -- when he came out of
Flint Northwestern High School. Spartans teammate A.J. Granger
stuck him with the nickname "Shotgun" because all he did was fire
away.
"A couple years later, when I broke my wrist, coach started
calling me the 'Club' because the cast was so big," said Peterson,
who scored just two points before breaking his finger and becoming
a medical redshirt his freshman year.
But wearing the cast finally forced Peterson to play a little
defense. He's now one of the team's best defenders.
"Coach used to ask me if there was anybody on campus I could
defend," Peterson recalled.
Still, the insults did little good. He continued to go his own
way, and to skip classes.
Peterson got a strong message when Izzo took the team to Hawaii
for a tournament but left him behind.
"I learned I wasn't going to do anything in basketball until I
was doing well off the court," Peterson said.
There are still a few rough spots, of course. The difference is
that these days Peterson is quick to correct them.
Late in the Kentucky game, for example, Peterson passed up two
open looks on 3-point attempts. He passed the ball to teammates,
instead. The shots were missed and the Spartans lost by two.
Cleaves got all over him for that.
"I told him he had to take that shot," Cleaves said.
"Sometimes, people on this team need to be a little more
selfish."
The tough talk paid off. A few weeks later, Peterson hit a
last-second jumper to force overtime at Indiana. The Spartans went
on to win.
"We don't get caught up in that here," Cleaves said. "We
don't care who gets on the front page and who gets on the back
page."
Peterson is a rarity in college basketball these days. In a time
when many players leave after one or two years, Peterson stayed
five years. The time on the campus was well spent.
"The thing that's impressed me most is his leadership this
year," Granger said. "He's been helping with all the younger
guys."
It would have been easy to forget this kid and concentrate on
the other members of his first recruiting class. Izzo is glad he
didn't.
"He deserves the credit for the accomplishments that he's
made," Izzo said. "I think we pushed him, and I think we pulled
him. You can do all those things and some kids respond, and some
kids don't.
"We were just lucky that he responded and took maybe what we
gave him and added to it. I think he's become one of the most
complete forwards in the country." |
