Slow Start of Michigan State Basketball Finally Makes Sense

You have a driver’s license, but nobody’s ever given you the keys to the car. You know everything there is to know about road safety, how to find any button on the console and what to do in case of severe weather, but again, nobody has ever let you behind the wheel.

This is your 2015 Michigan State Spartans men’s basketball team; and say hello to the new Big Three: Travis Trice, Denzel Valentine and Branden Dawson. Dawson and Trice seniors, Valentine a junior — all players who’ve been to the Elite Eight and have played more premier college basketball teams than Breaking Bad has dispatched kingpins — comprise an unlikely Spartans’ core that is as ready for the moment as is theoretically possible.

But the Big Three hasn’t always made a big impact. Trice wasn’t a starter for a stretch during February. Valentine has been happy-go-unlucky at times and Dawson has balanced brilliant games with quiet failures. To say this 2015 team would be tourney-ready just a few weekends ago would’ve been bold, if not risky, since it wasn’t certain Michigan State would even make the field of 68. What a weird month it’s been for such a weird team.

The team of 2014 flew under the flag of Adreian Payne, Gary Harris and Keith Appling — regardless of Dawson’s bursts of brilliance. The team of 2013 was much of the same, and 2012 included Draymond Green adding to the chemistry. When the new season was upon us last winter, the Spartans appeared to roll into it with role players. Trice averaged just five points per game over three seasons, Valentine just three points per game better last year and Dawson was the only All-Big-Ten candidate — and an injury-prone candidate at that.

But by now, with the benefit of heaping amounts of hindsight, it’s not surprising that MSU’s big three has emerged this way. Of course it would take 30 games to get rolling and now it finally makes sense — this poor team wasn’t even allowed to touch Tom Izzo‘s Final Four Ferrari until just this March.

Jerry Landry is a writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow Jerry on Twitter at @Jerry2Landry, “Like” him on Facebook or add him on Google.