Centre Daily Times | 01/07/2005 | Izzo has luxury of detailing his team:
“The Nittany Lions were in trouble as soon as Tom Izzo rattled off Aaron Johnson’s rebounding average — offensive rebounding average, mind you — as if it were his social security number.
“Michigan State’s coach is energetic. He is driven. More than anything else, though, he is detail-oriented. That was as good a reason as any why his No. 20 Spartans strutted into the Bryce Jordan Center on Wednesday and strutted out two hours later with an easy-as-you-please 84-58 win.
“OK, so maybe reciting Johnson’s rebounding stats (4.0 offensive boards entering Wednesday’s game, by the way), as Izzo did during a Monday teleconference, isn’t that impressive. There isn’t a Big Ten coach that doesn’t know that HoJo is the conference’s leading rebounder as well as the Nittany Lions’ lone proven commodity.
“It was just another example, though, of the details that separate a seasoned, discliplined team like the Spartans from young, inconsistent Penn State, the details that are rarely noticeable in December but make all the difference in March.
“This is not to say that Nittany Lions coach Ed DeChellis doesn’t care about details. If and when his raw but talented team starts to put it together, you’ll see that DeChellis does. At this stage of his Penn State tenure, with his current personnel, he simply has different priorities.
“While Izzo has the luxury of getting his players to focus on things like making the extra pass or coming a certain way off a screen, DeChellis can only watch as his players struggle to complete the initial pass or actually set a solid screen. Penn State must master the rudimentary parts of the game — taking care of the basketball, blocking out, taking care of the basketball — before it can take on the subtleties.
” ‘Eddie’s going to have a good team,’ Izzo said after his team systematically picked the Nittany Lions apart. ‘He’s just gotta get a couple of those young kids now to be a little older. Unfortunately, that takes seasons.’ …”