NCAA Tournament Preview: Michigan State Spartans vs. Memphis Tigers

The Teams
Michigan State is a physical team with size and good guard play. Drew Neitzel their senior PG is the leader and engine of the team. Raymar Morgan and Kalin Lucas are excellent athletes that can score. Goran Suton is a good post player with nice mid range touch.

Memphis may be the most talented team in college basketball. Their back court of Derrick Rose and Chris Douglas-Roberts cause all types of match up problems. They are two of the best scoring and rebounding guards in Division I basketball. Joey Dorsey is a beast inside at 6'9 and around 265 pounds.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Michigan State

Strengths

Toughness - The Spartans are a prototypical Big Ten team. They bang and grind on both sides of the floor. They play tough defense and are one of the best in the nation at going after rebounds. They are 8th among Division I teams in Rebounding margin. They also sport a lot of big bodies that could give Memphis some problems on the block.

Free Throws - Michigan State averages 73.9 as team this year from the line, which ranks 3rd among teams still in the tournament behind Xavier and North Carolina.

Weakness

Consistent Scoring - Michigan State can only beat Memphis if they have a big game out of Neitzel. He has been inconsistent at times and must have a huge game for the Spartys to stay in the game.

Athletes - Outside of Morgan and Lucas this team does not possess the type of uber-athlete that teams like Memphis seem to carry in abundance. They have to outwork and out hustle teams to be effective.

Memphis

Strengths

Scoring - The Tigers averaged 79.8 PPG this year, almost 10 higher a game then the Spartans. If they can run against the Michigan State defense it will be very difficult for the Spartans to keep up.

Defensive Quickness - This team averaged around 9 steals a game (8.5) which ranks 3rd among teams left in the tournament. They also averaged 5.9 blocks a game which is tops among teams still in the tournament. They have enough speed to hassle opposing guards and they have excellent help defense to make up for any weaknesses in the middle.

Weaknesses