Green leads No. 1 Michigan State into Sweet 16

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- There were all these piano movers, huffing and puffing through the heavy lifting of yesterday's backbreaking Michigan State-Saint Louis NCAA Tournament labors. And then there was Draymond Green, Michigan State's piano player, its virtuoso.

Not that Green, the 6-7, 230-pound senior, wasn't carrying his load of the less-glamorous details. He finished the game with more rebounds (13) and assists (6) than anyone else, and only one player had more than his two steals.

But it was Green's masterly technique and timing, his ability to essentially interpret the basketball experience, that made all the difference in Michigan State's 65-61 victory. Green scored 16 points, converting 6-of-11 field goals (2-of-4 three pointers). Keith Appling led the Spartans with 19 points.

And it was Appling who made the last -- and possibly most important -- field goal in advancing No. 1 seed Michigan State (29-7) to the Sweet 16 against Louisville in Phoenix Thursday. Yet even that Appling three-pointer, which rattled out-and-in for a 58-51 Michigan State lead with 1:31 to play, was a product of Green's mastery, a kick-out pass after drawing Saint Louis defenders to him like a whirlpool, leaving Appling alone.

Only a minute earlier, after Saint Louis' arduous efforts against taller, beefier Michigan State had dangerously narrowed Michigan State's lead to two at 53-51, Green had dropped in a pull-up 18-foot jump shot, then materialized under the opposite basket just in time to block Saint Louis' Cory Remekun's path to an apparently easy layup.

"He's such a tough, smart player," said Saint Louis' 6-6 Brian Conklin, who wrangled with Green much of the game. "He reads the ball screens and downscreens like a guard. He plays the angle and he plays the game slow and lets it come to him. He's smooth and hits some very tough shots. He's just got a motor, working on the ball and working on the rebounds."

Ninth-seeded Saint Louis (26-8) refused to give Michigan State an inch defensively and, despite 35.5 percent field-goal accuracy, hung around with Conklin's 11 points, Kwamain Mitchell's 13 and Jordair Jett's 10. But Michigan State's answers were Brandon Wood and Derrick Nix, with 10 points apiece, and Adreian Payne's seven rebounds. And, mostly, Green.

While Saint Louis might have had its mascot, the "charm doll" Billiken, working some special power, along with its sheer effort, Michigan State had Green, whose three-pointer and assist, wrapped around Payne's dunk, had wiped out the last Saint Louis lead with eight minutes to go in the first half.

As the game wound down, and Saint Louis refused to let the 6-10 Payne and 6-9 Nix inside, Michigan State coach Tom Izzo decided, "I'm going to put the ball in Draymond's hands at the point and let him be the decision-maker."

In his four years at Michigan State, Green assured, he had to learn to be "a workhorse. I was a workhorse in games; I wasn't a workhorse in practice. I never knew I had a second wind because I never pushed myself."

So this is what a piano-carrying piano-player looks like.