| | March 10, 2000
Playing in the Big Ten tournament, there's less time to prepare, you're
living for the day and trying to survive. After one game is over you have to
get ready mentally for another one, and I think that having those early
tournaments, playing those tough games early is really going to benefit us
because we've been in those situations before.
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Inside the Locker Room
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Throughout Championship Week, ESPN.com and FANSonly.com are presenting an inside look into the Big Ten conference tournament from some of the league's top players, including Morris Peterson of Michigan State. For more on the Spartans, check out their official athletic site.
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But being in a tournament,
there's nothing like it because teams who have lower seeds or team who didn'
t have a great season, now it's a new season for them and if they win this
tournament they can get to the NCAA Tournament.
As a senior and one of the leaders, taking the big shot, that's something
that I look forward to doing. But I have to give credit to my team, they
did a great job of finding guys at the right time and coach told me to shoot
when I was open so, I took the open shots.
We knew that last year was a tough game for us and the year before we lost
the first game, so, going into the game we felt that the first game was
always the toughest one and we want to come out and get a win and play hard
and I think we made the plays at the end.
I wanted to start out aggressive on the defensive end, that's what has been
winning games for us all year. Coach (Tom Izzo) said if you have the open shot, take
it, and a couple times early I was open so I took the shot, but for us it
starts on the defensive end and with rebounding, that was the real big key
for us.
We try to get our big men started early and open some things up and the last
couple games they've been doing that. They've been getting double-teamed
and finding us for the open shots, I think we've really been working
together well | |
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