AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- When the Valparaiso takes the floor early this afternoon in the NCAA Tournament, the 14th-seeded Crusaders face a daunting task in the No. 3 Michigan State Spartans.
It will be a challenge, but not a unwelcome one. The Crusaders have proven their salt time and again throughout the course of the season.
"If you look back at the Detroit game, we were down by [22] and in seasons past, there’s no way we would have responded like we did," star swingman Ryan Broekhoff said, reminiscing Valpo's come-from-behind win that stunned Horizon League rival Detroit and ended the Titans' 17-game homecourt winning streak. "We have a lot of trust and a lot of camaraderie between us."
The Crusaders continued to face adversity en route to their 2013 Horizon League tournament championship and the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. In the semifinals, Broekhoff hit a fall-away 3-pointer at the buzzer to beat Green Bay; in the finals, the Crusaders rallied in the last five minutes to claim the title on the strength of a career-high 22 points from senior Erik Buggs.
Now, Valparaiso hopes to rely on those experiences -- and experience, in general -- in the program's first NCAA Tournament appearance in nine years. The Crusaders start five seniors and depend on a core of upperclassmen off the bench, as well.
Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo, whose Spartans are making a 16th-straight NCAA Tournament appearance, has admitted several times to the media that Valpo's experience is what concerns him the most heading into the matchup. But Valpo head coach Bryce Drew just hopes his team has the right kind of experience.
"I think the experience works two ways," Drew said. "We have no NCAA experience on our team, but the good thing is that we have a lot of juniors and seniors. We’ve been playing eight players in our rotation lately, and all eight of them are juniors and seniors."
Drew said its hard to know just how his players will respond to their first experience in the Big Dance. He also added that the Crusaders haven't seen a team quite like Michigan State.
"They’re not only tall, but they’re physical and they move really well. Obviously, those are big challenges that we’re going to have to overcome. We know that they’re very versatile," Drew said. "They have four projected drafted picks in the next two years. We haven’t faced anybody like that this year."
"With a team that big, too many second chances can eat you alive," Buggs added, emphasizing the importance of rebounding on the defensive glass.
Another challenge Valpo will have to face is how Michigan State decides to guard Broekhoff, who can be a matchup nightmare for teams that are unprepared.
"We’ve seen all kind of matchups this year. We’ve seen Broekhoff have everybody 1-5 [point guard through center] guard him during the game," Drew said. "We’ll have to make adjustments accordingly."
"Throughout the whole year, I’ve kind of gone through the whole range of players defending me. It’s just going to be another little adjustment that we’ll make," Broekhoff echoed.
For all the challenges the Spartans impose, the Crusaders are confident they can present challenges to Michigan State, as well.
"We like to get out and score in transition. We shoot well from the outside. We’ve got guys who can really be effective at the rim. We’ve got a little bit of everything," Broekhoff said. "We may not be the biggest team in America, but we’re physical and we play hard and pretty much we leave it all out on the court."
And again, the Crusaders have experience.
"You can look at the Horizon League tournament, for example," Buggs said. "There were times when we got down that maybe a younger team – or even us last year – would have folded."
Today's game will be broadcast on CBS starting at 12:15 p.m. EST.
Tags: Horizon League - Men's Basketball · Valparaiso - Men's Basketball
