INDIANAPOLIS -- Adreian Payne and Michigan State have that March look again, and the Spartans think their best basketball is in front of them. Air Max 1 Sale Cheap . Next up is another showdown with Michigan. Payne scored 18 points, Branden Dawson had 14 and No. 22 Michigan State beat No. 12 Wisconsin 83-75 on Saturday to reach the Big Ten tournament championship. The third-seeded Spartans (25-8) won consecutive games for the first time since an 11-game run ended in January. They will meet the top-seeded Wolverines in the final on Sunday. "Were just scratching the surface," Payne said. "We didnt play at a high level before just because we havent had time for everyone to play together for a long period of time. This tournament has been great because weve been able to play with each other more and were starting to look better." Dawson scored in double figures for the second straight game after getting off to a slow start in his return from a broken right hand. He went 6 for 8 from the field as the Spartans shot 56 per cent against the defence-minded Badgers. The Spartans went on a 16-1 run in the first half and took a 37-16 lead when Gary Harris scored with 5:39 left before halftime. "I thought we played some of our best basketball of the year in that first five minutes," coach Tom Izzo said. "Wisconsin is very good. I thought we played awfully well." Frank Kaminsky had 28 points and Sam Dekker added 11 points and seven boards for the second-seeded Badgers (26-7), who were outrebounded 32-28 by the Spartans. Michigan State was swept by Michigan during the regular season, but it has a perfect record in conference title games. The Spartans last championship came in a win over Ohio State in 2012. The first half against Wisconsin was one of the best periods Michigan State has played all season. Traevon Jacksons layup helped Wisconsin close to 21-15 with 10:43 left in the first half, but the Spartans responded with a 16-1 run that included three three-point plays. Payne scored and Denzel Valentine hit a 3-pointer to give the Spartans a 26-15 lead. Then Dawson was fouled on a layup and made the ensuing foul shot. Bronson Koening made a free throw for the Badgers before Payne and Travis Trice had consecutive three-point plays. Trice then forced a turnover and Harris scored on a fast-break layup to increase the lead to 21 with 5:39 left in the first half. It was pretty much a total breakdown for the Badgers in the first half, a surprising start for a team that was being mentioned as a possibility for a No. 1 seed in the upcoming NCAA tournament. "Ball movement, body movement, shot selection, its never just one thing," Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan said. "Its a combination of things. We werent very fluid, but we found that fluidity." Wisconsin trailed 43-26 at the break, but it rallied in the second half. Dekkers dunk capped an 8-2 spurt that trimmed Michigan States lead to 51-41 with 15:02 remaining. The Badgers got within seven when Jackson made a pair of free throws with under four minutes to play and again when Jackson hit a 3 with 51 seconds remaining. But the rally fizzled from there. "We dug ourselves a hole in the first half and we were trying to climb out of that hole that entire second half," Kaminsky said. "We didnt have enough left in the tank to get over that." Jackson finished with 10 points for Wisconsin, which shot 28 per cent in the first half. The Badgers have dropped two of their last three games and lost for the first time this season on a neutral court. Air Max 1 Ireland . Reimer told TSNs Mark Masters on Tuesday that he doesnt know if he will be moved leading up to the March 5 trade deadline but added he wasnt interested in discussing it. "Who knows whats going to happen on the horizon here and right now I dont know if I want to talk about it too much. Cheap Air Max 1 Ireland . -- Coyotes coach Dave Tippett thinks of one thing when he watches Eastern Conference teams struggle against Western opponents before they get to Phoenix: His team must keep pace. http://www.cheapairmax1ireland.com/ . - Rookie Kyle Larson will start from the pole position Saturday night in the NASCAR race at Richmond International Raceway after a thunderstorm arrived just in time to wash out qualifying.The phrase most valuable player is a tricky one for a lot of people, me included. I think there is a large sect who, without pause, heap that label onto Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby, indisputably the league’s most talented player. However, I think it’s impossible to ignore the fact that team effects play a significant role in determination of how valuable a player is to his team. While Crosby plays second fiddle to no one in the National Hockey League, I think there’s a compelling argument to be made about the rest of the Pittsburgh Penguins being an adequate hockey team. That is to say, when Sidney Crosby’s off of the ice, the team is doing a bit more than just surviving. On the other hand, we got our first taste of Philadelphia without center Claude Giroux Saturday night, and it wasn’t pretty. The Flyers conceded five goals to the lowly Devils in a game that wasn’t particularly close. Giroux, of course, missed the game after suffering a left leg laceration, and could miss a week of action. The problem with the Flyers -- perhaps true for them more than any other team pushing the thresholds of the hard salary cap -- is that they don’t have enough talent on the roster. A large reason why this is true is because the team made indefensible decision after indefensible decision over the past couple of years to bleed the cap dry, including a six-year, $30MM contract for already-healthy-scratched Andrew MacDonald (contract originally described as an “atrocity”), and trading a productive Scott Hartnell for a less productive R.J. Umberger (“trade is pretty clearly a loss for the Flyers”). So, too, does $22.5MM for an already-healthy-scratched centre (“Why would you spend precious remaining dollars on an aging center?”) and trading James van Riemsdyk for Luke Schenn (“Luke Schenn was one of Toronto’s worst defensemen last season”). These moves aren’t hindsight-guessed – the links, from the blogosphere and beyond, were posted around the time of the moves. Surprise! Extremely few of these worked out. And it’s created a situation where the Flyers basically have nothing to offer outside of their top-line. I note that this top-line is fantastic – Jakub Voracek complements Claude Giroux so well, that it hardly even matters who the third player is in that group. However, the Flyers are nothing short of a lottery team when they come off of the ice. This gets back into the ‘most valuable player’ part I alluded to earlier – just how deependent the Flyers are on Giroux to do, well, everything. Cheap Nike Air Max 1. To show this, I pulled the Corsi% and Goal% numbers for both Sidney Crosby and Claude Giroux in 2014-2015 at even-strength. The difference is startling. Pittsburgh and Philadelphia are comparatively dominant when their top-lines are on the ice. We can see this in the Corsi% With Player On and Goal% With Player On, where Crosby, et al., and Giroux, et al. routinely dominate the opposition. The difference is when those players are peeled from the ice. In Pittsburgh’s case, without Sidney Crosby, the team controls 49.7% of play and scores 50.0% of the goals – a respectable number made from the team’s weaker forwards and defensemen. In Philadelphia’s case, without Claude Giroux, the team controls 45.4% of play and scores 43.8% of the goals. That’s a good way to lose a bunch of hockey games at even-strength. What’s ultimately problematic about Philadelphia’s situation at the team-level – and what’s certainly going to be their downfall this season – is that the gap between their toughs and the forward/defense depth compiled by the front office has grown to unbelievable levels. To illustrate this, I pulled Scoring Chance% and Corsi% data for the Flyers over the last four calendar years, and noted the beginning of the 2014-2015 season with a vertical black line. For years, Philadelphia’s depth has lagged behind their top-line, one that’s regularly featured superstar Claude Giroux. Now, we know second, third, and fourth lines – and the associated pairings they play with – have different performance expectations. In most cities, pulling 50% away from the top-line is usually good enough to routinely pick up playoff berths, assuming the top-line routinely wins their battles. Sure, Philadelphia’s depth players have lagged behind for years. But, they have never been this bad. The gap is sad. Draft lottery worthy, really. And for a team that’s pushing the outer limits of the salary cap, it’s inexcusable and unacceptable. As a result of all of the above, I’ll be interested in seeing how the Hart Trophy ballot looks at the end of the year, especially if, by some miracle, Philadelphia reaches the postseason. Claude Giroux, to me, feels like the league’s most valuable player. Partially because he’s great at hockey, and partially because his teammates – assembled by the front office, I remind you – are tragically bad. 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