The Spartans haven’t been this big an underdog since 300 of them crammed into a corner at Thermopylae.
Michigan State is the long shot of the Final Four entrants, even in its national semifinal Saturday against Butler. Nobody respects a team that was a controversial call away from losing its first-round game and needed a buzzer-beater in the second.
But Michigan State reached its sixth Final Four in 12 years, joining Duke, North Carolina and UCLA as the only teams to do so. Yet nobody ranks the Spartans with the remaining threesome. In those aforementioned spans, UCLA won 10 titles, Duke three and North Carolina two. Michigan State has just one, which came 10 years ago in Indianapolis.
“I think we’ve had good success during the years. I think we’ve just been fortunate on these Final Fours,” coach Tom Izzo said via teleconference. “Yeah, you got to be good. You got to be lucky. We’ve been a little bit of both. Sometimes they’ve come, like the year after we went to the first one, it seemed like we should have got back to the next one and we did. Then there’s years like 2005 — or maybe this year — where you say, ‘Where did it come from?'”
Indeed, the Spartans surprised followers both good and bad this year. After losing last year’s title game to North Carolina, Michigan State managed only a No. 5 seed entering the NCAA Tournament.
Yet Michigan State has shown grit throughout the postseason. After losing point guard Kalin Lucas in its second-round escape over Maryland, forward Delvon Roe and guard Chris Allen have played despite injuries.
So what, Izzo said, if the road to Indianapolis was rough? Reaching the Final Four isn’t supposed to be easy.
“Well, it’s hard. It is hard,” he said. “It’s hard because people get fat and sassy, whether it’s your own players or the people around you or the doctors and trainers, assistant coaches, all the people that are important for you to get there to help your team get there. So that’s what makes it tough.
“But at the same time, I think it is harder because there’s so many teams that are better now. The mid-majors are better. Conferences are deeper. I think it’s easier to put more money into basketball since it’s a cheaper sport to run compared to football, so we are getting more and more parity. Players want to go somewhere they can start and start immediately, so they don’t mind going somewhere else if they get that opportunity. So all those things put together is more difficult. But once you’ve done it, too, at least you have a road map on how, and then you tweak it according to who you have.”
The Spartans don’t have the best team in the remaining quartet. Then again, they’re still here. Opponents at least must respect that.
Rick Snider has covered local sports since 1978. Read more at TheRickSniderReport.com and Twitter @Snide_Remarks or e-mail [email protected].
