Welcome to the Izzone

Tom Izzo is one of the greatest coaches to ever grace a Michigan sports program.

There. I said it. Now, that doesn't mean he touches the likes of Bo Schembechler, or Fielding Yost, or any of the other greats, but he is spectacular. He rivals the Lloyd Carr of recent U-Mich football, only because Lloyd was notoriously great in the season but lackluster in the post-season bowls. Prior to the NCAA tournament, Doug Gottleib of ESPN said the following: "The Spartans are a team that is in disarray right now... they lack polish, and are in for a shallow tournament run". Couple that with the fact that they were a 5-seed in a region with (1)Kansas, (2)Ohio State, (3)Georgetown, (4)Maryland, and (6)Tennessee, and one would tend to agree. The Midwest was loaded with high caliber teams.

After making it past the 12-seed New Mexico State, the Spartans faced (4)Maryland. This is the worst possible time to have a team leader go down, and Kalin Lucas did just that. The Spartans lost their on-court leader and top scorer with one false step. However, State won that game in thrilling fashion with a last-second buzzer beater made by the increasingly clutch Korey Lucious. They went on to play (9)Northern Iowa, which had upset overall #1 Kansas in a shocker that not only shattered my bracket, but millions of others. They beat Northern Iowa in their biggest win of the tournament, winning by a marginal seven points.

The scattered and fractured rag-tag group of basketball players that camps out in East Lansing had just stumbled into the Elite Eight, with a game against Bruce Pearl's Tennessee Volunteers looming. The Spartans again eked that one out 70-69, with another game decided in the closing 30 seconds.

Wait... Michigan State is in the Final Four? AGAIN? Prior to the tournament, this team wasn't even an outside contender. They were struggling to find their identity. Players lacked work ethic, or "weren't good teammates" according to Izzo. Couple that with losing your starting point guard, offensive and defensive star, and overall team leader at the same time, and this tournament run becomes increasingly unlikely.

Nevermind that they lost to Butler. People forget that Butler is no slouch. They're a physical team with a young, energetic coach, and an easy-to-love star in Gordon Hayward. This game was a grind-it-out style of basketball, with it only ending up 52-50. The Spartans didn't give it away. Butler won it. That's the beauty of Izzo's teams - when they lose, it's because they got beat. They don't self-destruct or beat themselves; they don't lose because they lacked heart or effort. This team stepped up when it counted and provided one of the most memorable tournament runs in history for me.

That doesn't make the loss easier to swallow. People had State favored. After the game, Joseph H. Bedford of "The Bedford Revue" had the following comments: "Gross. I hate Butler. That game was typical Big-10 basketball - first to 50 wins". Spoken like a true Spartan. A phone call to Mr. Bedford was not returned by press time.

Next year, Coach. Next year.