Seniors Look to Punch Ticket to NCAA Final Four
3/28/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By Steve Grinczel, MSUSpartans.com Online Columnist | @GrinzOnGreen
SYRACUSE, N.Y. - The streak was the envy of basketball programs around the country, even the bluebloods: Every Michigan State Spartan who played four years for Coach Tom Izzo had reached a Final Four.
Since it came to an end a year ago with a loss to Connecticut in the Elite Eight, Izzo has always tempered the disappointment with the sobering knowledge of all the great players and coaches who never made it even to one Final Four. After all, former Spartans Charlie Bell and Andre Hutson played in three.
As much as he would have loved to have extended it with last year's seniors, Adreian Payne and Keith Appling, it was a precarious record made to be broken, he has often said. Circumstances, such as a season-long wrist injury that limited Appling and ailments that slowed Payne and sophomore guard Gary Harris throughout the season, just didn't favor MSU for a change.
"It was something that was going to happen sooner or later," Izzo said Saturday, about 15 hours after the Spartans defeated No. 3 seed Oklahoma to advance to Sunday's East Regional final against Louisville.
It's been a heartening revelation for Izzo to learn how much more disturbed his returning players from that team - in particular seniors Travis Trice and Branden Dawson and junior Denzel Valentine - still are by that loss, and how starting a new Final Four streak will be on their minds when they play the Cardinals.
"Those guys were crushed," Valentine said of Appling and Payne. "Seeing their faces and how they reacted, (is) a big motivation factor for us. During this time, we think about that.
"We want to make sure that's not us."
Michigan State's two National Championships place it in a select group, but what sets Izzo's program apart even more are the nation-leading six Final Fours in the last 16 years.
Just making it to the tournament isn't enough and leaving East Lansing without at least one regional title, that guarantees entry into the national semifinals on the last weekend of the season, is almost unthinkable.
"Toward the end of the season, people were talking about us not making the tournament," Valentine said. "We had to stop and really take a look back and realize that at Michigan State we compete for championships."
That process is no less daunting than it was last year with a fourth-seeded team that eventually sent Payne and Harris to the NBA. The Spartans ran into buzz saw in No. 7 UConn, which played before what amounted to a home game in New York's Madison Square Garden.
This time, Louisville is the 4-seed and MSU is the seven. The Cardinals are a pedigreed program led by legendary Coach Rick Pitino, who won the NCAA title with Louisville in 2013 and Kentucky in 1996. The Cardinals are going for their third Final Four in the last four years while the Spartans are trying to return for the first time since 2010.
In '09, No. 2 MSU defeated No. 1 Louisville in the Elite Eight, 64-52, to advance to the Final Four at Ford Field in Detroit. Three years later, the No. 4 Cardinals upset No. 1 Michigan State, minus an injured Branden Dawson, 57-44, in the Sweet 16 at Phoenix. Louisville went on to lose to Kentucky in a national semifinal.
The Spartans (26-11) and Louisville (27-8) have been on parallel paths for much of this season with regard to ups and downs. The Cardinals lost five of 10 games during one stretch in February and March while MSU was .500 during a six-game span in January and February.
The Spartans know what they're up against, especially with the guard-forward tandem of Terry Rozier (17.2 points and 5.5 rebounds per game) and the physically imposing Montrezl Harrell (15.7 and 9.2), but that hasn't stopped them from voicing their goals for themselves, their teammates and formers mates.
"I don't look at the names of the teams on the jerseys, the coaches, the other players," said Trice. "I just try to look at it as Xs and Os. This goes down in the record books with two of the greatest coaches - two bona fide hall-of-famers - going at it. It's a battle of the minds and I'm just happy to be a part of it and hope to come out with a win.
"But one of the main reasons why we chose to come to Michigan State was because coming in, every senior was guaranteed to go to a Final Four. As a kid, that's what you dream about. Also, just carrying on the tradition. That's what Michigan State's known for - playing well in March, playing well in the tournament and making it to the Final Four. We're just happy we're in this position and one game away."
Izzo has made no secret of MSU's deficiencies, the so-called elephant in the room he's gone out of his way to address. These Spartans aren't as talented as some of his former teams, they lack a lock-down defender along the lines of an Appling and have found their way to the Elite Eight with continuous periods of re-invention whether it be juggling the starting lineup, tweaking the substitution pattern or getting the players to buy into playing solid team defense.
What sets this MSU team apart from just about every other is the bond that exists between the players. They want their teammates to enjoy the fruits of their labor as much as want it for themselves. Dawson knows that a Final Four will secure the senior legacies for himself and Trice and may even pay some retroactive benefits.
"It would mean a lot, especially for myself and Travis because we're seniors," Dawson said. "People hold Michigan State to the high standard of making it to the Final Four and just seeing Keith and Adreian get so close last year not being able to get those guys there, we're going to try to do it for them.
"We're going to try to do it for all those guys who played before us."
Izzo isn't about to turn his back on a motivating factor regardless of the form it takes, and what could be better than settling a little unfinished business by starting a new senior streak.
"To be blunt about it, it would be one of the greatest things we've done at Michigan State," Izzo said. "Last year's team ... you feel for those guys that kind of were tagged with the burden of being the first team that the seniors didn't make it. It's kind of ridiculous when you think about it."
As the third-winningest senior class in MSU history, it would be just as absurd if Trice and Dawson are looked at differently if they don't make it to a Final Four - note not that Izzo doesn't want even more for them.
"I love when people set a footprint in the sand, so they can leave knowing they've done something few before them have done, and they're doing that," he said. "It could be capped by getting to the Final Four, and then of course, double capped by going beyond that."
If that happens, it will be enjoyed vicariously far and wide.
Before Izzo met with the media Saturday, he received a text from Harris, who left two years of eligibility behind.
"Coach, I'm still believing," it said.
