WASHINGTON − They all knew they stunk it up in the first half. Their postgame mea culpas mirrored their halftime locker room talk.
But 25 minutes of ferocity and tenacity could not overcome Michigan State basketball’s horrendous start. Its missed layups and free throws. Connecticut’s elite talent and depth.
Ultimately, all of those shortcomings blended into one frustrating finish, for both the 3-seed Spartans’ 67-63 leave-it-all-out-there Sweet 16 loss to 2-seed Connecticut on Friday, March 27, and their season marked by surprise performances and a letdown finlwe at Capital One Arena.
“Going into the second half, there was definitely a different energy. It was win or go home,” said senior Jaxon Kohler, who had 12 points and eight rebounds in his final collegiate game. “I thought we fought really hard, and I thought we gave a great effort. But it wasn’t enough.”
So ended a 27-8 season for MSU, which made the NCAA Tournament for a record 28th consecutive season and advanced to Tom Izzo’s 17th Sweet 16 in that span. It was his sixth loss in the first game of the second weekend of March Madness, a year after the Spartans made it to an Elite Eight.
Friday, Izzo lamented all the missed opportunities, such as missing four of 11 layup attempts and five free throws (with two of those in-close misses coming from Jeremy Fears Jr. in the second half along with a missed front end of a 1-and-1 by the All-American point guard in the first half). Blown defensive coverages – “complete breakdowns on our part,” Izzo said – also helped UConn to make six of its first seven 3-point attempts and build a 19-point lead midway through the first half. Inopportune turnovers and blown possessions proved costly in the second half and curtailed momentum once MSU rallied to take a brief one-point lead twice with a little more than 10 minutes left.
“They came out, they hit shots early. We turned the ball over. We missed a couple easy baskets,” said Fears, who was just 5-for-15 for 13 points. He had seven assists but also four of MSU’s 10 turnovers. “Just basketball. And at some point, you can’t flip a switch or be down a lot and then expect to win a game. We were fighting, fighting, fighting the whole game. Maybe if we were neck and neck, we give ourselves a better chance at the end of the game.
“They played great. They hit a couple tough shots, and we missed shots. We just didn’t do our part early. That falls on us, especially me. I had too many turnovers, missed easy layups, and the team needed me. And I didn’t really answer at the bell for the guys.”
The Huskies (32-5) regained the lead and never trailed over the final 8:58, even though the Spartans kept counterpunching and kept it close. Despite UConn going 10-for-16 at the line, the Huskies hit all six of their free throws in the final minute as Tarris Reed Jr. (20 points) and Alex Karaban (17) scored 16 of their final 21 points after MSU reclaimed a lead, as well as their final 11 in the last 3:49.
“We knew they wouldn’t give up,” Karaban said. “They have so many tough guys on that team. A lot of guys have been loyal to the Michigan State program, so we knew they’d battle back. We’ve had experiences, too, where teams battled back, and we just stayed together.”
So did the Spartans all season. Their core four of Fears, Kohler, Carson Cooper (14) and Coen Carr (13) combined for 52 of their 63 points and 21 of their 39 rebounds. In the end, though, Izzo saw a team that looked tired and felt they made uncharacteristic errors on both ends of the floor because of UConn’s aggressive defense.
“I give a lot of credit to our guys, and I mean that, for the way they hung in there after being down like they were,” Izzo said. “I don’t think they were down. It wasn’t that we were loafing. We just looked nervous. That’s what’s really disappointing, we looked nervous. And after all the big games we played in, I didn’t think we should’ve looked nervous.
“But we did.”
After the final horn and handshakes, the Huskies went to celebrate with their fans. They’ll play 1-seed Duke on Sunday (5:05 p.m., CBS) for a chance to go back to the Final Four and continue to chase their third national title in three seasons.
The Spartans did the same, flashing heart-hands to their family and supporters in the MSU section: Heartfelt gestures of appreciation after another deep run in the tournament and the end of the careers of both Kohler and Cooper, whose emergence this season helped the Spartans to a 57-15 mark over their final two seasons.
“We still feel like we let down a lot of people. Let down the family and the friends, and let down Spartan nation,” Cooper said. “I thought we had the guys and we had the group to get to that Final Four. But the last few years have been amazing. …
“It’s easy to be disappointed right now. But from where we were at, at the beginning of the year, when people would think we were middle of the pack in the Big Ten. And people really didn’t expect us to do anything – we were just some no-names that had no life and the Spartans weren’t gonna be very good. I think we proved them wrong.”
Izzo and his staff, meanwhile, will return to East Lansing to process another loss and begin building for next season. He delivered a little dark humor as he was close to wrapping up talking about this group with reporters, joking that he had time to take more questions “because I got nothing to do. Unfortunately, I ain’t going to work tomorrow, tonight.”
Earlier, someone had asked him where he envisioned himself five years from now.
“Trying to win a national championship, plain and simple. That’s it,” he replied. “Those things usually start after your last loss.”
While MSU has the No. 2 incoming freshman class next season, according to 247 Sports’ composite rankings, and expects to get back Fears and Carr along with return from injury of Kaleb Glenn (knee) and Divine Ugochukwu (foot), Izzo took one last moment to reflect on both his seniors and how his players handled the season-ending defeat.
“I’ve been in a lot of locker rooms. I’ve lost a lot of last games – I’ve only won one, so I know what it’s like to lose the last game. And I’ve done it quite often, unfortunately,” he said. “But in losing that last game, I’ve never been in a more impressive locker room than the one I just came from. … I told my video guys, ‘Make sure you film this. I want every bit of this.’ Because I want to make sure that someday, when I’m laying in bed dying, I will look at that and probably live an extra couple of years if I watch that closely.”
It was tough, as he admitted, with seniors processing the end. But it also was a motivational passing of the torch to the other two captains: Carr (who will be a senior) and Fears (who will be a fourth-year junior). They are expected to be the ones trying to lead Izzo back to the Final Four next year and to his elusive second season-ending win.
That would mean celebrating a second national title in Detroit. And that, Carr emphasized, is the mission and goal from Saturday onward to April 2027.
“We’re gonna take in the young guys, take in the guys that have been here for a year now, who’ve experienced March Madness and tournament time, and just keep getting better,” he said. “I feel like we have all the pieces we need for next year to make it to Detroit.”
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State basketball looking to 2027 Final Four, in Detroit
Reporting by Chris Solari, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
