Michigan State Beats No. 1 Seed Louisville to Reach Final Four

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The Spartans gave the Final Four a hometown feel, stopping overall No. 1 seed Louisville 64-52 Sunday to win the Midwest Regional.

Goran Suton had 19 points and 10 rebounds as the second-seeded Spartans (30-6) reached their fifth Final Four in 11 years — the most trips of any team in the nation during that span.
Only 90 miles from their campus in East Lansing, the Spartans will play Connecticut on Saturday at Ford Field in Detroit.

A crowd of 72,000, the largest ever for college basketball's signature event, is expected for each game.

The Cardinals allowed Michigan State to dictate the pace with their deliberate half-court style, and Louisville's vaunted pressure defense produced no fastbreak points.
Instead, Michigan State relied on its physical style and finally broke the Cardinals.
After going 28 minutes without either team taking more than a three-point lead, the Cardinals broke down.
Louisville came back from a 30-27 halftime deficit to take a 34-32 lead with 15:33 to go.
But the Spartans answered with the first big run of the day, outscoring Louisville 9-2 over a two-minute span for a 41-36 lead.

The Spartans were just getting started.

Michigan State took advantage of the Cardinals poor free-throw shooting to go on a 17-7 run that made it 58-43 with 5:50 to go.

That forced Louisville to rush its offense into bad shots, and with Louisville's rebounders out of position, Michigan State dominated.

The Cardinals made only one basket in the last 5:18 and shot just 38.3 percent from the field

Spartans rout Colonials, prepare for Trojans

No. 2 Michigan State defeated Robert Morris on Friday night 77-62 ...

and will advance to the second round of the NCAA tournament’s Midwest bracket to face No. 10 Southern Cal Sunday night at 5:00 PM on CBS.

Michigan State will play No. 10 Southern California (22-12) in Sunday's 5 p.m. second-round game (CBS). The Trojans defeated No. 7 Boston College, 72-55.

"I have to say I was pleased with a lot of that game," said MSU coach Tom Izzo. "Our rebounding was phenomenal and our defense was pretty good. We still have some work to do with our shooters, but this was good for us because it was against a team that played pretty well for that first 15 minutes.

"Our subs came in and did a great job."
Freshman forward Draymond Green came on strong off the bench after junior forward Raymar Morgan got in early foul trouble and scored a career-high 16 points on 7-for-8 shooting from the field.

MSU cruises past Indiana-Purdue-Fort Wayne, improves to 9-1

Coming off final-exam week, the ninth-ranked Spartans (9-1) won their sixth straight game since a loss to UCLA.

Neitzel frequently gets off to slow starts and then turns it on in the second half. This time, he did the exact opposite. Neitzel scored 16 of his 18 points in the first half, then didn't score for the first 12:20 of the second half. "I wasn't attacking as much (in the second half)," he said. "I've got to be more aggressive and look to keep scoring."

Michigan State stormed out to a 36-17 lead on forward Marquise Gray's dunk with 7:04 remaining in the first half.

IPFW (4-5) came back with a 20-5 run that started late in the first half and carried into the second half.

Junior guard Jakari Johnson (Grand Rapids Ottawa Hills) led IPFW with 17 points.
Izzo credited IPFW, which also was coming off finals week, for not backing down.
However, Izzo was still irked by a couple "complete missed assignments" that led to 3-pointers during IPFW's comeback.

"If you do that in our league on the road, you're not going to win," Izzo said. "We proved we're not a mature enough team yet. When you've got a team down, you've got to put them away."
MSU forward Goran Suton said: "We get a big lead and we relax; we think we've already won the game."

As for some of the easy shots he missed inside, Suton said, "Those shots are killing me. I've been missing them for a while. I've got to change that."

Michigan State scored one point in the first 5:14 of the second half before a driving bank shot by Gray helped turn the momentum back to the Spartans.

"I was just trying to bring energy," Gray said. "This was the first time the Izzone (student section) wasn't here. That had an effect on us. It's weird. We're spoiled."

Gray finished with 15 points. Forward, Raymar Morgan had 12 points and seven rebounds.
No secrets

Suton better start performing

Izzo has long regarded the 6-foot-10 Suton as one of MSU's most under-producing resources

On Saturday, as Michigan State struggled to defeat Oakland, Suton took over on both ends of the court like he had at no other time in his career with 15 points and 20 rebounds for his first double-double of the season.

What gives?

"He has all the skills, he can shoot from outside and he's 6-10."

Suton...It would be great for the team and yourself if you would be self motivated and didn't rely of Coach Izzo to try and drive your desire each and every game. Get a clue Suton!

Michigan State University Basketball Tickets

Michigan State has been good, even very good at times, the last six years.
But, their surprising Final Four appearance in 2005 not withstanding, the Spartans haven't been great - as measured by the MSU fans that follow them.

The Spartan program measured by its amazing achievements from 1998-2001: four Big Ten championships, three No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament, three straight Final Fours and the national championship in 2000.

This might be the year they get back to the top. With the nucleus of last season's 23-12 basketball team returning, including All-America candidate Drew Neitzel, and the addition of an athletic and talented freshman class, the Spartans are favored to win the Big Ten and appear to be serious contenders for another Final Four and even a national championship.

Buy your tickets early, because they may be hard to get during the season.

Let's forget about the Michigan loss on Saturday and start thinking about Spartan Basketball!

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