The night was March 18th, 2021, Michigan State had barely gotten into the NCAA Tournament and had a First Four matchup with UCLA. That evening they blew an 11-point lead and lost, ending their season with a 15-13 record and Tom Izzos' worst season in two decades. That was the COVID year, so no one was really too upset and just wanted to move on to the next season.
The 2021-22 season started very hot for MSU, starting 14-2 and then dropping a bad game at home Vs Northwestern. Then the season spiraled out of control. March came around and MSU made the Big Ten Tournament Semi-Finals, snuck past Davidson in the Round of 64 before losing to Duke and Coach K in his final season in the Round of 32.
That was when the issues began after that Duke game. I am sure every MSU fan remembers how angry they were. That was just a game that MSU had and giving it to Duke was very disappointing and upsetting.
Going into the 2022-23 Season there really weren’t any high expectations and the roster looked pretty bleak overall. Izzo and his team started the season 5-4, but to be fair, it was a very hard schedule to start the year. That 5-4 start just set the tone for that season. They had a nice 1-month stretch from December to January, winning 7 straight, but after that it was just Inconsistency, ending the Regular Season at 19-11 and exciting early in the Big Ten Tournament.
A solid Sweet 16 run in March upsetting 2nd seeded Marquette was big, but that was just one happy week until MSU lost to Kansas State in yet another winable game in the Sweet 16. That was a very odd year. Many thought that if MSU got past Kansas State, they could have beaten FAU, then SDSU, and really could have snuck to the Final Four and even to a National Championship appearance.
Yet another disaster
The next season was the major issue. Going into the new year, MSU was ranked 4th to start the year. Expectations were as high as ever. Fans were also as hungry as ever. A very elite incoming freshman student class and nearly everyone returned expecting forward Joey Hauser. This was a team people thought could win a National Championship.
James Madison came to East Lansing to open the season and that’s when the mess began. MSU started the season at 4-5 and 0-2 in Conference play and had a solid stench from January to early February, but then once it hit Mid-February, the team lost some more games. Going into March, morale and effort just weren’t like a Tom Izzo-coached team another close loss in the Big Ten Tournament occurred, which was also a big story of the year. The close losses were just disappointing that the team could not win a close game whatsoever.
The NCAA Tournament came around, and I bet all MSU fans remember that we got placed in the last region in the selection show and the nervousness was very scary. The thing was that MSU got put in the easiest region as a 9th seed and some were saying they were a dark house Final Four contender. Tom Izzo and his team cruised over Mississippi State in Round One and had a matchup against UNC, the weakest seed. That game ended up being a disaster, a double-digit lead just to lose by double digits and that was one of the final straws for some fans. After the game, plenty of people and MSU fans were calling for Izzo to retire and that he was past his prime. It’s safe to say he did not take that lightly. It was a quiet offseason once again and going into this season, fans just wanted a fun team that could win basketball games.
The New Beginning
After another Quiet offseason and a lot of uncertainty a new season began. MSU lost in the Champions Classic to Kansas, then went to Maui, beating Colorado but then losing to Memphis next. It was the last day in Maui and the Spartans had a rematch with North Carolina. Going into that game, I think it was a must-win. If they were to lose that game, the same stuff was going to happen as years prior, the morals would have dropped, and they would just be worrying about sneaking into the tournament once again. The thing was, MSU won that game in OT 94-91. That was the turning point. Once you had MSU getting a solid win over a good team and second, they closed out a close game, something the team couldn’t do in years prior. That win meant something, and it changed everything for the Spartans.
They would roll through December and January not losing a single game and just being dominant. They took a trip out west and would drop 2 games to UCLA and USC. That was when some questions began to be asked. After those 2 games, the stretch was daunting to end the year. They played a very bad first half vs Oregon but rallied to win, and then they dropped a bad one at home Vs Indiana. That was a game. Looking back at it now I am kind of glad we lost for 2 reasons. The first one was that we needed a wake-up call and probably needed to drop a home game. The second one was that it was about a week or so after Mike Woodson announced he was stepping down at the end of the year, and he was getting so trashed by the media that it was a big win for him and saved IU’s season.
After the Indiana loss, a daunting stretch loomed and a stretch that would determine how good this team was. Let’s just say they lived up to the challenge, winning at Illinois, Home Vs Purdue, at Michigan, at Maryland, then came home, took care of Business Vs Wisconsin, and now have clinched an outright Big Ten title after beating Iowa on Thursday evening. Who knows what will happen next month for Tom Izzo and MSU, but man does this Big Ten Title feel good, and I’m sure it especially feels good for Coach Izzo.
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Eli Saari
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