ATLANTA — On Sunday night, Michigan State got a big taste of what the Southeastern Conference had to deal with all season.
Auburn’s 6-10, 240-pound senior post man Johni Broome, still in the running for some national player of the year awards, dropped 25 points and 14 rebounds on the Spartans, helping end their season in the South Regional finals.
That’s nothing to be ashamed of — Broome, the SEC’s player of the year, had his way with the nation’s best league most of the season. Michigan State had just as tough a time dealing with him as 15 SEC teams did.
Despite the oh-so-close to the Final Four ending to this season, Michigan State and 70-year-old coach Tom Izzo accomplished what they typically do in the coach’s long and successful career. They won 30 games and the Big Ten regular-season title at 17-3. They won 13 Quad 1 games, second in the nation behind only Auburn’s 16. And they made Izzo’s 10th career trip to the Elite Eight.
This loss to Auburn was Izzo’s first loss to an SEC team in the NCAA Tournament in 10 games.
“I drained them of everything,” Izzo said after the game. “There’s nothing left in them. They should take a week off. That’s kind of the way it was in the locker room. It was a tear-jerking locker room. They spilled it all.
“We started out poorly and we just couldn’t recover. It wasn’t though lack of effort or anything except we played a good team. Broome hurt us early. All in all, this was the most unbelievable year I’ve had, the most connected year I’ve had. I just appreciate what these guys have done for myself, our program, and our university.”
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Michigan State lost twice in the first month of the season, to Kansas in the Champions Classic and to Memphis. The Spartans were 6-2 at that point and still not sure of how the season was going to play out. But an overtime win over North Carolina on Nov. 27 propelled them to a 13-game winning streak.
Michigan State fell victim to the expanded Big Ten’s travel schedule, losing a pair of close games at USC (Feb. 1) and UCLA (Feb. 4), but regrouped and lost just once more the rest of the regular season.
In Sunday’s post-game press conference, 6-9 junior forward Jaxon Kohler was asked how he felt in the final two minutes against Auburn, when defeat — and the end of a great season — was inevitable.
“Every player and coach in this program never gives up until there’s nothing left on the clock,” Kohler said. “Even though we got off to that bad start, we just kept fighting. That’s what’s so special about this group of guys. It’s very emotional…”
Kohler’s voice trailed off as tears began to flow. Freshman guard Jase Richardson, sitting next to him, put his arm around the big man’s shoulder. He composed himself and continued.
“I love everybody in this program,” Kohler said. “It’s been a hard journey. I loved these guys to death. I wish we could have gotten it done.”
Asked to answer the same question, Richardson talked of the program’s mantra – the will to win Izzo instills in his players.
“We’re never just gonna lay down and give up,” Richardson said. “That’s not the Spartan Way. In the last two minutes we just fought until the end. We didn’t come here to get embarrassed.”
Where do the Spartans go from here? Like every team in the country, there will be a bit of retooling. Richardson is probably bound for the NBA; he’s showing up as a lottery pick in most NBA mock drafts.
But a solid nucleus returns, and the Spartans signed two four-star, top 50-ish, 6-foot-7 forwards — Cam Ward from Largo High School in Upper Marlboro, Md., and Jordan Scott from South Lakes High School in Reston, Virginia.
As much as Izzo has railed against the NCAA’s transfer portal, there’s even a chance the Spartans are in the hunt for a major transfer. Once again, they’ll have to tangle with Auburn (along with Alabama, Providence, Louisville and many others) for 6-foot-6 guard Josh Dix, who averaged 14.4 points and shot 41.9 percent on 265 attempts for Iowa this season. He checked out after the school fired coach Fran McCaffery.
Izzo might not like the portal, and he might not use it that much, but he’s not going to ignore it to the detriment of his program.
“So, if people don’t think I can change with the times, I’ve changed with the times,” Izzo told the media last week. “If people think I’m gonna adjust to the principles, it’ll be a cold day in hell.”
