There is a harsh truth about that NCAA Tournament and the post season of virtually all organized sports. Of the 68 teams that celebrated their presence in the bracket on Selection Sunday, 67 of those team are going to lose before the tournament reaches its end.
That mean that there will be 67 frustrated fan bases, 67 disappointed coaching staffs, and 67 tear-filled locker rooms.
”Somebody's gonna go home sad,” said Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo on Sunday night. “Today, it's the Spartans. Next Saturday it'll be two more teams. Next Monday, it will be one more team.”
The 2024-25 Spartan season began with lower than normal expectations in East Lansing. Michigan State was unranked in November, and was picked to finish fifth in the Big Ten.
In the first month of the season, the Spartans took a loss to Memphis in Maui and a loss to Kansas, ironically in the the same building in Atlanta where the season ultimately came to an end.
On Sunday night, Izzo admitted that after the loss to Kansas he did not believe that his team would blossom into Big Ten Champions, not lose a game for two full months, and end up being one of the final five team left standing in late March.
At the time, Izzo was more worried about just winning the next game. He was honestly concerned that the NCAA Tournament streak might be in jeopardy.
“I didn't feel very good about where we were,” he said.
But “Mr. March” has a way of wringing the best out of his most overlooked rosters. This year was a classic example. When tipoff approached on Sunday night in Atlanta in the South Regional Final against the No. 1 Auburn Tigers, Izzo’s ninth Final Four appeared within reach.
Alas, it was not meant to be.
In many ways, Michigan State did a lot of the things that they needed to do to beat Auburn. The Spartans’ x-factor power forward, Jaxon Kohler, posted an impressive double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds. It was a bounce-back performance for Kohler after he had struggling earlier in the tournament.
Auburn star center and player-of-the-year candidate Johni Broome scored 25 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, but the Spartans generally held the rest of the Auburn offense in check. The Spartans held the No. 3 team in offensive efficiency to just 70 points, 13.2 below their season average.
“If you would have told me that we would have hold those guards to 20-some percent from three, I (would have) thought we had a great chance to win the game," Izzo said.
As a team, Auburn shot just 28% from deep in the win over Michigan State. Broome was 2-for-2 despite shooting only 28% from three on the season. The rest of the Tigers shot just 5-for-23 (22%) from three.
While Izzo cited a few defensive breakdowns and turnovers as some of the reasons for the loss, Michigan State simply failed to score enough points, especially at the rim. Auburn’s length and defensive presence in the paint seemed to get into the heads of the Michigan State players.
“I thought we just panicked a little bit, which I'm a little surprised at,” Izzo said. “We made some mental mistakes, and we did it with some guys that are pretty intelligent.”
Izzo also pointed out that no one on the roster had advanced this far before in the Tournament. Jaden Akins logged 37 minutes in Michigan State’s 2023 Sweet Sixteen loss to Kansas State. Carson Cooper, Tre Holloman, and Kohler also made brief appearances, but that's all. It’s possible that the pressure and the moment were just too big, especially for a team that starts two freshman guards.
“We didn't do the little things that really mattered,” Izzo said.
Michigan State found themselves playing from behind for the fourth time in four games in the NCAA Tournament. Despite falling behind be as many as 15 points less than 10 minutes into the game, the Spartans were able to cut deficit down to five points once before half time and once again just after the break.
But every time it looked like the Spartans might be able to seize momentum and potentially stage another comeback win, Michigan State made a critical error, failed to execute, or Auburn simply made a good play to respond.
That’s what Final Four and championship caliber teams do. In the final analysis of this year’s loaded tournament field, Michigan State was just a half-step back of that level.
”(Today's loss) wasn't through lack of effort,” Izzo said. “It wasn't through lack of anything, except we played a good team… I think we lost because they played better than we did.”
After the clock hit all zeros and as the Auburn players and coaches celebrated on the court, the Michigan State coaches and player displayed a range of emotions as the gravity of the finality of the season began to take hold. Izzo made sure that the first words to come out of his mouth after the game were to thank his visibly emotional players.
"I am not sure I've ever been prouder of a team," he said. "These guys gave me everything they had. I drained them of everything... All in all, (this has been) the most unbelievable year I've had, the most connected year I've had. I just appreciate what these guys did for myself, our program, our university, and our community."
There were a lot of tears in the press conference and in the locker room on Sunday night. There always are in a game of this magnitude. But on some level, Izzo saw the positive in the way that his players responded to the loss. People only cry when they truly care about something, someone, or a group of someones.
"If you've been in the locker room, there's some locker rooms that people are bitching and complaining, and there's some locker rooms where people are crying and hugging," he explained. "It was a crying and hugging locker room (tonight), and that means we had something special. I'm going to appreciate that."
The players on Michigan State's roster were experiencing a new level of disappointment. But Izzo has experienced this type of pain 26 times before. While he certainly still feels it, he also knows how to keep it in perspective, especially considering how many good days this team had.
"(These players) did some things that no teams of ours have done," he said. "To win our league as good as it was by three games, yeah, two days from now, I will sit back and say 'Wow. It's pretty awesome,' But I just don't get to feel that way today."
After Izzo got some of his initial feelings off of his chest, he started to shift into a more retrospective mood. He has seen and experienced almost every aspect of the game of college basketball. But there was something about this group of players that according to Izzo has re-upped his faith in humanity.
"It reinvigorated me to realize that there's still people out there that care about winning," he said. "(They) care about getting better and care about playing for the school they're at and care about playing with the players they're with. In this day and age, that is rewarding, that is exciting, that is invigorating."
For Michigan State basketball fans, a reinvigorated Tom Izzo is perhaps the best possible result to come out of this weekend and this season. Because another painful lesson that the NCAA Tournament teaches is that there is a certain fragility to college sports.
"Maybe we'll get another chance next year and maybe we won't," Izzo explained. "I've learned that you've got to take advantage... you never know if you'll get another chance. And I think that's the hardest thing."
Tom Izzo turned 70 years old back in January. While we seems to have no plans to retire in the near future, there are only so many bites at the apple left for him. For players like Akins, Frankie Fidler, and Szymon Zapala, they have suited up for the Spartans for the final time.
Yes, the tournament is fragile. Future success is never guaranteed. The 2024-25 Spartans seemed to possess a special type of recipe for success. But once one or two ingredients are removed, the magic could be lost and the cake might not rise. The future is uncertain.
"That's what's so sad about today," Izzo said. "I don't know who's going to get a hold of the kids. I don't know who's upset and who's not upset? Winning cures a lot of evils."
But Izzo seems optimistic the that current culture of the program will be strong enough to carry over into next year and beyond. He noted that the way his players responded the loss -- their disappointment and blaming themselves for the things that they could have done better -- is a sigh that the culture will stay strong.
"I watched it," he said. "It wasn't phony. Tears aren't phony."
With so many players expected to return next year, the experience gained in this tournament can be a stepping stone to even greater success in the years to come. They were 40 minutes away from the Final Four. Now that they have a taste, they are going to want more.
Izzo recalled that's the way it was at the beginning of his career as well.
"It was (Mateen) Cleaves after we got beat in the Sweet 16 (in 1998) who said 'we're coming back here,' Izzo recalled. "Then we got beat in the Final Four (in 1999), and he said, 'we're coming back again.'"
Cleaves made good on his promise to return the Final Four in 2000. The trophy case in Breslin Center holds the proof. There is still plenty of space to add to the collection. With a little bit of luck, and a little bit more magic from Mr. March, the next iteration of Michigan State basketball might just have the ingredients to make it happen.
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