The Michigan State Spartans concluded a very successful season just over a week ago. They rode a two-seed past the defending champions, the top overall seed, and a supremely talented Connecticut squad before falling to the obvious best team in the nation, the NCAA champion Tar Heels.
After a brief rest, the Spartans will eventually get back to work in East Lansing, and it won't be a rebuilding project. It will be a reloading one. They did lose Goran Suton, Travis Walton and Marquise Gray to graduation, but there's plenty left for Tom Izzo to make another Final Four run -- one that would be his sixth in the past 12 years.
Somewhere in Michigan State's middle-class brand of Michigan hope and mixed martial basketball, and North Carolina's mechanized cavalry of an offensive attack, there may be a similarity or two lurking somewhere.
But you've got about as good a chance of finding it as you do spotting an opposing fan in Ford Field's South Pacific of Spartan green.
These two teams couldn't be more different if one of them came out in shoulder pads.
And, with Tom Izzo, who invited Vikings' offensive line coach Pat Morris speak to his team before Saturday night's win, and whose teams always play like it's fourth-and-goal from the one, that could very well be the case.
Rebound. Make the shooters beat you. Rebound. Make Thabeet roam. Rebound.
These are the five keys for Michigan State if it's to win its Final Four game. The most important are the first, third and fifth, but Nos. 2 and No. 4 could make the difference if the game is close.
Connecticut has only lost four games this year. One was in six overtimes, so we're going to throw that out. The other three all offer clues on how to beat the Huskies.
From an individual standpoint, this season has been an absolute nightmare for Raymar Morgan. The Michigan State junior came into the season with a chance to get into lottery pick position, as long as his game kept progressing.
Instead, he regressed.
Every regular statistic across the board is down for Morgan this year. He averaged 14 points a game as a sophomore. Since January 17 this season, he's only gotten 5.5 a night. If you would have told Tom Izzo coming into the season he'd be heading to the Final Four with this low of an offensive output from Morgan, he would have thought you were nuts.
Tom Izzo has coached the Michigan State Spartans for the past 15 seasons. It took him two years to get the program where he wanted it. In those last 13 seasons, they have gone to the NCAA Tournament all 13 times, the Sweet 16 eight times, the Elite Eight six times and the Final Four five times. He's never coached a player for four years without taking him to a Final Four. That's as impressive a resume as anyone in college basketball has.
Yet, if you asked non-Big Ten fans to rank the four coaches in this year's Final Four, he'd likely come in third place -- behind Jim Calhoun and Roy Williams -- for most of them.
No, it was most certainly not pretty. Until the second half of the final minute, Michigan State never looked like it had this won. It had trouble all night finding somebody other than Goran Suton to give them any consistent scoring, and in the first half Kansas beat the Spartans at their own game -- pushing them around on the boards.
But while Kansas proved to be a more worthy defending champion than anybody imagined it'd be, Michigan State has more.
After a horrifying stretch where it dropped six of seven games, USC caught fire at the right time of the season. They won five straight games, including a Pac-10 tournament championship, to close out the regular season. They followed that up with a very decisive beatdown of Boston College (from the vaunted ACC) Friday in their NCAA Tournament opener.
Sunday, Michigan State finally put an end to the impressive Trojan streak. The teams traded leads for much of the very physical contest, but the depth of Michigan State propelled them to victory.
When it comes to the Big Ten, there are a few tiers of similar teams. Illinois and Purdue are similar. Iowa and Indiana are similarly bad. There's a big amoeba in the middle where every team is on the bubble. Then, you are left with Michigan State. They are in a class all by themselves.
Sunday we received another reminder, as they turned Purdue away despite a sub-par shooting performance.The pressure defense and the quick-paced offense were just too much for the Boilers.
The Michigan State Spartans concluded a very successful season just over a week ago. They rode a two-seed past the defending champions, the top overall seed, and a supremely talented Connecticut squad before falling to the obvious best team in the nation, the NCAA champion Tar Heels. 
Somewhere in Michigan State's middle-class brand of Michigan hope and mixed martial basketball, and North Carolina's mechanized cavalry of an offensive attack, there may be a similarity or two lurking somewhere. 
From an individual standpoint, this season has been an absolute nightmare for 
No, it was most certainly not pretty. Until the second half of the final minute, Michigan State never looked like it had this won. It had trouble all night finding somebody other than 
After a horrifying stretch where it dropped six of seven games, USC caught fire at the right time of the season. They won five straight games, including a Pac-10 tournament championship, to close out the regular season. They followed that up with a very decisive beatdown of Boston College (from the vaunted ACC) Friday in their NCAA Tournament opener. 
When it comes to the Big Ten, there are a few tiers of similar teams. Illinois and Purdue are similar. Iowa and Indiana are similarly bad. There's a 
