FanHouse KorieLucious

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.

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.

When Tom Izzo told CBS he didn't believe his Spartans were worthy of a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, he apparently knew what he was talking about. Though they headed into the game with a realistic shot at a top seed, Michigan State was worked over, especially in the second half, by Ohio State in Indianapolis Saturday.

In fact, the Spartans looked bad enough that their previous hold on a No. 2 seed could now be in danger. They came into the game with a lofty RPI (fourth), but you could easily argue there are eight better teams right now.

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