“Just seeing his passion for the game and how much he loved to play the game is just motivation for me to keep me going,” Lucious said of Walton.

“The love for the game that he has is just unreal. I’ve never seen somebody care so much for the game, and to get this done for him is something that’s always been on my mind.”

When the MSU men’s basketball team beat top-seeded Louisville 64-52 on Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, it ensured the streak of four-year MSU players going to the Final Four wouldn’t end with Walton.

As Lucious said, the determination he saw in Walton this season showed how much he wanted to play in the Final Four.

With Walton and the rest of the Spartans’ dream now a reality, Lucious and his fellow freshmen won’t be in the same boat as Walton three years from now.

They’re already in the Final Four. And they know how lucky they are.

“I feel fortunate to be in this position right now and I’m one of them, along with (forward Delvon Roe) and (forward Draymond Green),” Lucious said. “We’ve all been talking about it since before we got here. Last summer, last school year, our senior year (of high school). This has just been our main objective.”

On deck

While the Spartans and two other Final Four teams cut down the net after advancing to Detroit, Connecticut, which won national championships in 1999 and 2004, opted not to climb the ladder Saturday.

“The ultimate goal for all teams the first time is to get to the Final Four, and we did cut down the nets in 1999 for the Final Four,” Connecticut head coach Jim Calhoun said. “In 2004 we decided not to, and we kept that tradition alive. We have bigger fish to fry, and we want to cut down the nets Monday.”

If the Huskies are to get to the NCAA Championship game, they’ll have to do it with a couple of lightly banged-up players. Center Hasheem Thabeet bruised his left hand in Saturday’s 82-75 win over Missouri. Calhoun said Thabeet has a “pretty good-sized contusion,” which might affect him in the next couple practices, but not come game time.

Calhoun also said forward Jeff Adrien would probably sit out Monday’s practice with tendinitis, although he should be perfectly fine for Saturday’s game.