MSU was picked apart like they hadn’t been all season in a first half that likened itself to a 16-seed versus a one-seed rather than a 5-seed picked to have a chance at upsetting a top team in the country.

For the Spartans, there were air-balls, traveling calls and players falling all over the floor. For the Tigers? Ball rotation, tight defense and slam-dunk contest-type slams.

“The only player that had played in this type of game before was Drew (Neitzel),” MSU coach Tom Izzo said. “The better team won. It kind of got out of hand so quickly.”

Neitzel, MSU’s senior guard, had six points and seven assists in his last game as a Spartan, while junior center Goran Suton led the Green and White with 23 and freshman guard Chris Allen had a career-high 20. Memphis guard Derrick Rose had a career-high 27 points.

It was a “don’t look now” kind of spectacle early, as Memphis quickly doubled the Spartans scoring total, 12-6 by the first television timeout. The Tigers simply didn’t waste possessions, scoring on nearly every single one – with a field goal percentage in the 60 and 70 percent range for the first half, leading to a runaway 50-20 halftime score.

‘MSU is a really good team,’ Memphis guard Chris Douglas-Roberts said. “They’re really good and there’s nothing bad about them, we just played really good basketball in the first half. I haven’t been involved in a first half like this anywhere. We really played out of our minds in that one.”

MSU did come out of the second half inspired, taking a 17-0 to narrow the Memphis lead to 17 and as little as 14, but as Memphis led by as much as 34, it was not nearly enough.

And as for the much talked about Tigers free-throw shooting woes, the Tigers could have afforded to miss a few more. They shot 26-for-35 from the line, for a percentage (74.3) well above their season average (59.2).

Memphis advances to face Texas on Sunday for a trip to the Final Four in San Antonio, while the Spartans look ahead to next season, when they will return all but two players – Neitzel and senior center Drew Naymick.

“It’s been a great ride,” Neitzel said. “I’m so thankful and so blessed for the opportunities I’ve had – to wear this uniform for four years. You never want it to end, but it has to sometime. I’ve learned a lot from Coach Izzo, learned a lot from my teammates and played with some great players.”
_
For more coverage of the game, see Neitzel scores 6 points in last MSU game