Morgan had 18 points and nine rebounds as the Spartans defeated Connecticut 82-73 Saturday night at Ford Field to advance to Monday’s national championship game.

“It feels great,” said Morgan, who shot 7-for-13 from the field.

“(MSU head coach Tom Izzo) just supported me and just kept telling me to keep on pushing and keep on working.”

Throughout Morgan’s struggles early in the tournament, Izzo insisted he hadn’t lost faith in Morgan, despite the 6-foot-8 forward averaging less than six points and three rebounds in the tournament’s first four games.

Aside from his shooting struggles, Morgan also suffered a broken nose against Kansas and was dogged by foul trouble throughout the first two weeks, leaving him visibly upset with himself.

Saturday, however, was an entirely different story.

Prior to MSU’s last pre-game team meeting Saturday, Izzo pulled Morgan into the shower room of the Spartans’ locker room, where told Morgan to let the game come to him.

The game came to Morgan quickly, as he scored five of MSU’s first 12 points. He also played relentless defense, forcing UConn forward Stanley Robinson to commit five turnovers, and went hard to the glass throughout the game.

“He knows he’s a good player, he knows he’s been through a tough time,” Izzo said. “I think he did the little things today — he was bear on the boards. He got some great offensive rebounds.”

All season long, Izzo and the rest of the Spartans spoke of Morgan’s basketball IQ and instincts, which were on full display Saturday. He stripped UConn players numerous times — ending with five steals — and often kick-started a big play with his defense, none bigger than sophomore guard Durrell Summers’ late dunk over Robinson.

One reason for Morgan’s struggles against Louisville — aside from the foul issues — was the “hockey”-like mask he had to wear. Once the team got back to East Lansing, he was able to get a custom-fit mask, which he said was much more comfortable and didn’t impeded his vision nearly as much.

With a new mask came a new personality and Izzo said he was thrilled to see Morgan finally break out of his slump.

“He was our best player,” Izzo said. “I knew we didn’t have to reinvent the wheel, we just had to go back and find a way to get him to remember it. … I’m really happy for Raymar. As you can tell, I think the rest of the guys are too.”

As for his promise to “show the world what they have been missing,” senior guard Travis Walton said there’s a lot more where Saturday’s performance came from.

“He can get better, he can do a lot better things,” Walton said. “He had a great game today, he stepped up for us big-time. I’m pretty sure people were talking to him and I know we were talking to him, but we believed in Raymar. We knew what he could.”