MSU head coach Tom Izzo said Tuesday at his weekly press conference that junior guard Kalin Lucas underwent surgery on the ruptured Achilles tendon in his left leg on Tuesday. Izzo said the surgery went “very well” and he hopes Lucas will be able to make the trip to Indianapolis this weekend to watch the Spartans in the Final Four.
“I talked to his mom and dad and his mood was great because he’s still sleeping,” said Izzo, who planned to visit Lucas in the hospital on Tuesday. “Kalin went through a tough time down there the last day, the night before the game. I think everything started to hit home.
“There were a few tears and I think, as he said to me later, there’s a reason for this and I’m going to be better in the long run.”
Lucas suffered the injury late in the first half of the Spartans’ second-round win against Maryland in Spokane, Wash. He was the Spartans’ leading scorer with 14.8 points per game and was named to First-Team All-Big Ten for the second straight year.
Sophomore guard Korie Lucious has filled in for the Spartans in their return trip to the Final Four in Lucas’ absence.
“To watch (Lucas) talk to Korie, to watch him lay in that room at halftime of the Maryland game, to listen to him on the bench — what he said to me in the last couple games and how he’s handling it — and to watch them lift him up and see a smile on his face even though there were tears in his eyes kind of says it all,” Izzo said. “It’s kind of why you coach. It’s just like raising a kid. You have those moments where you say, ‘Wow, he gets it.’ It’s worth all the crap you go through, believe me.”
The Spartans (28-8) will play Butler (32-4) at 6:07 p.m. Saturday at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
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