But it also was one of MSU’s worst seasons in MSU head coach Tom Izzo’s tenure. It was a team that never had the consistency, or chemistry, that so many successful Spartans teams in the past had.

A season that saw the Spartans ranked No. 2 in the preseason came to a merciful end Thursday night in a 78-76 loss to No. 7 seed UCLA in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

The Spartans rallied from a 23-point second-half deficit to cut it down to one, but as been the case for most of the season, it was too little, too late.

All season, the Spartans were never able to live up to the expectations put on them by fans and themselves. At Media Day, before the season began, players talked about “national championship or bust.”

They busted.

Yes, the Spartans gave themselves a chance in the final eight minutes of the game, but left no room for error as they found themselves in a 21-point hole.

But for all the negativity throughout the season, the Spartans never gave up. It wasn’t their fault Chris Allen and Korie Lucious got kicked off the team. It wasn’t their fault for all the injuries they had to deal with before the season and during the season.

But it was their fault they dug themselves a 23-point hole. It was their fault their season ended just one game into the tournament.

The game, and the season, were represented in the performance of the star and the leader: senior guard Kalin Lucas.

Lucas was scoreless for the first 32 minutes and the Bruins grabbed a 21-point lead on a breakaway dunk off a Lucas turnover.

But just like he had all season, Lucas didn’t quit – and neither did the Spartans. Lucas finished with 11 points, all scored in the final 7:45.

Coming back from the Achilles’ tendon injury suffered last season, Lucas fought back from something harder than any Spartan in recent memory. The fight, and end of the fight, were evident in the tears welling up in his face in the postgame presser.

Lucas finished four points shy of 2,000, but there’s no doubt he cemented his legacy as one of the best ever to wear the Green and White.

No one but Lucas can know what he had to go through with his injury and comeback. He said he likely would have left for the NBA after if the injury hadn’t happened. His NBA potential is up in the air, by no fault of his own.

Lucas gave everything he could to his teammates, coaches and fans for four fantastic years.

That is why it was so ironic that the attribute that gave him everything, his legs, were what ended his career: one extra step, which resulted in a traveling call and a defeat.

Lucas’ No. 1 should hang in the Breslin Center rafters one day. But that will be the only thing to go into Breslin’s rafters that involves the 2010-11 season.

It was a season with tremendous expectations. A season with exhilarating highs and “rock-bottom” lows.

A season that will be remembered for the failure to live up to said expectations, but it was a season that never seemed to quite go away when you thought it would.

Chris Vannini is a State News sports reporter. He can be reached at vanninic@msu.edu.