No. 2 MSU came into the Big Ten Tournament championship game Sunday with speculation that a win could earn MSU a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, especially with both Villanova and Virginia losing Saturday night in respective conference championship games.
The NCAA Tournament selection committee had other plans, though, as it awarded Virginia in the Midwest, North Carolina in the East, Oregon in the West and Kansas in the South as the four No. 1 seeds for the NCAA Tournament.
It was announced just as MSU head coach Tom Izzo’s press conference was ending that MSU had been selected as a No. 2 seed in the Midwest region. Senior forward Matt Costello said the team was not bothered by not getting a No. 1 seed and the players were focused in on their ultimate goal of winning a championship.
“As far as the one seed — it is what it is,” Costello said. “That was out of our control, we took care of what we could take care of and we know we have more goals ahead of us. So we’re going to enjoy this win for a little bit, but we have some work to do.”
Izzo said he does not feel like he has a chip on his shoulder after missing out on a No. 1 seed. He said he feels all the No. 1 seeds were deserving and he is excited for the NCAA Tournament.
“I really don’t think I’ll look at it as a chip on my shoulder,” Izzo said. “I really don’t. I’ve been through so many things so it will be fun to listen to my AD (Mark Hollis) on how everything went down. But I mean, Virginia is very deserving, Kansas is very deserving, North Carolina’s very deserving and probably Oregon is. I don’t get to see them very much.”
After the announcement of the No. 1 seeds, Izzo decided to skip watching the rest of the selection show in order to meet with the media sooner so the team could get back to East Lansing as early as possible.
MSU at 29-5 has the best record of all the No. 2 seeds and has a better record than three of the four No. 1 seeds.
Despite this, Izzo said he was not concerned about the seeding because like officiating or injuries, the team had no control over the outcome.
Izzo also said he wasn’t concerned with the seeding because if MSU advances it will end up playing the best teams regardless.
“I’m not even going to worry about that,” Izzo said. “I might be bummed tomorrow, maybe, I doubt it, but I am going to enjoy (the win) — I don’t do this much. I love George Perles, he was kind of a mentor when I got to Michigan State, as we all know, he has the 24-hour rule — mourn a loss for 24-hours, celebrate a win. These guys deserve to feel good about it.”
Izzo said MSU made some critical mistakes which cost the team a Big Ten regular season title, and was excited for his players for being able to bounce back and earn the Big Ten Tournament title.
MSU junior guard Eron Harris said the players learned a lot about themselves this weekend and thinks not having a No. 1 seed will keep the team focused and working as hard as it can to reach its goal of a national championship.
“We learned that we have fighters on our team,” Harris said. “We’ve got guys that really want to win. But that’s nothing new for Michigan State. Michigan State is the base, the root of what we are is winners, is competitors and that’s what we got.
“We want to continue to just win,” he said. “We want to win the national championship and when we win the national championship, there’s nothing else to be said.”
No. 2 seed MSU (29-5) will take on the No. 15 seed Middle Tennessee State (24-9) in St. Louis on Friday.
If MSU wins, it will face the either No. 7 seed Dayton (25-7) or No. 10 seed Syracuse (19-13) on Sunday.
