Detroit — Before the start of Monday’s game, North Carolina guard Wayne Ellington said he and MSU senior guard Travis Walton were immersed in some friendly trash talk. As soon as the ball was tipped, Ellington was anything but friendly.
Detroit — Travis Walton had it all figured out. The MSU senior guard was going to climb the ladder and cut down the Ford Field net with “One Shining Moment” playing in the background on Monday night, celebrating the 2009 NCAA national championship. Instead, it was North Carolina and Tyler Hansbrough who lived Walton’s dream, as the Tar Heels beat the MSU men’s basketball team 89-72.
As he trudged off the court for the final game of his sophomore season, Kalin Lucas looked ruefully into a colossal sea of green. His head bowed and shoulders slumped, the guard looked like he had done much more than lose a basketball game — he looked like he had just let down the world.
Spartans celebrated somberly following the MSU men’s basketball team’s loss to North Carolina in the NCAA national championship game on Monday night. A police-estimated crowd of about 1,700 people gathered in Cedar Village around midnight, shouting and celebrating in cold, damp weather. By the end of the night, 21 people were arrested citywide on various charges, East Lansing police Chief Tom Wibert said.
Same two teams. Same venue. Same sad story for the MSU men’s basketball team. Four months after thumping the Spartans by 35 points at Ford Field, North Carolina came back to the Motor City on Monday night and reaffirmed that it is the best team in the nation, as the Tar Heels throttled MSU 89-72 to claim the 2009 NCAA national championship.
Detroit – As the Spartans left halftime down more than 20 points, the mood outside Ford Field was somber and disappointing among fans. Compared to Saturday’s crowd of some 5,000 fans, not many fans were gathered outside the arena tonight. A couple dozen were seen leaving Ford Field at halftime, with about 100 people mingling outside.
A crowd of about 9,000 fans gathered at Breslin Center for a special viewing party tonight to watch the men’s basketball team vie for the national title against North Carolina via a video feed from Detroit.
After watching North Carolina embarrass MSU during the ACC-Big Ten Challenge in December, I left Ford Field absolutely convinced of two things. 1) The Tar Heels would be back here for the national championship game. 2) They wouldn’t be playing MSU. Hey, one-for-two ain’t too shabby.
Tom Izzo is a realist. The MSU men’s basketball head coach knows that if both MSU and North Carolina play “good” in tonight’s NCAA national championship game, then the trophy is going to the Tar Heels. “That’s the way I look at it,” Izzo said at his press conference on Sunday at Ford Field. “I mean, I don’t look at that in the negative. They are the best team in the country, and have been that. (They) have earned that rank probably over a year and a half. But we found a way to have some teams not play as good against us.”
Among the tens of thousands of MSU fans who flocked to Detroit this weekend for the Final Four, there were thousands of alumni and even a few connected with the MSU men’s basketball program.
The road ends here. The Final Four’s catchphrase holds true tonight in Detroit when the No. 2-seed MSU men’s basketball (31-6) team will meet No. 1-seed North Carolina (33-4) in the national championship game at 9:21 p.m. at Ford Field.
Call it fate. Call it destiny. Call it kismet. All those adjectives will be applicable Monday night, when the MSU men’s basketball team get a second chance to take down North Carolina at Ford Field.
Bryan Tibaldi never made it to the NCAA national championship as a player. But sitting in the corner of a Ford Field locker room on Sunday, the former MSU walk-on turned graduate manager was doing everything he could to make sure his first trip to college basketball’s biggest stage was going to be a success.
Throughout the postseason, MSU senior center Goran Suton has opened a lot of eyes with his offensive versatility. However, it’s Suton’s talent on defense that could play a much bigger role tonight in the national championship game against North Carolina.
One win would give North Carolina the 2009 national championship. It would also give its eight-man senior class — which includes Marcus Ginyard, Bobby Frasor, Danny Green and Tyler Hansbrough — 124 career wins, the most of any class in North Carolina history.
When asked to compare his team to North Carolina, MSU men’s basketball head coach Tom Izzo didn’t sugarcoat his feelings. “If we play good and they play good, we’re losing,” Izzo said during a press conference Sunday at Ford Field. “That’s the way I look at it.”
Detroit — After weeks of operating incognito, the man behind the mask finally revealed his true identity. And he couldn’t have picked a better time — or a bigger stage — to do it.
Detroit — Sophomore guards Chris Allen and Durrell Summers were scoreless in the first half. So was senior center Goran Suton. But the MSU men’s basketball team was beating Connecticut on Saturday night in the national semifinals and once again the Spartans proved why no single player is the face of the team.
Detroit — At the first NCAA Tournament press conference in Minneapolis, Raymar Morgan told reporters he was going to show the world what they had been missing. It took him five games to deliver on his statement, but it was well worth the wait for the junior forward and the MSU men’s basketball team.
Detroit — As the final seconds ticked down, the dancing began in downtown Detroit. MSU fans of all ages embraced and cheered as their Spartans moved into the national championship with a 82-73 victory over Connecticut.