ST. LOUIS (AP) — Don’t bet against Tom Izzo and Michigan State this time of year.
Raymar Morgan’s free throw with less than 2 seconds gave the Spartans a 70-69 victory over Tennessee in the Midwest Regional final Sunday, sending Michigan State to its sixth Final Four in 12 years and second in a row.
No team in the country — not North Carolina, not Kentucky, not UCLA — has done it better during that span. And all six trips have come under Izzo, the hard-nosed coach who preaches defense, rebounding and physical play.
“I like it more than I used to,” Izzo said of playing in March. “It’s even better than I thought.”
Oh, and how’s this for some symmetry? This happens to be the 10th anniversary of the “Flintstones,” the team that gave Michigan State its second national title. Highlights from that run were included in the video montage of past championships that played on the Edward Jones Dome’s massive JumboTron during halftime.
The Spartans, last year’s national runner-up, will be looking for championship No. 3 next weekend in Indianapolis. They play Butler, sure to be the hometown favorite, in the semifinals Saturday night.
The fifth-seeded Spartans (28-8) led by as many as eight in the second half, but Brian Williams pulled Tennessee within 69-68 on a putback with 2:10 left. Korie Lucious, who took over as point guard after 2009 Big Ten player of the year Kalin Lucas ruptured his Achilles’ tendon last weekend, missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 29 seconds left and Scotty Hopson got the rebound.
Hopson was fouled at the other end, and made the first. But after a Michigan State timeout, he missed the second and Lucious — generously listed at 5-foot-11 — ended up with the rebound.
Draymond Green fed the ball inside to Morgan, who got hacked by J.P. Prince with 1.8 seconds left. Morgan made the first and, after timeouts by both teams, missed the second — on purpose. Williams came up with the rebound, but Prince fumbled the inbounds pass and had to heave up a prayer just before the buzzer.
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