Going back to the shot by Sparks. I say the officials made the right decision on calling it a three. To end someone's season like that would be disgraceful. But also, there could have easily been a foul called on that shot. He drew a lot of contact. Izzo coached a great game. Two Big Ten teams in the Final Four. And people said they were weak.
great game this game was amazing to watch and is an instant classic. As a whole these were probably the best group fo elite 8 games ever. 3 overtimes!! 2 huge leads erased!! All the games within 8 points!! good times, good times
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The Senior leadership of the Spartans was the difference in this game over the Kentucky rookies.</div> It's amazing, when these Seniors came in, the expectations were really high. I have seen them all in Sports Illustrated and NBADraft.Net's lottery or really damn close to it at one time or another. Kelvin Torbert could have been a top three pick out of High School, as the High School Player of the Year. Chris Hill could have been a first rounder, as Mr. Basketball in Indiana, and then later when he upped his stock I saw him in a lot of top 10's. Alan Anderson came into Michigan State as a solid recruit but not someone who could jump to the pro's, although after a killer first two seasons his stock moved up to the lottery. The irony of this all is that they all have really poor draft stock right now, just because they stayed in college. However, I'm very proud of them. I remember their first games like it was just yesterday. This group was the first group of Michigan State Seniors that I followed all the way from their Freshmen seasons to their Senior Seasons (I'm not counting Zach Randolph and Marcus Taylor's class... those bastards). Overall, this team is just too overloaded with talent and these Seniors get underappreciated way too much because of that. Don't look over the efforts that Shannon Brown, Maurice Ager, and Paul Davis had though. They were probably the three best Michigan State players in this game. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">All the Seniors on the Spartans team came up with one big play after another, except Chris Hill (shoot the ball Chris you have an amazing stroke!)</div> You have no idea how much Chris Hill frustrates me. It seems like his talent (as well as draft stock) peaked in the middle of his Sophomore season. He exceeded my expectations his Freshman year, got even better his Sophomore year, and then somewhere during that Elite 8 run his game kind of tailed off. He was still very solid as a Junior, but he's never really played to his full potential. He is easily one of our five best three point shooters of all-time, if not <u>the</u> best, yet he's something like 1-15 in the tournament from three. I just don't know where his head is right now. I remember when he came in as a Freshman we were seriously lacking a point guard (thanks to Marcus Taylor, who I think ever MSU fan would love to see rot in the NBDL). As a result of Taylor's stupidity, Hill was forced to play the point guard all four of his years at Michigan State despite being a natural small forward. That is probably one of the main causes for his poor performances. Anyway, he did make the NCAA All-Academic team though, so you know that if he doesn't make the NBA (which he's probably only going to be a late second rounder at best... and that seems less and less likely as this tournament progresses) then he at least has a solid degree to fall back on (I believe he's a Finance major, but I could be wrong).
Props to all those Seniors for getting an education and fine tuning their skills instead of running for the Benjamin's the first chance they got. Just had to be said.
What a job Izzo done has Pure mentioned. For him to coax his team to the Final Four is pretty darn good. Tough loss for Kentucky, but they got nothing to hang their heads at.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Timberwolf:</div><div class="quote_post">What a job Izzo done has Pure mentioned. For him to coax his team to the Final Four is pretty darn good. Tough loss for Kentucky, but they got nothing to hang their heads at.</div> Exactly! Tubby has worked his butt off to get this team where it was, and I'm really surprised we really made it this far after losing three starters and then replacing them with two freshman and a transfer. So, this loss was upsetting, but you gotta think of all the good things we did!
Theres not much you can do when state hits 75% in the second half. The experience did help for MSU. If you watched the replay about 75 times (they showed it enough) you not only saw he was behind the line, but he was also fouled. I dont expect them to call that though. The huge turning point was when UK was up by 4 and couldnt get a rebound, that hurt them tremendously, also when morris went for the block instead of the box out on davis in the 2nd ot, but it should have never got there, if rondo or azubuike would have gotten a shot off, uk had the game, and the momentum.
