Déjà Blue
Tar Heels stomp Spartans 89-72; MSU falls one win short of third NCAA title
Senior guard Travis Walton takes directions from head coach Tom Izzo during the Spartans’ 89-72 loss to North Carolina on Monday night at Ford Field in Detroit.
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Detroit — 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.
“They played well and I guess I was disappointed,” MSU head coach Tom Izzo said. “We turned it over early, we missed some shots early and we didn’t check very well. They got off to that 24-7 lead and that’s the way it stayed. We couldn’t really dig into it.”
Senior center Goran Suton led MSU with 17 points and 11 rebounds, while sophomore guard Kalin Lucas scored 14 points and had seven assists. Sophomore guard Durrell Summers had 13 points for the Spartans, who finished with a record of 31-7.
The fifth national championship in North Carolina history solidified the decision of the Tar Heels’ group of Wayne Ellington, Danny Green, Tyler Hansbrough and Ty Lawson to hold off the NBA for one more season.
Lawson led North Carolina (34-4) with 21 points and six assists, along with a title game-record eight steals. Ellington, who was named the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player, had 19 points, while Hansbrough added 18.
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“I thought about how hard we worked,” Ellington said in a televised interview before a national audience after the game. “We’ve been working so hard since last year when we fell short. We wanted to redeem ourselves. I’m proud of all my teammates and my coaches. It feels great.”
Recalling the Dec. 3 debacle, Izzo said earlier in the weekend that if the Spartans and Tar Heels both played “good,” North Carolina would win by 20 points. Unfortunately for Izzo, the Spartans didn’t even get to test his theory as the game was all but over in the first half.
By the time the under-16 minute media timeout was called, the Tar Heels had a 10-point lead, 17-7, thanks in part to five MSU turnovers and North Carolina making six of its first seven shots. A Hansbrough leaner in the lane midway through the first half put North Carolina up by 20. When the two teams headed into the locker room at halftime, North Carolina had sprinted out to a 55-34 lead, setting NCAA title game records for largest halftime lead and most points in a half.
“Usually when you face a team in a tournament there’s a weakness among the five players, where you can sag off or do something else, but in North Carolina, all five players can do something,” Suton said of the Tar Heels, who shot 52.9 percent in the first half. “It was tough to help (on defense) and I think we got caught up in trying to stick to our man. I think we lost the game in the first 10 minutes when they hit pretty much every shot.”
The closest MSU would come was 13 with about five minutes remaining.
The Spartans finished with 21 turnovers — their third-highest total of the season, topped only by MSU’s regular season losses to North Carolina and Purdue. North Carolina committed seven turnovers, and scored 25 points off MSU’s miscues.
“The turnovers were the big key,” Izzo said. “To have 14 turnovers in the first half on a team that doesn’t really press hurt us a little bit.”
Senior guard Travis Walton said despite the loss, the Spartans should remember they were one of two teams playing in the season’s final game.
“Even though we didn’t play our best it’s a blessing we got here,” Walton said. “Nobody even thought we’d be in this position, to be playing for a national championship, and we’re not going to drop our heads because we’ve done an unbelievable job.”
Commentary
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lol
(04/06/09 11:59pm)Report
pathetic play, they got too cocky and that whole “Its the destiny” crap ruined everything. Spartans need endless hours of practice in shooting 2 pointers.
peng
(04/07/09 12:00am)Report
GO GREEN! GO WHITE!!!
Go Green Go White
(04/07/09 12:08am)Report
It was a good run. Good job Spartans.
J Colt
(04/07/09 12:11am)Report
Thanks for bringing us so many surprisingly pleasant moments in the tournament! We love our great team! Let’s shoot it for next year. Go State!
Mark
(04/07/09 12:11am)Report
Be proud of the run. And no riots, seriously.
Curious George
(04/07/09 12:11am)Report
Any “rioting” going on?
james
(04/07/09 12:20am)Report
I don’t care what the final score was. We are winners! lol you need to GROW UP! I could use a lot stronger language, but then I would be stooping to your infantile, vindictive level
Bleed Green
(04/07/09 12:24am)Report
Thank you, Coach Izzo, Goran Suton, Travis Walton, Kalin Lucas, Raymar Morgan, Delvon Roe and the rest of the incredible Spartan team. You had an amazing run and I’m proud to be a Spartan. You represented us with class. Fellow Spartans, please keep East Lansing in one piece tonight. GO GREEN!
faithful
(04/07/09 12:49am)Report
Pretty disappointed with the outcome but this season was a huge success. We weren’t picked to win the Big Ten and we won by an amazing 4 games. We were underrated throughout the entire tournament, picked to lose as early as the first round (Yea fuckk you Hubert Davis) and not once favored passed that first round by nearly all ESPN/CBS analysts.
Not many teams beat the defending champions, overall #1 seed, and another #1 seed to make it to the Championship game. These boys have heart! UNC was clearly the better team but our boys shouldn’t feel bad to be #2. 345 other teams would have killed to be where we were tonight, win or lose. Congrats on a great season boys, look forward to next year!
state sucks!!
(04/07/09 12:56am)Report
Way to embarrass the Big Ten in front of the whole country…and in front of the home crowd. MSU fails to impress again.
Chemist
(04/07/09 12:58am)Report
Congratulation to the UNC team. The better team won tonight. Congratulation to the fighting Spartans! You are only one-win away from the NCAA championship. Keep working on your games till next March and keep the magic run alive one more time. UNC lost to Kansas last year at the NCAA final. They went back to the gym and made the loss their extra motivation. Tonight it showed who wanted it more.
No pain, no gain. It’s part of the learning curve.
Go Green! Go White!
embarrassing?
(04/07/09 1:04am)Report
To State Sucks: Whats really embarrassing is that you are so pathetic that you would come on the State News website to bash a team that played very well and represented this school better than anyone could ever ask for. They handled themselves like great men and set examples for everyone. Dont be mad that your team an hour south of us didnt make it to the finals…we cant help they suck
Joshua Vincent
(04/07/09 1:05am)Report
Thanks for being a great program, team and coach. We did the best we could, but we played a great team. Congratulations UNC, good job! I cannot believe the title of this article, it’s pretty crappy! No matter what, we can always play better. That is even true for UNC.
GO STATE!
Chemist
(04/07/09 1:06am)Report
To “state sucks”
Following your own logic, you embarassed yourself in front of the online community and in front of your own neighborhood by belittling a great MSU team, which is probably better than 62 top hoop team in the country.
go state!
(04/07/09 1:20am)Report
Yes, we lost. But let’s focus on what they achieved this season. Beating two #1 seeds consecutively in the tournament is no easy feat, and they did an exceptional job. Deemed as an underdog throughout the entire tournament, they overcame adversity and rose to unbelievable heights.
I, for one, am incredibly proud of all they have achieved. Thank you, Coach Izzo & team, for making my senior year absolutely unforgettable. I am so proud to be a Spartan. Congratulations on a wonderful season! GO GREEN!
Chris Haines
(04/07/09 2:09am)Report
I hope our team reads this, because I want to say THANK YOU!!! Thank you from the bottom of my heart, for giving all of us true Spartans something to believe in this year. Izzo always has good teams, but you gave me a feeling that I haven’t felt since 1999.
You say what? I say, remember what happened the next year.
I feel so bad for our seniors. But sadly that is the nature of this game. You made us proud, Seniors. Please always hold your heads high!
But what tonight did was make us want it that much more. We will have a very hungry team next year, with more talent then even the great wizard, Coach Izzo, knows what to do with. Look forward, not back.
Thank you Coach Izzo, MSU Basketball team. You made us all very proud.
John_FL
(04/07/09 4:00am)Report
Congrats to the Michigan State team for a great year. Michigan State ran into a brick wall tonite. Everyone down in Florida was rooting for you all. I just want to give you all props for playing with heart and being the best you can be. People look at these games years later but I want to say that Michigan State did the best they could in the situation that they were faced with and had North Carolina not crawled up an easy bracket who knows what could have been. —John
bcclist.com
(04/07/09 4:01am)Report
when izzo looks at the tape, I’m pretty sure he’ll wish he didn’t wait until 6:45 left in the 1st half before calling a timeout. Sparty played as well – if not better – than UNC during the last 30 minutes of the game. Shame the first 10 minutes were a train wreck. Oh well, great year!
03spartanjmcgrad
(04/07/09 5:57am)Report
Proud of the Spartans for successfully traveling the tough road that led them to where they were last night. Had all the “all-knowing” sports pundits been correct at the start of the tournament, they’d have lost much earlier on, to Louisville. Instead, they marched past 2 #1 seeds (no easy feat) and represented our school in the best way possible. It was good to see the Spartan faithful, the state of Michigan,and beyond happy to be rallying behind something as tried and true as the excitement and pride of reaching a national championship game. Even though you didn’t hold the trophy at the end, you’re still a winning team, MSU, and you’ve got the best coach in college basketball proud of your accomplishments too.
Rob
(04/07/09 8:45am)Report
Great season guys. Thanks for making the whole Spartan FAMILY proud. Good luck in your futures to Walton, Suton, Gray and Ibok.
MSU '77
(04/07/09 9:01am)Report
Congratulations to the team for a great season. Your tenacity and heart make us proud to be Spartans. Go Green!
Embarassing
(04/07/09 9:18am)Report
That was pathetic. I would of rather lost to Kansas by 5 then have that performance in the finals.
ZT
(04/07/09 9:39am)Report
Did anyone else see the campus at UNC celebrating? What gets me is if this was MSU there would be teargas, arrests, and ESPN and CNN covering it calling it a riot. Here is a timelapse of last night, kinda cool to watch
http://www.dailytarheel.com/multimedia/video/timelapse-franklin-street-after-the-victory-1.1646347
ZT
(04/07/09 9:51am)Report
Also one more reason to dislike the ELPD and El
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/112/story/648883.html
30,000 in the streets, 2 total arrests….how many did EL arrest the other night, 52? Out of how many, way less than 30,000…..
Mark
(04/07/09 10:25am)Report
Anyone who would prefer a sweet sixteen bounce to playing in the final four AND championship game in your home state is an idiot and just doesn’t understand MSU bball. Great comment, Embarassing.
Go Green! Congrats!