And that journey starts with No. 16-seed LIU Brooklyn. Although no No. 16 seed has taken down a No. 1 seed, the Blackbirds (25-8) are no slouches, and they’ll put up plenty of points against MSU.
The Blackbirds rank third in the nation in possessions putting up 81.9 points per game, and that’s by a high-paced attack.

Sophomore guard Keith Appling looks forward to the fast tempo he’ll get to play in the tournament.

“I like the fast-paced game, because it’s a lot more fun to be a part of,” Appling said. “There’s going to be a lot of easy opportunities to get baskets on the fast break.”

The Spartans slugged their way through a Big Ten season full of grind-it out, defense-first teams. Now they get to disprove the perception of being a part of the slow-pace conference.

“We love playing up-tempo,” senior forward Draymond Green said. “And a lot of teams think they can outrun us, it never really happens that way. They can think we’re a half court team, that’s fine, don’t make no difference.”

And the Spartans will get to run on LIU Brooklyn. While high scoring, the Blackbirds are 330th — out of 338 Division I schools — defensively.

Izzo said as long as the Spartans push the ball with caution, they can advance to the next round.

“We’ve got to be smart. Probably, if I look back on the zillions of mistakes I’ve made, the one that I’ve made stubbornly was the different times we played (North) Carolina and just tried to do it the same way each time and get beat by 20 each time,” Izzo said. “But, for the most part, with Keith, I think we can push it now, he’s getting to the point where he can push it and make decisions when he gets down there.”

The Blackbirds won’t go down easy, as a No. 15 seed last year, they took North Carolina to deep into the game, losing 102-87.

But Izzo won’t let MSU go down without a fight each round in an attempt to win it all in New Orleans.

Now 12 years since Izzo won his lone National Championship, he’s getting antsy, Green said, and wants the best out of everyone in the program, from managers to coaches.

“His intensity is going up every year,” Green said. “Every year past, is another year without a National Championship. He’s very intense, expects everything out of everybody.”