As I write this, the Michigan State basketball team is preparing to play the Northern Iowa Panthers in the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA tournament. It's MSU's ninth Sweet Sixteen appearance in the last 13 years. Pretty remarkable.
The team is banged up, battered, and practically held together by duct tape as they enter this game. Kalin Lucas is out for the season, Chris Allen and Delvon Roe are nursing ailments, while Raymar Morgan had dental surgery to fix a broken tooth suffered in the Maryland game. I am hopeful that they can somehow conjure up some of the magic that got them past Maryland last weekend, but it may be difficult for them to do so against a tough Northern Iowa team.
Regardless of what happens tonight, it's been another great year for the MSU basketball team. Today, as I was out walking during my break at work, I was struck by the fact that there is an entire generation of Michigan high school hoops prospects who don't remember a time when MSU was not good-to-great in basketball and wasn't the dominant program in the state. Michigan's Fab Five is ancient history to them: they grew up watching the likes of Mateen Cleaves, Morris Peterson, Shannon Brown, Maurice Ager, Drew Neitzel, and now Kalin Lucas, Raymar Morgan, Korie Lucious, and Draymond Green. As long as MSU has Tom Izzo at the helm, it's hard to imagine this changing anytime soon.
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