Team of Destiny?

This is a photo, published on the Lansing State Journal's web site, of a clearly emotional Tom Izzo hugging Earvin "Magic" Johnson after MSU's 70-69 win over Tennessee. Looking at this picture, it's hard for me not to get choked up, just like Coach Izzo.

What an exhilirating, tension-filled, amazing game today. Same can be said about this entire tournament. Just an astounding journey for the Spartans to a most improbable Final Four.

After the game, I was thinking of all the Final Fours in the Tom Izzo era, and how they made me feel. This was has to be the most special for me personally.

1999 was great because it was the first one, and none of the national pundits were predicting MSU, the upstart, to get past Kentucky, the defending national champion. I'll never forget being glued to my TV screen, watching Morris Peterson calmly sink a seemingly endless string of free throws to ice that game. 2000 was a great run by a great team that was on a mission to win it all. 2001 was somewhat unexpected because Cleaves, Peterson, and Granger were gone, but Charlie Bell made a seamless transition to point guard, and Zach Randolph and Jason Richardson were brilliant. I have to admit, though, that by '01 it seemed like old hat. We stupid fans can get blase fairly quickly.

This year's Final Four run seems closest to the 2005 team of Kelvin Torbert, Alan Anderson, Chris Hill, and Paul Davis. That was a team that did not win the Big Ten, lost several big games during the regular season, and had certain media members (who shall remain nameless) challenging their heart and intestinal fortitude. That team beat Duke and Kentucky en route to the Final Four.

Just when I thought nothing could top last year's team for exciting tournament games (the '09 team was Izzo's fifth Final Four squad), along comes the 2010 team. In my bracket I made the mistake of doubting their ability to make it past the Sweet Sixteen. Though the team had tied for the Big Ten title, it just seemed something was missing. They then lost the first game of the Big Ten tournament. (I hope that by now, I've realized that the conference tournament is meaningless). I had no idea what to expect from this team in the NCAA tournament, and the tournament committee clearly had little respect for the team by saddling them with a #5 seed and sending them out to Spokane.

What have I learned? Never, ever doubt a Tom Izzo-coached team. Even in great adversity, (maybe because of the adversity, come to think of it) they have played their best basketball of the year. Today's incredible win brought tears to my eyes.