by Jeff Goodman

Hoops Hysteria

• Final NCAA tournament bracket
• Bracket Challenge: Check your picks

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Championship — Detroit, Ford Field

• North Carolina 89, Michigan State 72



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FOXSports.com analysis

• Rosenberg: Can't doubt Ol' Roy
• Goodman: UNC's cupboard not bare
• Whatifsports.com: Decade's best teams
• Goodman: Hansbrough's finishing touch
• Kriegel: Tar Heels live up to hype
• Goodman: No excuses for Spartans
• Herwitt: Five keys to UNC's title win
• Chat about North Carolina's title win
• Complete college hoops coverage

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Video

• Lawson, Ellington talk about draft
• Postgame: Tar Heels talk title
• Goodman: How UNC became champ

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Photos

• NCAA championship | Final Four

After being thoroughly embarrassed, humiliated and whatever other adjective you want to add in that comes with a 35-point rout at the hands of North Carolina, Michigan State's name was basically crossed off the list of legitimate national title contenders by everyone.

"We knew we embarrassed ourselves on national TV," Michigan State freshman Delvon Roe said. "And it wasn't the first time, either. We did it against Maryland a week earlier."

The players were stunned in the Ford Field locker room following the thrashing and it was a taste that took a while to leave their mouths. After a first half in which they were in the game, North Carolina ran them out of the building in a second half in which absolutely everything went wrong for the Spartans.

"I couldn't fall asleep that night," said Spartans starting point guard Kalin Lucas, a Detroit native who had plenty of friends and family members in attendance for the 98-63 loss on Dec. 3. "When we got back to campus, I turned both of my cell phones off and then watched the game by myself."

"I stayed in the house," added backcourt mate Travis Walton. "It was an embarrassment just to walk outside."

When the Spartans players walked into class the next day, classmates didn't know what to say — so everyone just looked the other way.

"No one said a word," Lucas said.

"It was quiet," Walton added.

It took about 17 days for the swagger to return. That's when they went into the Lone Star State and came back with a victory against Texas, which at the time was ranked No. 5 in the nation.

The Spartans opened Big Ten play with a pair of road wins for the first time in school history and followed it up by cruising to a 67-58 home victory against Ohio State on Tuesday night despite a rather ordinary performance.

That's eight straight for Tom Izzo's club if you're counting.

Izzo knows that on North Carolina's best day, the Tar Heels will be difficult for anyone to beat. However, he feels as though his Spartans should be able to compete with anyone and everyone else — especially now that he's got his full complement of players.

Senior Goran Suton, who missed six games with a knee injury, wouldn't have made a 35-point difference, but the skilled and intelligent big man is a major upgrade over backup Marquise Gray. Suton finished with nine points and nine boards in the win against the Buckeyes and their talented 7-foot freshman B.J. Mullens.

Roe, a freshman forward, wasn't — and still isn't — close to 100 percent after missing basically a full year following micro-fracture surgery on his knee.

Izzo, who has gone with nine different starting lineups in 14 games this season, has never been tinkering with his rotation this late in the season. He has plenty of pieces and has yet to be able to define roles because of the injuries to Suton and Roe.

Despite the losses to UNC and Maryland, the Spartans are still 12-2 and the elite team in the Big Ten even though they've played on their home court just five times so far this season. By comparison, the top-ranked Pittsburgh Panthers have played nine of their 14 games on their home floor.

Still, Walton, Lucas and just about everyone on the team thinks about that loss to the Tar Heels constantly.

"I can't tell you how bad I want to play them again," Walton said. "Words can't even describe it. It may sound funny, but I think we can play with them. They're a great team and we know we have the potential to be a great team."

Suton didn't stop there.

"That game changed our entire season. It made us realize we're not as good as we think we are," he said. "f we play them again — which I think will happen — it'll be a completely different game."

Then I shook Suton's hand just to make sure that people really do come back from the dead.