MSU vs. UNC: The NCAA Mens Basketball National Championship Game
I’ve had 2 days to digest this and I still don’t like the taste but it’s getting easier with time. Monday was the NCAA Mens Basketball National Championship game in Detroit, MI at Ford Field. North Carolina vs. my alma mater, Michigan State. No one expected MSU to make it this far, even as a #2 seed in the tournament as their road to this game was stacked with good teams. They knocked off #4 Kansas (defending national champs) in the Sweet 16, then the overall #1 seed Louisville in the Elite 8, followed by #1 UConn in the Final Four – a hell of a run. Unfortunately, ever since UNC lost to Kansas last year in the Final Four they have been on a mission (all 4 seniors returning this year) to get that national championship.  Holy Hell they are good too, in fact, good is by far an understatment, they could probably beat some NBA teams (Pistons where you at?).  The game started the way I envisioned it to in my nightmares, UNC got off on a roll, didn’t miss any shots and the Spartans were nervous and cold shooting. The game quickly was out of hand and before we knew it UNC was up 20 and I was down 6 beers. The first half was horrid in terms of MSU defense, or lackthereof but they picked it up in the 2nd half and dropped the deficit to as little as down 13. If they had played defense in the first half the way they did in the second they probably wouldn’t have been down 20-something at halftime and it may have actually been a closer game.  You don’t need me to tell you how this one ended.
Even though my Spartans lost, at home, at Ford Field, it was a great run, they really energized the city of Detroit which needed it more than anything. To have a team from your state be in the national championship game IN that state is ungodly difficult to do and incredibly rare. Tom Izzo is by far one of the best coaches in all of college basketball and deserves to be in that Rock Band commercial over Bob Knight, give me a break on that. I hope MSU continues to pony up the big bucks to him to keep him around, I’d like to see him at MSU, well, for the rest of his career quite frankly.Â
We may have lost the national championship but hey next year is another season and we have a pretty solid core of players coming back, although we do need to get some replacement centers taken care of but Izzo will take care of it. I have no doubt in my mind that at least once in the next 10 years another MSU national championship will be achieved and 99.9% sure it will be with Tom Izzo captaining the ship. Â
