Tom Izzo put his Michigan State Spartans on the attack in the second half of their Sweet 16 matchup against Ole Miss.
“We felt we could drive the ball a little bit more,” Izzo said. “These guys drove it.”
Michigan State (30-6) hung on for a 73-70 win over Coach Chris Beard’s Rebels (24-12) on Friday night at State Farm Arena. Izzo and the Spartans find themselves one victory away another trip to the Final Four.
Jase Richardson, son of former Michigan State 2000 national championship team member Jason Richardson, scored 20 points on 6-of-8 shooting, including 4 of 6 from beyond the 3-point arc.
“I feel like they were kind of punking us in the beginning; we couldn’t get to the paint,” Richardson said after MSU outscored Ole Miss 26-12 in the paint in the second half, after the Rebels held an 18-10 advantage and took a 33-31 lead into halftime.
“In the second half, it really opened up for us. We were being more aggressive, getting downhill.”
The No. 2-seeded, Big Ten regular-season champion Spartans have won 12 of their last 13 games. They will ride that momentum Sunday into a matchup with No. 1-seeded Auburn, which outlasted Michigan, 78-65.
Izzo was moved to tears in the immediate aftermath of the game during his on-court television interview.
“I love these guys; it’s simple. They don’t quit,” Izzo said. “We’ve been a second-half team. One of these days, we’re going to be a first-half team.”
The 70-year-old Izzo, making his 11th Elite Eight appearance, will be hunting for his ninth trip to the Final Four.
“We don’t put up any banners for Great Eights. We put up banners for (Big Ten) championships, Final Fours, and national championships,” Izzo said. “We’re going to have to play better.
“I mean, we’re not a team that can just go out and play and win. But boy, we did a hell of a job in the second half.”
Michigan State made 8 of 10 shots from the floor and was 10 of 10 from the free-throw line during the final 10 minutes of the game. They grabbed their first lead of the night on a pair of Carson Cooper free throws with 7:50 remaining, going up 51-50 with a 12-2 run.
Frankie Fidler’s drive made it 53-50, with the Spartans extending the run to 14-2 before Ole Miss’ leading scorer, Sean Pidula (24 points), drained a 3-pointer to tie the game at 53-53.
Beard quickly called a timeout, and his chess match with Izzo was on, with the coaches expertly dialing up plays, switching up defenses, and shuffling substitutions in a March Madness classic.
“From a coaching standpoint, you don’t want to get beat your last game of the season, and I didn’t think we did. I thought today, we just ran out of time,” said Beard, who led No. 6 South Regional seed Ole Miss to its first Sweet 16 in 24 years and only the program’s second-ever.
“Obviously, the difference in the game was the free-throw differential, period,” Beard said of the Spartans’ making the most of their drives to the basket with 19 of 22 free-throw shooting, while the Rebels were 9 of 10 from the charity stripe. “We outrebounded them (33-29), we took care of the basketball (eight turnovers to Michigan State’s 10). It was a hell of a basketball game.”
Ole Miss, which reached the Sweet 16 by knocking off blue-blood North Carolina (71-64) and No. 3-seed Iowa State (91-78), got off to a strong start on Friday, leading 29-19 in the first half when Izzo called for a key timeout at the 3:52 mark.
There were no magic words from Izzo.
“I just asked them what the hell they’re doing,” Izzo, making his nation-leading 27th consecutive NCAA tournament appearance, said.
“We weren’t rebounding, we weren’t doing a good job offensively... The real killer was the turnovers.”
Izzo turned to his players at that point, saying, “They were kind of ridiculous turnovers, would you guys agree?”
The Michigan State players nodded, and the coach continued.
“They always agree with me after the fact, but we had turnovers,” Izzo said. “They (Ole Miss) are supposed to be a poor rebounding team, and they kicked our butts. They had 12 offensive rebounds to our 5.”
The Spartans, down by 10 when Izzo called the key 30-second timeout in the first half, effectively gathered themselves, shrinking the gap to two points when the horn sounded for intermission.
“Getting close before halftime was very critical,” Izzo said, praising the play of Jaden Akins (13 points), Tre Holloman (10 points, six rebounds), and the true freshman star, Richardson.
“It’s hard to believe that in two days, we’re playing for a chance to do one of the all-time great things in any basketball player’s life,” Izzo said, “and that’s play for a Final Four.”
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