With less than a minute left, the ball came off the rim and Andre Hutson rose to it like, well, like a Spartan. His big hands clamped, his elbows swung, and he owned that ball, he owned it, never mind that three Temple players tried to get it away from him, three men in black shirts, pulling, swiping, tugging, it was his, the ball was green, the score was green, the day was green, and the lights to the Final Four were turning green, too.
Get the boards, get the glory. With a philosophy that is more like hockey dump it in, storm the rebounds, good things will happen the machine that is Michigan State basketball has rolled to the Biggest Dance yet again.
And what was once a happening is now a habit.
"Three Final Fours in three years?" coach Tom Izzo said, shaking his head in amazement, after his Spartans ousted yet another team with a gimmick, this time Temple and its ballyhooed wear-you-down defense, to reach the final battle ground in its quest to defend the national championship.
"Even I have to give in to the idea that our program now shows . . . consistency."
Consistency? There are calendars that are less reliable. The Spartans take you on, wear you down, bang you sideways, and grab every shot that doesn't fall through the rim. They do not rattle. They do not quiver. It is true that every game, there seems to be another hot hand, points-wise, and on Sunday afternoon it was David Thomas, the senior from Canada, who scored a career-high 19, including a critical three-pointer, in the 69-62 victory.
But all you really need to know about Sunday's South Regional final is this: in the last five minutes, the Spartans crashed the boards so effectively, that Temple got just one shot on all but one of its possessions.
You know what that does? It forces a team to be perfect.
And nobody's perfect.
"When I came to Michigan State, we were going to the NIT," Thomas said. "Now, three Final Fours in a row. It's like . . . incredible."
Get the boards, get the glory.
No time for underdogs
Now, the truth is, Sunday was a game like several the Spartans have faced in the NCAA tournament in which a loss would have fit conveniently into a theory.
The theory is, it's really hard to repeat as national champions. The theory is, upstart teams like Temple and Gonzaga before the Owls have little to lose. The theory is, a team that loses three seniors from its championship squad won't have the leadership to get there again.
Well.
That's why we don't play theoretical basketball.
The Spartans stepped over every pothole the critics could dig and played the game they have been playing in 27 prior victories this season. Crash the boards, clamp on the defense, depend on your leaders to find a way to get points.
Here was Zach Randolph, the freshman, grabbing one offensive board, then another, three in the final two minutes alone, 14 rebounds for the day. Here was Hutson, the big man, making like a guard, bounce-passing beautifully to Randolph for a lay-up and Jason Richardson for another. Here was Charlie Bell, the senior guard, spotting up for a three. And here was Thomas, battling personal sorrow over a gravely ill cousin, rising above it for moment, not only gunning long-range jumpers but slamming down a rebound one-handed, then roaring to the crowd.
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