Opinion: Tom Izzo had Michigan State team that could win it all, but it wasn't enough

MINNEAPOLIS — He won’t sleep for days. Maybe weeks.  

Not after this one. Not after another Final Four loss for Tom Izzo and his Michigan State Spartans. 

This was his chance. Finally. 

There was no Duke. No North Carolina. 

Just an upstart program from Lubbock, Texas. 

Well, the Red Raiders can play ball, too. Play defense as well as anyone. Maybe better than anyone.  

Certainly, this season. Certainly, against these Spartans. 

MSU had its chances late. But the shots they made all year didn’t fall. The plays they made the last month they couldn’t make. 

And the Spartans missed out again, losing to Texas Tech, 61-51. 

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In the end, Texas Tech was too long and too quick and too experienced and too tough. A team of men, of transfers. 

Somehow, MSU hung around.  

But Matt McQuaid missed an open three to tie it down the stretch. Cassius Winston missed a transition three. Kenny Goins missed one from the corner.  

All three of them had made game-saving shot after game-saving shot this season. They had no more magic left. 

Credit the Red Raiders.  

There is no way to practice against what they bring: Their length. Their quickness. The way they extend their defense out past the 3-point line.  

It’s a gamble, of sorts. A gamble they don’t mind taking because they have shot blockers near the rim.  

Texas Tech doesn’t just shrink the court, it shrinks the clock. Or makes it feel that way, by forcing rushed decisions, and rushed shots. 

Though there was space early. McQuaid hit an open three — MSU’s first shot of the game. He hit another one a few possessions later.  

He deflected a pass, corralled it and scored on the breakaway — Texas Tech was called for the goaltend. He scored nine of the Spartans’ first 11 points. 

They stumbled into the desert from there, until Winston hit a three late in the first half, ending a seven-minute drought. 

It was but a sip of water.  

The Red Raiders looked like they played with eight players to start the second half. Whatever space the Spartans thought they had in the first half disappeared to start the second. 

But it wasn’t the defense as much as Texas Tech’s offense. Or Matt Mooney’s offense — the senior guard started hitting shots from the Mall of America. Off-the-dribble threes. Step-back threes. Contested threes. 

When he wasn’t making threes, everyone else was driving to the rim, tossing in layups. The Red Raiders hit nine of their first 11 shots in the second half. 

They built a 13-point lead.  

For the first time since Josh Langford went down with an ankle injury in late December, MSU felt his absence. The Spartans got here on the strength of a wondrous point guard and a connected, fluid, selfless offense. 

Everyone shares. Everyone moves without the ball. Everyone knows exactly where they are supposed to be. 

Against most teams, that symphonic flow was enough. Good enough, in fact, to rank among the top 10 offenses for most of the season. 

But against this defense? Against these Red Raiders? 

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Sometimes you just need someone to go get a basket. Especially when the shot clock is winding down and the movement has stopped and there is no place to go. 

Langford could do that. He is a bucket-getter. And when Izzo talked about his team’s small margin for error this winter, this is what he meant. 

Even without that second shot-creator, the Spartans, as they do, cut the 13-point lead to five. They found a way to keep Texas Tech from the paint.  

Winston hit a three. Tillman hit one, too, from the corner.  

MSU kept getting stops. Kept ... Getting ... Buckets.  

Slowly. Inevitably. At the free-throw line. In transition. 

And yet? 

It wasn’t enough, which is the story of Izzo’s Final Fours. In eight trips, he’s won just three games in the season’s final weekend. 

This one will sting. He had the team. Just not quite enough of it. Not when he needed it most.