It's an absurd notion, but with Michigan State coming off one of its biggest wins in program history, a cathartic, dragon-slaying victory over Duke...well, it makes you wonder. Will the Spartans get geared up again to face Texas Tech Saturday night?
Sure they will. They know what happened the last time they forgot to turn the page.
"We kind of got over that stage after we beat Michigan at Michigan and then we lost to Indiana the next game. We got better with our emotional letdowns, making sure that we’re staying even keel all the time," Xavier Tillman said on Friday.
Before Duke, the most anticipated game of the season for Michigan State may well have been that first clash with Michigan. Both teams had waited the whole year to play each other. The Spartans poured themselves into a 77-70 win on the road, at the time the high point of their season. Then came the crash, a loss at Indiana.
Lesson learned.
And as you may know, the circumstances this time around are a little different.
"It is hard to not stay on that pedestal after beating a big team like that and making it to the Final Four," Tillman admitted. "It’s hard to say, okay, well, what else do we have to do? But that national championship is still in our eyes. It’s still something that we really want to do, so we just can’t wait for the game."
The Spartans got a hero's welcome when they returned to campus after beating Duke. The Breslin Center was packed, and the players allowed themselves to revel in the celebration. Even Tom Izzo surrendered to the moment, if only for a bit.
Then it was right back to work.
"When you have a coach like Coach Izzo, you’ll celebrate for all of 30 minutes after you get off the plane and he’ll bring you right back down," said Aaron Henry. "He’ll put reality in your faces. Knowing the goals that we set before the season, to get to a Final Four, that's huge for this program and a huge accomplishment for us.
"The chance at a national championship is something that he's done before, but us players haven’t. It’s something we have to find out what it’s like for our ourselves and something we want to do."
If there's a single player in danger of a letdown Saturday, it's Kenny Goins. The fifth-year senior hit the biggest shot of his life against Duke. His name exploded that night and in the days that followed. His basketball career was vaulted to entirely new heights.
How does he avoid a crash?
"It was a great moment, and hearing about it left and right for sure, but we’ve been doing it all year, kind of refocusing and people asking us how we’re going to (move on). It's been tested and tried multiple times, so we know what we’re doing," Goins said. "I was already refocused the next day after that, just blocking out the noise."
As for the six days between games, the Spartans will take it. No, time off isn't always welcome after a big win, but in this case -- well, take it from Tillman, who spent much of Sunday night banging bodies with Zion Williamson.
"I definitely did not want to play the next day," he laughed. "I was very tired."