A week later, Michigan State's loss to Kansas State in the Sweet 16 is still gnawing at Tom Izzo -- especially with how the Tournament has played out since.
"I really believe this and I still believe it, I thought Marquette was the toughest team we played," Izzo said Friday on 97.1 The Ticket. "Kansas State, I mean, give the little guy credit. He played his tail off and we made some mistakes, they made some shots. I thought we played awfully well on one end, I didn't think we played quite as well on the defensive end, got hurt on those back cuts, but part of it was him (Markquis Nowell).
"It's hard to argue where we were, where we got beat and then when you saw everything that happened, you just say to yourself, 'Wow, we probably would have been favored to get to the Final Four, instead of an underdog like we were most of the way.'"
Had seven-seed Michigan State outlasted three-seed Kansas State, it would have played nine-seed Florida Atlantic for a spot in the Final Four. And had the Spartans made it to Houston, they would have been joined by two five-seeds in San Diego State and Miami and a four-seed in UConn. But Nowell and the Wildcats had other plans, at least until losing to FAU in the Elite Eight.
Asked if he'll mark this down as a missed opportunity for his second national title, Izzo said, "It's a disappointment, just because I tell our players all the time, 'You gotta be good enough to get into the Tournament and then you gotta be really good enough to get through the first weekend.' If you get through that first weekend, every year something happens."
To his very point, Izzo pointed to Kansas State's Ismael Massoud, who scored a season-high 15 points in the Wildcats' 98-93 overtime win over MSU, and said, "The guy that really hurt us was averaging five points a game. He went 4-5 from three, and the next game he did almost nothing and the next day he transferred. It's just how crazy it is."
Still, Izzo feels good about his program and is already looking forward to next season. The Spartans have the No. 3 recruiting class in the nation, headlined by a pair of five-stars in center Xavier Booker and point guard Jeremy Fears, and could still bring back leading scorer Tyson Walker.
"I feel good," said Izzo, 68. "Who knows what'll happen, but I feel good where we are and I like my team coming back, I liked my team all this year. So we'll be knocking on that door and hopefully it's still going to open."
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