Middle Tennessee came out of the box, leading 13 to 2 and how about this, a 15 to 2 lead for the Blue Raiders on that jumper. If that’s pressure, as hard as these guys worked, if it’s pressure to have to come into this tournament, that’s sad, because the pressure was what they did when nobody was watching.
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If the game were just 20 minutes, then we would have had a stunning upset in downtown Saint Louis. MSU was also the second-most popular choice to win the national title – almost 22 percent of all brackets had the Spartans going all the way. Ah but there were 20 minutes left, and you knew Michigan State would respond.
Michigan State slowly trimmed the lead to 65-64 on a basket by Costello with eight minutes to play, but the Blue Raiders scored on their next six trips down floor. As a team, MTSU shot a blistering 55.9 percent from the field, and connected on 11 of its 19 3-point attempts.
The 3-pointers were coming from everywhere in the first half. Harris had nine points and five turnovers….
That start loomed large two hours later, when it was over – arguably the worst loss in Michigan State men’s basketball history. The victory helped the Blue Raiders secure C-USA’s auto bid. Perrin Buford extended the lead with a driving lay up. Davis has piloted Middle Tennessee for the past 14 seasons. But they re-established control with a 6-0 spurt culminated by a dunk by Upshaw with 40 seconds remaining off a steal by Raymond.
The difference was momentum and Middle Tennessee State’s terrific job of preventing Michigan State from grabbing too much.
The Spartans had been hot winning 13 of their last 14 games including the Big Ten Tournament prior to running into Middle Tennessee.
We still have 169 days until Michigan football kicks off its 2016 season against Hawaii, but players had good reason to be excited in March when Michigan State got upset by Middle Tennessee in the NCAA Tournament. The final score: 90-81. “Tyler was great. We eliminated second-shot opportunities, and that’s what has hurt us at times this year”.
The stat: 57.9, Middle Tennessee’s 3-point percentage.
What’s next: Not long ago, Tom Izzo was espousing his belief that this team had a chance to win it all.
When several of the best mid-major teams – Monmouth, St. Bonaventure’s, Valparaiso – lost in their conference tournaments, costing them spots in the field of 68, some feared we were in for a snoozefest this week.
“In my wildest dreams, I didn’t think they’d hit some of the shots they hit”.
Of the upset, Blue Raider Head Coach Kermit Davis said his team was confident they could win. “We knew we were going to win the game”.
The players were confident.
“I had just gotten out of practice and I had a lot of text messages running up and down my phone that MT had gone up 15-2”, Massey said.
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Now, the 2015-16 Spartans will forever be remembered for something far less envious: Being on the receiving end of the biggest upset in the history of the NCAA Tournament.
