March Sadness: Tar Heels end Spartans season.

What looked like was going to be an instant classic turned into a Tar Heels blow out. Michigan State owned the first 10 minutes of the game, taking a 26-14 lead at the 9:40 mark. This lead was due to the great transition shooting of Tyson Walker who hit back to back 3-pointers. Unfortunately, the rest of the half was a complete disaster for the Spartans. North Carolina went on a 26-5 run. During this run all of the UNC fans there which seemed like the entire crowd got on their feet. The Spartans could not hit a shot and were not moving the ball at all like at the start. UNC took a 40-31 lead into the half.

At this point I was honestly not very optimistic in the Spartans. Michigan State pulled me back in as they brought the UNC lead down to 2 points. After making it a one possession game, UNC turned it up a notch and blew away from the Spartans, winning 85-69. Michigan State made way too many mistakes in this game to beat a team like UNC. For the second straight game Michigan State had double digit turnovers, this led to 16 points off turnovers. Oh yeah, we lost by 16. It was a rough game for Senior Point Guard Aj Hoggard who shot 1-10 from the field. Hoggard has an extra year of eligibility left but it is still unsure if he will return to East Lansing.

It was very sad to see Tyson Walker and Malik Hall give it their all and come up short. They came back to try and win a National Championship and I have so much respect to them for that. Walker said after the game “They made big plays, we didn’t.” Walker does a very good job summarizing the game right there. UNC just mad more firepower than Michigan State on Saturday. There is no reason for this team to be ashamed or anything like that. Tom Izzo ended his press conference by saying “Somehow I got to do a better job. I got to figure that out. And I promise you, between now and October, I will.”

The season review will be out soon, along with sweet 16 picks. Go Green!