EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Michigan State's men's basketball team defeated No. 1 seed Duke in the East Regional Final, 68-67, on Sunday to advance to the Spartans' nation's best eighth Final Four in the last 21 years. It's the 10th time Michigan State has advanced to the Final Four in program history (1957, 1979, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2015, 2019) tied with Ohio State for sixth most in NCAA history. MSU head coach
Tom Izzo is headed back to the Final Four for the eighth time in his career (1999, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2015, 2019), fifth all-time among NCAA coaches.
Take a look back at Michigan State's road to the Final Four below:
First Round - No. 2 Michigan State 76, No. 15 Bradley 65
Michigan State used a 9-0 run late in the second half to open up an eight-point lead as the Spartans pulled away for a 76-65 win over No. 15 seed Bradley in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Wells Fargo Arena.
Junior guard
Cassius Winston (Detroit, Mich./University of Detroit Jesuit) scored 13 points in each half to finish with a game-high 26 points, leading three players in double figures. Sophomore forward
Xavier Tillman (Grand Rapids, Mich./GR Christian) had a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds and senior guard
Matt McQuaid (Duncanville, Texas/Duncanville) chipped in 10 points.
Summary
- In a game featuring 18 lead changes and eight ties, MSU trailed 55-54 after Bradley's Tony Childs hit a jumper with 7:02 to play.
- Winston hit a pair of free throws with 6:24 to play to give MSU the lead for good and his jumper with 4:10 on the clock pushed the lead to 58-55.
- McQuaid hit a 3-pointer from the wing with 3:31 to play to push the lead to 61-55 and freshman forward Aaron Henry (Indianapolis, Ind./Ben Davis) capped the 9-0 run with a layup at 2:41 making it 63-55.
- The Spartans hit 11 of 12 free throws in the final two minutes to seal the win.
- Michigan State trailed 35-34 at the break and fell behind 39-34 early in the second half before using a 10-0 run to take a 44-39 lead on a layup from Tillman at the 16:48 mark.
- The Spartans took a 48-41 lead on a layup from junior forward Nick Ward (Gahanna, Ohio/Lincoln) with 13:27 left and still led 50-43 behind free throws from Ward with 12:23 left, but Bradley went on a 10-2 run and took a 52-51 lead on a layup from Darrell Brown at the 9:13 mark.
- MSU went into the half trailing 35-34 after Bradley connected on 45.8 percent of its field goals (11-of-24), including 66.7 percent from 3-point land (6-of-9).
- The Spartans struggled in the first half, shooting only 36.7 percent from the floor (11-of-30), while getting out-rebounded by Bradley, 19-13.
- The Braves took their biggest lead, 10-4, after a 3-pointer from Brown at the 16:44 mark, but the Spartans responded with a 9-0 run and took a 13-10 lead on a layup from Goins with 12:53 to play in the half.
Second Round - No. 2 Michigan State 70, No. 15 Minnesota 50
Junior guard
Cassius Winston scored seven-straight points during a key second half run as No. 2 seed Michigan State beat No. 10 seed Minnesota, 70-50, in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at Wells Fargo Arena.
Michigan State advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament for the 20th time in program history and for the 14th time under Head Coach
Tom Izzo.
Winston finished with 13 points and nine assists, while sophomore forward
Xavier Tillman led the Spartans with 14 points and had six rebounds. Four other players scored nine points apiece. Freshman forward
Aaron Henry (Indianapolis, Ind./Ben Davis) added nine points and nine rebounds, redshirt senior forward
Kenny Goins (Troy, Mich./Warren Mott) tallied nine points, eight rebounds, two assists and two blocks, senior guard
Matt McQuaid chipped in nine points and four rebounds and junior forward
Nick Ward finished with nine points and seven rebounds.
Summary
- Leading by 14 points at the break, MSU pushed the margin to 17 points on the first possession when Tillman scored on a conventional three-point play.
- The Spartans led 38-21 after a McQuaid jumper at 17:41, but Minnesota used a 10-2 burst to cut the lead to 40-31 on a pair of free throws from Amir Coffey with 14:41 to play.
- Winston scored the next seven points in a span of 57 seconds, hitting a pair of jumpers followed by a 3-pointer, to push the lead back to 47-31 with 12:31 left and forcing Minnesota to call a timeout.
- Minnesota got no closer and the Spartans took their biggest, lead, 63-40, on a jumper from Ward with 6:04 left in the game.
- Michigan State jumped out to a 14-point lead at the half, thanks to shooting 60.0 percent from the floor (14-of-23) and scoring 22 of the team's points in the paint.
- The Spartans jumped out to a quick 11-2 lead, with a layup from Goins at the 15:51 mark forcing Minnesota to call a timeout.
- Minnesota cut the MSU lead to 17-11 on a layup from Coffey with 10:28 to play, but the Spartans used a 14-0 run to take a 31-11 lead on a layup from Ward with six minutes left.
- A late 8-2 run from the Golden Gophers cut the MSU lead to 33-19 at the break.
Sweet 16 - No. 2 Michigan State 80, No. 3 LSU 63
Michigan State scored the first eight points of the game and never trailed on the way to an 80-63 win over No. 3 seed LSU in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament at Capital One Arena.
The Spartans advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament for the 10th time in program history, all under Head Coach
Tom Izzo.
Freshman forward
Aaron Henry scored a career-high 20 points and had eight rebounds while classmate
Gabe Brown (Yipsilanti, Mich./Belleville) came off the bench to score a career-best 15 points on 4-of-6 shooting from the 3-point line.
Junior guard
Cassius Winston scored 17 points and handed out eight assists, while sophomore forward
Xavier Tillman had 12 points and eight rebounds.
Summary
- Michigan State led by as many as 17 points in the first half and 18 in the second half before LSU pulled to within nine points, 70-61, on a free throw from Darius Days with 3:06 to play.
- The Spartans responded with six-straight points from senior guard Matt McQuaid, a 3-pointer with 2:59 left and a conventional three-point play with 1:32 left, to give MSU a 76-63 lead.
- Baskets from Winston (1:03 ) and Henry (38 seconds) closed out the scoring as MSU closed out the win.
- The Spartans had a 12-point edge at the break, 40-28, but LSU cut the lead to 45-41 on a dunk from Kavell Bigby-Williams with 16:22 left in the game.
- MSU answered the next time down with a 3-pointer from Brown, the start of an 11-0 Spartan run to push the lead back to 15 points, 56-41, when redshirt senior forward Kenny Goins hit a 3-pointer at the 14:43 mark.
- The Spartans took their biggest lead, 66-48, on a pair of free throws from Tillman with 9:30 left before LSU narrowed the gap to 70-60.
- Michigan State went into the half with a 40-28 lead at the break, with Henry scoring 13 points and the Spartans holding a commanding 21-10 advantage on the boards.
Elite Eight - No. 2 Michigan State 68, No. 1 Duke 67
Redshirt senior forward
Kenny Goins hit the go-ahead 3-pointer with 34 seconds remaining to give second-seeded Michigan State a 68-67 victory over top-seeded Duke in the East Regional Final on Sunday at Capital One Arena as the Spartans advanced to the Final Four for the 10th time in school history.
Junior guard
Cassius Winston scored a team-high 20 points and handed out 10 assists, and sophomore forward
Xavier Tillman had 19 points and nine rebounds. Winston joined Magic Johnson (vs. LSU and Penn in 1979) and Draymond Green (vs. UCLA in 2011 and LIU-Brooklyn in 2012) as the only Spartans to score at least 20 points and dish out at least 10 assists in an NCAA Tournament game.
Winston was named the NCAA East Regional Most Outstanding Player after scoring 37 points and handing out 18 assists in two games. Tillman was named to the East Regional All-Tournament Team with 31 points and 17 rebounds combined in the Spartans' two wins.
With the Spartans trailing 66-65, Goins hit the game-winning 3-pointer from the top of the key, giving MSU a 68-66 advantage. Duke's RJ Barrett was fouled with five seconds remaining, but only made his second attempt, cutting the Spartan lead to 68-67. Duke fouled with four seconds left, but the Spartans weren't in the team bonus, and on the ensuing inbound pass, Winston ran out the clock, sending Michigan State back to the Final Four for the first time since 2015.
Goins finished with 10 points and nine rebounds, while senior
Matt McQuaid scored nine points for the Spartans.
Summary
- MSU led 63-61 with 3:32 to go after a Tillman fast break dunk, followed by a free throw after he was fouled by Delaurier.
- Duke then answered with a 5-0 run to go up 66-63 with 1:41 remaining. Tillman trimmed the Blue Devil lead to 66-65 at the 1:17 mark before Goins made the game-winning 3-pointer with 34 seconds left.
- A Goins 3-pointer and layup from McQuaid gave MSU a 58-56 lead with 7:23 left in the game.
- Zion Williamson scored the first 10 Duke points out of the second half, cutting the MSU lead to 43-42 at the 15:10 mark.
- Winston scored four-straight points out of the timeout to start an 11-0 Michigan State run to end the half and make it 34-30 Spartans at the break.
- The Blue Devils went on a 12-0 run over 2:17 to take a 30-21 lead and force MSU to call a timeout with 5:20 left in the first.
- Duke answered with a 7-0 run out of the timeout to tie the game 16-16, but McQuaid knocked down a 3-pointer to give MSU a 19-16 lead with 9:17 remaining in the first half.
- A second-chance layup from Tillman gave MSU a seven-point lead, before RJ Barrett answered with a layup at the other end to make it 16-11.
- The Spartans took an early 10-4 lead on a jumper from Winston and layup from Ward with 15:14 left in the first half.
Up Next
Michigan State faces West Regional Champion Texas Tech in the Final Four on Saturday, April 6 at approximately 8:49 p.m. ET in Minneapolis, Minnesota, at U.S. Bank Stadium. The game will be televised on CBS.