Michigan State battles for about 35 minutes

Michigan State looked very good for quite a while tonight. I love watching Neitzel play. His energy and willingness to put the team on his shoulders and see how far he can take them is inspiring to watch. Plus, he can actually make free throws. The Big 10 is going to miss him next year.

The team battled for as long as they could manage.

Unfortunately, Michigan State couldn’t get to the free throw line enough. That is probably common when your point guard takes 27 out of the 58 shots for the team. He carried the team for quite a while but eventually wore out. North Carolina was able to use several different good defenders to chase Neitzel around.

During the last few minutes, it didn’t look like anybody on the floor for Michigan State could do anything beside cross their fingers and throw the ball at the basket.

When Michigan State plays like they did today, they can beat almost anybody in the nation. I’ve heard a lot about how amazing North Carolina is supposed to be but seeing them handle Michigan State by just beating them down makes me believe that some team will have to play a pretty special game to beat them. If Texas wins tomorrow, that matchup between them and North Carolina will be something to pay attention to.

Other Big 10 news:

Indiana got hot toward the end to at least keep UCLA honest but not enough to win the game. Ohio State tried to throw away their game against Xavier. Other than that, a couple minor upsets with the biggest one being Washington State (3 seed) losing to Vanderbilt.

Let’s hope Purdue can pull out the first really huge upset of the tournament tomorrow against Florida.