Sports: Final Four Seasons

CAGERS, ICERS SURGE TO NCAA FINAL FOUR

            What a season to go right through for MSU! In March, MSU became only the second school in NCAA history to have both its men's basketball and hockey teams reach the Final Four and Frozen Four in the same season. (Only Michigan had achieved this double feat before.) For good measure, MSU's track team also came home with a Big Ten championship trophy. Tremendous parallels marked both hockey and basketball successes.

• Both teams repeated a league championship.
• Both coaches earned 'Coach of the Year' honors,.
• Both boasted a conference player of the year (Mateen Cleaves and Mike York).
• Both emphasized defense-first.
• Both played their best game of the year to make the Final Four--the basketball team coming back from 13 points down to beat defending NCAA champions Kentucky 73-66, and the hockey team scoring two goals in the final 1:40 to secure a 4-3 win over Colorado College.

Win, win, win.

• The cagers' 33 wins set an all-time Big Ten record; at one stretch, they won 29 out of 30 games.
• The icers went unbeaten for three months, setting the all-time unbeaten streak of 23 games from Dec. 4 to March 5.
• For the entire season, neither team lost a home game.
• Each team reached No. 2 in the national rankings late in the season.
• The cagers dominated just about every defensive statistic in the conference, and in particular, the rebounding battles; the icers boasted the nation's best team defense, allowing just 1.44 goals per game.
• Both teams were incredibly unselfish and as a result, allowed many to contribute.
• In basketball, eight different players took turns leading the team in scoring during the season. In hockey, 12 different players scored game-winning goals.

CONTRASTS

There are also contrasts between the two programs.

• Tom Izzo, in his fourth year, is on the verge of elevating MSU's program to elite status--back to back league titles, back to back 'National Coach of the Year' honors, back to back NCAA invites, and his first foray into the Big Dance at St. Petersburg. By contrast, Ron Mason, the winningest coach in college hockey with nine Frozen Fours in his resume, has maintained MSU's program at an elite level for two decades.
• Tickets to hockey games at Munn are ridiculously hard to get.
• Last season there were more Spartans (16) in the NHL than alumni from any other school.
• MSU's surge into the NCAA basketball tournament's 'Final Four' in St. Petersburg, FL--in MSU basketball's centennial year--came two decades after the 1979 championship season. Hockey's entry into the 'Frozen Four' in Anaheim, CA, marked the sixth time that Ron Mason has taken an MSU team to hockey's Frozen Four.

NATIONAL VISIBILITY

            Triumph in athletic competition helps bring tremendous national visibility to the university, helping to galvanize support and to unify Spartans of all backgrounds and ages under a common aegis. At times, that can be marred by excessive celebration, as happened after MSU's 68-62 loss to Duke in the semifinals. The student riots deflected some of the positive and hard-earned achievements of the players. But nothing could take away MSU's two storybook final four seasons of 1999.

             Attracting the lion's share of the national media spotlight, the basketball team enjoyed national attention and a rash of positive press reports. Theirs was a wonderful story, with heartwarming subplots--the Flintstones, the work-ethic coach from Iron Mountain, the solidarity of the players' families.

            Though less publicized, MSU's icers kept pace with the hoopsters, creating their own unbeaten streak and generating equally compelling records and story lines.

            Record crowds attended the pep rallies staged by the MSU Alumni Association in Milwaukee, St. Louis, and especially St. Petersburg--with more than 3,000 fans packing a massive tent in Sand Key Beach, Clearwater. Spartan Spirit prevailed from coast to coast. Local alumni clubs were energized. As one columnist noted, MSU can be a powerful force when all Spartans are united. Among those who followed the Spartans in their NCAA run were celebrities like Earvin 'Magic' Johnson from the 1979 NCAA Championship Team, former coach Jud Heathcote, former football and baseball star Kirk Gibson and San Francisco 49ers coach Steve Mariucci (Izzo's best friend). Even San Diego Charger quarterback Jim Harbaugh, a former Wolverine whose sister Joanie is married to assistant coach Tom Crean, came to St. Louis and St. Petersburg donned in green and white. Also present were Gov. John Engler and Sen. Spence Abraham, both alumni, as well as former U.S. Ambassador to Italy Pete Secchia. 

Finally, some points worth noting:

• Morris Peterson was a first-team All-Big Ten selection, the first reserve to in history to earn that honor. He was also named MVP of the NCAA regionals in St. Louis, made the all-tournament team along with Cleaves and reserve forward A. J. Granger, and received All-American honors along with Cleaves.
• In his first season as starter, goalie Joe Blackburn smashed just about every CCHA record and led the nation in both goals-against average (1.44) and in save percentage (.931).
• All-star Mike York set an all-time plus-minus record, and won All-American honors along with Mike Weaver and Blackburn. York helped MSU's penalty killing lead the nation at 92.4 percent and tally 13 short-handed goals while allowing 14 power-play goals.

MEMORIES

            Decades from now, Spartans will look back on 1999 as a special season. They will remember many highlights:

• the Spartan win at Michigan, when MSU fans took over Crisler Arena
• the home finale against Wisconsin, with so many former Spartans at hand
• the collision between Mateen Cleaves and Oklahoma's Eduardo Najera
• and many of Cleaves' buzzer beaters, including the 30-footer to close within one point of Kentucky.

Hockey fans will remember:

• the acrobatic saves by Blackburn
• the all-around excellence of Mike York, who wound up with 201 points and as runner-up in the Hobey Baker voting
• beating Michigan again at Joe Louis Arena, in front of 19,000 fans
• and the many defensive stops, often with diving bodies.

             Indeed, diving bodies are a good metaphor for both teams. In both cases, the athletes put 'team first' and sacrificed themselves for the sake of winning. These are rare instances, and certainly worth savoring.

            Not since the 1988 Rose Bowl has as much excitement been generated as MSU's trek to the Final Four in St. Petersburg, FL. The MSUAA's official tour covered eight hotel properties in the Tampa Bay area, with the Sheraton Sand Key serving as the team headquarters. The MSU pep rally on Sand Key Beach drew more than 3,000 Spartans, who found their ways to Clearwater.

MSU IN THE FINAL FOUR

            MSU's trek to St. Petersburg was its third Final Four appearance in 100 seasons of basketball.

            In 1957, Forddy Anderson led MSU into the Final Four with superstar Johnny Green. MSU beat Notre Dame 85-83, then beat Kentucky 80-68. In the Final Four, MSU lost to North Carolina 74-70 in triple overtime. A basket by Jack Quiggle would have won the game in regulation but was deemed late by officials, although some Spartans swear--even today--the shot beat the buzzer. In 1979, Jud Heathcote and Earving 'Magic' Johnson and Greg Kelser led MSU to its only national title. MSU crushed Lamar by 31 points, beat LSU 87-71, then beat Notre Dame--with three future NBA pros--80-68 to sow up the regional title. In the Final Four, MSU slaughtered Princeton 101-67, then beat out Larry Bird and Indiana State 75-64.

             The telecast of final game gained a record-high rating and share that still stands.