SYRACUSE — All summer, the Spartans said it, texted it to each other, used it as their battle cry.
“Get to Indy.’’
It actually started one year ago, after a heart-wrenching regional final loss to UConn, the eventual national champion, a defeat that meant, for the first time in coach Tom Izzo’s first 19 years at Michigan State, players who stayed four years in East Lansing had not made it to a Final Four. It was the end of a remarkable streak and infused this year’s seniors with the intense desire not to let it happen again.
As the season progressed and the Spartans bumped along against their usual rock-hard schedule, Izzo said enough was enough. No more “Get to Indy’’ utterances.
“I said, ‘It’s over,’ ’’ Izzo recalled on Sunday. “I said ‘We’re not worthy of it.’ ’’
Izzo then flashed a proud smile. As the Spartans broke from the locker room inside the Carrier Dome, they reminded each other that now it is on to Indy. They gained admittance to the Final Four with a 76-70 overtime victory over Louisville in the East Regional final, erasing an eight-point halftime deficit with a fearsome display of vice-grip defense.
This year’s seniors, Travis Trice and Branden Dawson, felt the weight of close-call failure and expectation more than anyone and they helped make sure the Spartans (27-11) would not fall short again. Trice scored 17 points and harassed Louisville guard Terry Rozier into a terrible (6-of- 23) shooting performance and Dawson (nine points, 11 rebounds) produced the key basket of the game, rebounding a rare miss from Bryn Forbes (14 points) to bank home a shot with 28 seconds left to put Michigan State up 74-70. Junior Denzel Valentine, despite foul trouble, had 15 points and a key steal.
“They were on a mission to maybe start their own legacy,’’ Izzo said.
The Spartans, seeded No. 7, now head to Indianapolis for the Final Four. This was the 13th time Izzo won a tournament game as the lower-seeded team — no other coach has done it more often. This is the seventh Final Four for Izzo — in a 17-year span.
To get there, the Spartans had to recover from a sluggish first half. They allowed 40 points and were a step slow on defense as the Cardinals shot 53 percent, led by Montrezl Harrell, who had 12 points on 6-of-7 shooting. Harrell, coming off a huge game against North Carolina State, warned the Spartans, in general, and Dawson in particular, that they could not match his energy level.
Dawson accepted the challenge. Harrell ran out of gas, scoring just four points after halftime, going 0-for-5 from the floor. Louisville got three fast-break layups from Rozier (13 points) but its half-court offense was almost nonexistent. The Cardinals shot 5-of-25 in the second half and 1-of-7 in overtime — that’s 6-of-32 (19 percent) in the final 25 minutes.
With 4.9 seconds left in regulation and Louisville down 65-64, Mangok Mathiang had a chance to give his team the lead. A 48 percent free-throw shooter, Mathiang, a 6-foot-10 string bean born in the Sudan and raised in Australia, hit the first — the ball knocked off the back, bounced high into the air and fell through the rim.
“You’re like this can’t be happening right now,’’ Trice said. “But we said it, Denzel said it, he’s going to miss the second one … and we’ll be fine.’’
Sure enough, Mathiang missed the second. Trice’s half-court heave misfired to force overtime.
“Sometimes it can be a cruel game,’’ Louisville coach Rick Pitino said. “I was positive we were going to win it when that first free throw went in, because it shouldn’t have gone in.’’
It was the eighth overtime game this season for the Spartans, who had been 2-5 in their first seven. They took the lead in OT on a 3-pointer from the right corner by Forbes and never let it go. Forbes hit two free throws to make it 70-66, Valentine scored on a break to make it 72-66 but a jumper by the struggling Rozier and two free throws from Wayne Blackshear (28 points despite getting sick at halftime) pulled Louisville within 72-70 with 1:04 to go.
Dawson then collected a Forbes miss and banked in a shot from the lane and, at the other end, Valentine stepped in front of a pass from freshman Quentin Snider. Trice, the region’s Most Outstanding Player, made two free throws and that was that.
“I think we definitely shocked the world,’’ Dawson said, “but we’re not done yet.’’