Couch: 3 quick takes on Michigan State basketball's NCAA tournament win over Minnesota

Lansing State Journal columnist Graham Couch gives his initial thoughts on Michigan State's 70-50 NCAA tournament second-round win over Minnesota.

1. MSU badly needed this Sweet 16 

DES MOINES, Iowa – Michigan State couldn’t have asked for a better second-round opponent than the familiar, flawed and suddenly shorthanded Minnesota Golden Gophers.

And so, two days after looking as uncomfortable as ever in escaping Bradley, the No. 2-seed Spartans surged into the Sweet 16 by looking as comfortable as ever in thumping the Gophers, 70-50.

MSU gets 3-seed LSU in the East Regional semifinals on Friday in Washington, D.C.

This is no small deal. This team and program needed it — to validate everything else that’s been accomplished this winter, to end the drought, however brief, to give this team a chance at its dreams.

Falling short of the NCAA tournament’s second weekend the last three seasons ate at this program, its coaches and these players. There was pressure to get this done. 

This is MSU’s 14th Sweet 16 in the Tom Izzo era. Before Izzo, MSU had been this far just six times in its history. That’s 14 in the last 22 years. The drought was overblown. But it felt real. And losing to Minnesota would have taken the misery to another level.

MSU was the tougher, more organized and connected team out of the gate. And when the Gophers briefly made things interesting, Cassius Winston put together a 7-0 run that speaks to why this MSU team will be tough to beat. 

Minnesota, playing mostly without injured senior Jordan Murphy, never had a chance. Murphy wouldn’t have made much difference.

MSU closes a painful chapter of NCAA tournament trouble and moves on.

2. Freshman thoughts – the Minnesota “Aaron Henry” NCAA tournament edition

After two days at the center of an overblown media conniption, Aaron Henry didn’t give Tom Izzo much reason to yell at him with a nine-point and nine-rebound performance. Henry put together perhaps his best wire-to-wire game of the season, beginning with a first-possession dunk he created by catching the ball on a cut to the basket, faking a pass out to the perimeter and, once the defender bit, finishing uncontested at the rim. 

To begin the second half, he drove, stopped and fed Xavier Tillman perfectly under the basket for another bucket. Henry made good decisions throughout, looking comfortable and under control. When the margin briefly dipped to single digits, with MSU struggling with turnovers and Minnesota pressing, Henry was strong and athletic catching a pass that could have become another turnover. Then, as Cassius Winston began heating up, he stole the ball and fed Winston with a bounce pass in stride for a 3-pointer and a 47-31 lead, restoring order. Minutes later, he didn’t hesitate in taking and burying a 3 to put the Spartans ahead 19 at the midpoint of the second half. 

Henry was all over the glass, too, with eight rebounds in the first half alone. And yet his most important work came on the defensive end, where he drew the assignment of Amir Coffey, who was forced into tough shots throughout and needed 24 of them to get his 27 points.

Foster Loyer played nearly six minutes in the first half and then not again until the game was put away. MSU’s early momentum stalled with him on the floor early and he had one bad turnover. The bigger issue with having Loyer in the game is that everything runs through Winston, so the rest of the team isn’t as connected or confident when Loyer takes his place.

Gabe Brown gave MSU close to 10 first-half minutes and played through his second foul, a sign that Thursday’s benching after foul No. 2 was as much about performance as foul trouble. He was solid, invisible. That’s what the coaches want from him.

Thomas Kithier didn’t play again until garbage time. I keep getting questions about this. Kithier wasn’t in the rotation before Nick Ward’s injury. He’s out again with Ward back, in his role as an emergency big man if foul trouble strikes.

3. LSU, a ferocious beast mired in scandal, awaits MSU in the Sweet 16

The Spartans would lose the swimsuit portion of the competition with LSU’s basketball team. The third-seeded Tigers look the part, especially up front. It’s a gifted and fast-rising program, headlined by sophomore point guard Tremont Waters — who hit the shot to beat Maryland — and 6-foot-10, 240-pound, 32-year-old freshman Naz Reid. Actually, he only looks 32 years old. 

LSU won the SEC championship ahead of Tennessee and Kentucky and beat both of those teams in their only meetings with them. The Tigers are NCAA tournament-tested, too, having escaped with narrow victories over Yale and Maryland to get to the Sweet 16.

And they don’t have a head coach. 

Will Wade has been suspended by the school after Wade’s conversation about paying a recruit surfaced in a federal wiretap, according to Yahoo! Sports. Wade appeared to be talking about Javonte Smart, a freshman guard who averages 11.5 points and 30 minutes per game. Smart is still on the team.

Assistant coach Tony Benford, formerly the head coach at North Texas, has taken over on an interim basis. It’s an odd situation. The Tigers are a bit of an us-against-the-world story. On the other hand, whatever they do in this NCAA tournament might be vacated by the NCAA.

That, of course, won’t happen before MSU plays them on Friday in Washington, D.C. This will be a heckuva challenge. Pound for pound, the Spartans aren’t the more talented team. But they’re far more seasoned, win the coaching matchup and have the best player.

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Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch.