Michigan State pulls Big Ten title out of a hat

Published 9:35 am Monday, March 17, 2014

INDIANAPOLIS — Tom Izzo likes this postseason look.

No. 22 Michigan State is getting hot and healthy just in time for the start of the NCAA tournament.

Adreian Payne finished with 18 points and nine rebounds and Branden Dawson added 15 points to help the third-seeded Spartans overpower No. 8 Michigan 69-55 on Sunday for its fourth Big Ten tournament title.

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This is not the same team that frustrated Izzo for so much of the season. Nope, these Spartans are starting to round into their usual March form.

“You don’t get many teams that are talented, have inside and outside, show toughness, are together, have great chemistry,” Izzo said. “I’ve said three times in my career that I thought we were good enough to get to a Final Four. I thought this team was next in line.”

Perhaps, though the Spartans apparently needed to do more than win three games in three days and four of their last five to get their preferred NCAA tournament destination.

Michigan State (26-8) wound up with the No. 4 seed in the East Regional and will open tourney play Thursday against 13th-seeded Delaware in Spokane, Wash. Izzo was hoping to stay in the Midwest where the regional round is being played in Indy, one of the Spartans’ favorite cities.

Sunday’s victory allowed Michigan State to pull off a rare double — winning the Big Ten football and basketball tourney titles — in venues less than a mile apart. Izzo won his only national championship in Indianapolis, played here in the 2010 Final Four and won a 2009 regional at Lucas Oil Stadium, a win that sent the Spartans to the Final Four in Detroit.