As for the Spartans, they stand a good chance of making the tournament regardless of what happens. Look no further than last year when they had a poor overall season yet were still selected comfortably into the Big Dance. Their main goal every year is to make the Final Four and win a championship. 

I honestly thought UMKC would have a decent chance of staying with Michigan State for much of the game. While the Roos had a tough start of the season, getting Black Lined in an exhibition against Benedictine and once again in the season open against NW Missouri St, they had turned things around and won 6 of their last 7. MSU is also notorious for letting teams stay in games in their non-conference slate. They already had done so this year with Central Connecticut and Bowling Green.

The first thing I heard when walking up to the Breslin Center was the familiar bell you usually hear around Christmastime, asking for donations in front of malls or grocery stores. I was surprised to see the bell-ringer was Sparty, the MSU mascot, ringing the bell in front of the Magic Johnson statue asking for donations to send him to nationals. (MSU spends enough money, can't they fork over a few hundred more to get him there?)

I met up with my friend Todd at the front entrance. He's a friend back from Myrtle Beach, with whom I normally watch all things MSU or Detroit sports-related back home, and who was also up north visiting family. We were able to get sweet deal on StubHub, but it did leave us in the upper reaches of the arena.


There was a nice Military Appreciation Night tribute before the game and at halftime, and it led to the big flag before the national anthem.

The time finally came for me to switch to the Roos as the game tipped off. It took all of 4 seconds for MSU to win the tip and get a layup. OK, things were off to a rough beginning, but things would hopefully get better... they didn't. Michigan St started the game on 16-2 run, to the delight of a home crowd that was missing the Izzone on the holiday break -- MSU sold the student section seats to the general public and filled all of them.

UMKC finally did start scoring a bit as the first half got going, but this was turning into a classic guarantee game. I figured that Reggie Chamberlain, the Roos' leading scorer, would have to have a strong game to keep up with MSU, but he was held scoreless in the 1st and UMKC trailed by 20 going into the half.

I really didn't have much to cheer about for UMKC starting the second half, either. Sparty ran out with a huge 28-6 run to begin the half. It wasn't a pretty scene for the Roos, as they didn't show any spark until the final 3 minutes, highlighted with 2 sweet dunks by Trinity Hall. I couldn't help but smile when all of this caused Tom Izzo to call timeout to chew out his younger players while they were up 40. At least this one little stretch of the game for UMKC got under his skin.

MSU came away with a easy win and my one-night experiment didn't work out so well for the Roos. I don't think I could ever give up cheering for my team above the Red Line on a permanent basis. It's been way too long for me to turn back now, but part of me will always be rooting for the little guy.