The Michigan State University men’s basketball team’s appearance in this year’s NCAA Tournament’s Final Four provided the opportunity to not only showcase our team but also to put a spotlight on the programs and people that make MSU a world-class university.
Throughout the tournament, one thing shone clearly: there wasn’t a team out there that could match MSU’s in sheer work ethic. Head coach Tom Izzo called this year’s Spartans “a blue-collar team,” a team that wasn’t afraid to get its hands dirty, or its knees skinned, in pursuit of a dream. It was a team that came within one win of capturing MSU’s third national championship. We’re grateful for the team’s hard work and proud of the way in which it represented MSU.
I am also proud of the thousands of students who celebrated our team’s accomplishments in a safe, responsible manner. News media images of well-behaved crowds shouting “Go Green, Go White” and students and police officers hugging and high-fiving will live on as a part of MSU history. We have often said that Spartans celebrate with class, and that is exactly how we did it this year. Thank you.
I would also like to offer a special thank-you to the community—not just the campus community and the Lansing community but the full community of the state of Michigan. You came together to support MSU and cheer on our team. It felt meant to be that the MSU Spartans surged forward in the tournament precisely at a time when a proud but beleaguered state needed a boost.
Whenever one of our athletic teams participates in a national event—whether it’s the NCAA Basketball Tournament, a football bowl game, or the Frozen Four—it offers an opportunity to show national and international audiences who we are, what we do, and the special spirit with which we do it. It is often through such visibility that the world engages with our university and learns something new about our world-class research, the ways we’re contributing to economic recovery for Michigan, and the work we do at home and around the world to improve quality of life and prosperity for millions of people.
To everyone who made this NCAA Tournament run a reality and to all who work hard every day to make MSU what it is, thank you. You make us proud.
--MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon
DETROIT (AP) -- Michigan State's impressive run through the 2009 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament ended one game short of a national title. The Spartans fell to the North Carolina Tar Heels, 89-72, in the championship game at Ford Field in Detroit. Read more>>
DETROIT (AP) -- Raymar Morgan grinned and lifted his right arm high in the air, saluting a stadium filled with Michigan State fans with a little wave. The Spartans promised their downtrodden state something good, and boy, did they deliver. Read more >>
MSU coach Tom Izzo isn’t the only great thing coming out of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula for the Final Four showdown at Ford Field in Detroit April 4-6. That’s Michigan hardwood – maple, of course –on the floor at Ford Field. The Michigan Farm Bureau has a video showing the installation here. Watch here>>
EAST LANSING, Mich. – When the Michigan State University men’s basketball team takes on the University of Connecticut in Saturday’s NCAA Tournament semifinal, Spartan fans will have several choices as to where to watch the game. Read more >>
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