INDIANAPOLIS - Get it to Kalin. At the end of a long night - what appeared, for so long, to be the last night of this Michigan State season - it really was that simple. Get it to Kalin Lucas.
Lucas, the Big Ten Player of the Year, had been outplayed for most of the night by Kansas' fabulous Sherron Collins. But among Lucas' other skills, he has a poise about him. He does not get rattled. Earlier in the night, when Idong Ibok accidently tried to inbound the ball after a Michigan State basket, most of the Spartans looked like they were embarrassed for Ibok, but Lucas laughed. It did not faze him.
So here he was, 48.1 seconds left, ball at the top of the key, Collins looking straight at him. Lucas made a spin move, pump-faked and drew contact, then pulled up. Collins had fouled him.
The shot went in.
"Great players get fouled on those," MSU coach Tom Izzo said afterward. "He just did it about as good as you can do it."
He does this about as good as you can do it, too: Lucas calmly sank the free throw. The Spartans - who had trailed for most of the night - were suddenly up three.
Michigan State was called for fouls on Kansas' next two possessions - questionable fouls that looked like they would take years off Izzo's life. Both times, when the Spartans got the ball back, they looked frantically around the court for the surest, steadiest hands on the team.
Lucas got fouled both times, of course - Kansas had little time and no choice. He went to the line, clinging to a one-point lead, and released his first free throw. Swish. Second one: barely nicked the rim. MSU led, 65-62.
He went back to the line soon after. Good. Good. MSU led, 67-62, and the Spartans were about to ensure that the country would have a new national champion. Kansas would not defend its title.
"He got swagger," senior captain Travis Walton said of Lucas. "When you got a little swagger to you, and you know you can compete with the best, you want the ball in your hands at the end of the game. Whether he fails or he succeeds, I think he's going to go with it and continue to push on. That carries over to our team."
Is that it - what separates Lucas from most players in clutch situations? That he is not afraid to fail?
"I think so," Walton said.
I don't know if Michigan State will beat Louisville, the top overall seed, in the Elite Eight on Sunday. But if the Spartans do it, and return home to Ford Field for the Final Four, you can be sure that neither the stage nor the location will shake Kalin Lucas. Nothing does.
At his Thursday press conference, Izzo made a point he has made often over the years: If you are going to make a run in March, your best players have to play well. Lucas did that when it mattered most.
Lucas still makes mental mistakes, but most of them come from wanting to carry the load. He took a slightly off-balance three-pointer late in the game, part of his desire to make the difference down the stretch. Izzo told him it wasn't a bad shot, just a bad time for it.
"He wanted the ball," Izzo said. "I told him as a point guard, you've gotta read situations. He understood it, he took it. He's starting to realize that I have faith in him to run my team. When you hand somebody your team, there's a responsibility along with the rank that I gave him. He did a marvelous job of it."
And Izzo, who did not talk about Ford Field with his team much this season, can talk about it now. His team is on the doorstep.
Izzo can tell them all about the possibilities, and maybe he can point them next door to Lucas Oil Stadium, where they can see the last remnants of the RCA Dome. It looks like a bomb hit it. That is where Michigan State won the 2000 national title; Izzo said this week that it was tough for him to see the location of "the one highlight of my life" demolished.
Izzo had hoped to match that highlight by bringing the Spartans to the Final Four in their home state. It would have been, in an odd way, an even greater tribute to what Izzo has done at Michigan State. In 2000, people still wondered if Izzo had simply had one special group of players, and if Michigan would take back the state and knock MSU back to the middle of the Big Ten pack.
At the start of this decade, during the Flintstone years, Izzo said he wanted to build a great program, not just a great team. He has a great program. With a win over mighty Louisville, Izzo can take that great program back to Michigan, triumphant in every way, with one of the most poised players in MSU history running the show.
BY MICHAEL ROSENBERG FREE PRESS COLUMNISTIn your voice
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