MSU Alumni Club of the San Francisco Bay Area

The Spartans will play Marquette in the NCAA Tournament on Thursday at 4:20 p.m. PDT.

“It was a goal of ours at the beginning of the year, but who’s kidding who? It was kind of a long-range goal,” Izzo said Sunday night, shortly after the field was announced. “Through the adversity of the injuries and the illnesses and the strength of that schedule, this team probably accomplished as much to get in as some (of my teams) have accomplished to get to a Final Four.”

Michigan State is a ninth-seeded team and will play eighth-seeded Marquette on Thursday in the first round in Winston-Salem, N.C. The No. 18 Golden Eagles (24-9) are led by former Izzo assistant Tom Crean,

“It’s never fun to play your best friends,” Izzo said.

Crean was Izzo’s top assistant from 1995-99 and was a Michigan State graduate assistant during the 1989-90 season, when Izzo was on Jud Heathcote’s staff.

“I can’t even focus on that,” Crean said. “I’ll tell you, though, we’ve talked so much and last night, we talked late, said we’ve dodged this bullet so many years. And personally, I kept saying to him, `It’s going to be a 7-10 (matchup of seedings).’ I didn’t see an 8-9.

The Spartans are 22-11, including wins over then-No. 1 Wisconsin, No. 15 Texas and No. 23 BYU.

“We’re not perfect, but I can honestly say now that in my deepest and darkest times alone that I would’ve predicted this team would win 22 games with the schedule they played,” Izzo said. “Now, we change goals again and see what we can do. If we can shore up that defense, who knows?”