It wasn’t the outcome Michigan State was expecting, especially with no matchup with Kansas in the championship game, but the Spartans still left Maui with a winning record and victories over Georgia (Anthony Edwards) and UCLA.
Fifth place sounds bad because, well, it was far short of expectations after an opening round loss to Virginia Tech. The Hokies were hitting 3-pointer after 3-pointer and that downed the Spartans who just couldn’t pull off the comeback late in the second half. If this team is going to make a deep run in March, it needs to be more consistent on both ends.