ATLANTA — The list is incredibly short, but just got a little longer.
Adreian Payne. Keith Appling. A.J. Hoggard. Malik Hall. Now, Jaden Akins.
There aren't many Michigan State basketball players under Tom Izzo who have stayed in East Lansing for four years without making a Final Four, but Akins became the latest, when his Spartans fell just short against 1-seed Auburn in the south regional final at State Farm Arena, 70-64.
Despite that fact, those who shared a locker room with MSU's captain look up to him tremendously. And always will.
"Jaden, bro, that's my brother, that's like my real brother ,bro," Tre Hollomon said through tears. "We've had so many talks. I love him,
"I just try to keep him like confident because we needed him. ... He's a winner man. He's a great person. I'm just gonna keep on cheering for him."
Akins played in 138 games with 98 starts at Michigan State, improving with each passing season.
He shot better than 42% on 3-pointers as a sophomore, cracked double-digit scoring per game as a junior and led MSU with 12.8 points per game as a senior.
Akins's shooting was off in his final college game Sunday — he opened 1-for-10 before he hit five of his final seven shots and finished second on the team with 15 points — but MSU wouldn't have been there without the man who was named to the Big Ten all-defensive team.
The 6-foot-4, 195-pound wing from Farmington knew that he wanted to play for Michigan State from the time he was in elementary school, and as his collegiate career wrapped up, he did his best to reflect on what the youth version of him may think of his journey.
"It was definitely ups and downs, not everything went as planned," he said. "But I feel like there were a lot of great moments, too.
"This year, definitely, was worth everything. I mean this was the best year of basketball of my life to be around these guys. So I mean, I'm grateful."
Akins was the longest-tenured Spartan, but not the only senior on the roster. The others were one-year rentals, so to speak, in Frankie Fidler and Szymon Zapala, but the tears streaming down their face postgame showed this meant a whole lot more than just one year to them.
