ATLANTA − If Sunday is to be anything like the last time Tom Izzo and Michigan State basketball met a Bruce Pearl coached team with a Final Four berth on the line, well, buckle up.
The first and only other occasion came on March 28, 2010 in St. Louis at The Dome at America's Center, when Izzo's Spartans faced Pearl's Tennessee Volunteers.
The contest was played within four points for the final 10:24 of the game. With MSU up one and 12 seconds left to play, some guy named Draymond Green fouled Tennessee's Scotty Hopson.
Hopson made the first, then missed the second, which left the game tied at 69 with 12 seconds to play. Pearl still to this day laments what transpired after that.
"The head coach made a bad mistake," Pearl said Saturday afternoon at State Farm Center in Atlanta, previewing Sunday's clash between 1-seed Auburn and 2-seed Michigan State while reflecting on the last meeting of this kind. "I put my two bigs − I had both 4 and 5 on the free-throw, offensive free-throw set, Wayne Chism and Brian Williams. Scottie misses the second free throw. They (Spartans) get the rebound and the scramble, outlet it, get it down the floor, and we foul. They go to the line ... and win the game.
"I haven't been up late very often, but I cost my team in that moment."
Pearl, who was fired by Tennessee in 2011 and hired by Auburn in 2014, has been to one Final Four in his career, while Izzo has been to eight, the most of any coach still dancing.
The only time Auburn made it to that point was in 2019 in Minneapolis, which just so happens to be the last time MSU was in the national semifinals. The Spartans ultimately lost to Texas Tech that year (coached by Chris Beard, who the Spartans just defeated with Ole Miss 73-70 on Friday in the Sweet 16) while Auburn got its heart ripped out by Virginia in overtime after committing a foul in the closing seconds.
The Tigers enter this game as 5½-point favorites according to Vegas oddsmakers − after all they are the No. 1 overall seed − but Pearl tried to push back against that notion, implying Izzo's experience and the Spartans program that's been to 16 Sweet 16 the past 27 years and is now in its ...
