![]() 21 - the Spartans might have then been unbeaten and gotten to test their championship mettle in the BCS title game. There is an argument to be made that if MSU had won the only game it lost that season - 17-13 at Notre Dame on Sept. The counter to doubts about whether MSU football can ever win a national championship in the modern era begins with the Spartans’ 2013 team, which won a Big Ten championship and Rose Bowl the year before the College Football Playoff began. MORE: Couch: Ranking Michigan State basketball's top dozen transfers of the last 50 years What if MSU football had beaten Notre Dame in 2013? That game would have been a toss-up, one that MSU and its fans wish they could have seen play out. MSU would love to have had that defensive possession.Ī win would have put the Spartans in the national championship game against probably Mike Krzyzewski's weakest Duke team to win a title. Green at least should have had that opportunity.īutler would have had plenty of time for a good look of its own, trailing by one at most, with a lineup that included future NBA pros Hayward and guard Shelvin Mack, albeit on a night when the Bulldogs shot less than 31% from the floor. And a reasonable chance he puts the Spartans in the lead. So there’s a good chance that he at least ties the game. Green was a 67% free-throw shooter that season and had made 4 of 8 free throws that night. What if the referee hadn’t swallowed his whistled in that pressure moment? Green then fouled Butler’s Ronald Norad on the rebound and the Bulldogs went on to win 52-50. Most of us have seen the photo and play - Butler’s Gordon Hayward clearly fouled Draymond Green on the wrist as Green turned to shoot over Hayward with 9 seconds left and MSU trailing Butler 50-49 in the 2010 Final Four in Indianapolis. What if Gordon Hayward is called for his foul on Draymond Green’s wrist? It would have changed Heathcote’s legacy and made Izzo a much more obvious choice to replace him. The next season, MSU’s starting five would have against had Respert (who averaged better than 20 points a game) and Peplowski, with sophomore Eric Snow at point guard and junior Kris Weshinskey or senior Dwayne Stephens alongside Webber, if another All-American hadn’t joined by then. That MSU team won 22 games and 11 in the Big Ten (same as the Fab Five) without Webber. That first season, MSU’s starting five would likely have been senior point guard Mark Montgomery, redshirt freshman shooting guard Shawn Respert, senior forward Matt Steigenga, junior center Mike Peplowski and Webber. Webber’s presence might have even led to other recruits joining him in East Lansing. If he’d changed it once more, think about how that would have changed history - MSU’s, Michigan’s, pop culture in this country minus the Fab Five.Īnd, with Webber, MSU’s rosters in 1991-93 - the two years Webber played college ball - would have been good enough to compete for titles. “I must have changed my mind 30 or 40 times.” “If you’d asked me earlier this year if I was going to Michigan, I wouldn’t have said yes,” Webber said on March 23, 1991, as he announced his commitment. ![]() Izzo thought he was going to deliver for his boss, Jud Heathcote, the sort of generational talent that would give Heathcote a shot at a second national title late in his career. Tom Izzo will tell you that he hung up the phone and cried when Chris Webber called to say he was choosing Michigan in March of 1991. Michigan's Fab Five from left, Jimmy King, Juwan Howard, Chris Webber, Jalen Rose and Ray Jackson.
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