One day you're cruising along, overachieving your way to a Big Ten championship, No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament and a Sweet 16 appearance.
And the next day, it's all over. That's the harsh reality of one-and-done time.
Michigan State's season came to an abrupt -- and ugly -- end Thursday night with a 57-44 loss to No. 4 seed Louisville in a West Region semifinal at US Airways Center in Phoenix.
The Spartans were a complete mess offensively. They made 14 of 49 shots (28.6 percent). Coming into the game, they were shooting 48.2 percent.
"I don't think we had one guy play really well, and I'm not sure we did as good of a job as coaches," coach Tom Izzo said during a postgame news conference. "And so we grew together, we won together, we had fun together.
"Today, we cried together. Collectively, we just didn't get it done."
For the seniors, it's always the toughest. The careers of Michigan State captains Draymond Green and Austin Thornton came up short of their Final Four and national championship dreams.
"We could ask for a better ending," Green said, "but the year couldn't get any better."
Michigan State (29-8) exceeded expectations in a season that started with the team unranked. The Spartans went on to share the Big Ten regular-season title before winning the conference tournament.
"We had a special year," Thornton said. "It's a bittersweet feeling."
Louisville (29-9) caused just enough havoc to frustrate the Spartans. Green committed six of the team's 15 turnovers. Point guard Keith Appling had four turnovers.
Meanwhile, Louisville center Gorgui Dieng, a 6-foot-11 sophomore, tied his career high with seven blocked shots.
"They put pressure on us from start to finish," Thornton said of Louisville's tenacious full-court defense. "We tried to game plan for it, but it's just hard to game plan for how athletic and how quick and how good their guards are.
"The big guy did a great job in the middle, too."
Green said of Dieng: "He was very disruptive. We took it at him. He did what he does best. He was an anchor for them."
The Cardinals advance to meet Florida in Saturday’s regional final.
Louisville coach Rick Pitino is 10-0 in the Sweet 16. Izzo fell to 7-3.
Freshman Chane Behanan, a 6-6 forward, led the Cardinals with 15 points. Guard Russ Smith came off the bench to add 11 points.
Senior guard Brandon Wood scored 14 points to lead the Spartans. Green had 13.
Green became Michigan State’s career leader in rebounds, surpassing Greg Kelser. Green had 16 rebounds, giving him 1,096 for his career. Kelser had 1,092 in his career.
Michigan State is the first No. 1 seed to get eliminated from the tournament.
In retrospect, there were some bad omens in the first half for the Spartans. Louisville's Jared Swopshire, who was 3-for-20 from three-point range for the season, hit two triples, including one in the final seconds before halftime.
What's more, Dieng, who had missed his only three-point attempt all season, knocked one down from the top of the key.
"The whole game came down to, really, they made those threes, and a couple were made by people who've never made threes," Izzo said.
Louisville took a 23-18 halftime lead by going 1-for-1 on dunks, 0-for-14 on all other two-point shots, and 7-for-15 from three-point range.
The teams combined to shoot 26.9 percent (14-for-52) in the first half. Green was the only Spartan who made more than one basket by halftime.
"We were really out of sync," Izzo said. "We made some foolish plays."
There were a couple key sequences that helped Louisville start to pull away. First, with the Spartans trailing 31-25, Dieng blocked a shot by Green.
Louisville then scored on an alley-oop from Swopshire to point guard Peyton Siva. Green committed a turnover on the in-bounds pass, leading to two free throws by Louisville's Smith for a 35-25 lead.
A few minutes later, Dieng blocked Adreian Payne's shot inside with Louisville leading 37-31. Chris Smith hit a three-pointer for the Cardinals and then made a steal from Appling to set up a layup for Kyle Kuric, extending the lead to 11.
"They're a very athletic team," Izzo said. "They're a different team than we've played. We always play a lot of different teams. That's one we never faced.
"Maybe it was a bad matchup for us."
