Tom Izzo is already planning for his next NCAA Tournament run with Michigan State

The NCAA Tournament — also known as March Madness — is truly one of the best times of the year for sports fans. But one of the harsh truths that is easy to forget is that only one of the 68 men's basketball teams that enters the Big Dance ends the season with a win.

That means that there are 67 sets of disappointed fans, 67 tear-filled locker rooms, and 67 press conferences where the head coach gets to say his final words about the group of guys that he has led through battle for the past six months.

On Friday night, the season came to an end for the Michigan State Spartans. MSU got off to a miserable start against the UConn Huskies and found themselves down by 19 points just 10 minutes into the game.

The Spartans finally found their legs late in the first half and managed to come roaring back to take the lead in the second half, but didn’t seem to have the energy to make it to the finish line. 

UConn was able to make more winning plays in the final few minutes to secure the 67-63 victory.

Following the game, MSU head coach Tom Izzo was already in a reflective mood.

”It's very hard to be disappointed and yet proud,” he said in the postgame press conference.

Izzo went on the explain that his Spartans seemed nervous in the opening minutes of the game. But he was proud of the fight that they displayed in the final 30 minutes of action.

“I thought our guys played their ass off,” Izzo said. “I thought they played hard as hell after the first 10 minutes … We just kind of wore down.”

Izzo also was quick to praise the Huskies and their head coach, Dan Hurley. The mutual respect between the two coaches became eminently clear over the past week.

”(I give) a lot of credit to Danny,” Izzo said about Hurley. “I really like his team. They've got toughness. They've got shooters. They've got guys inside … The better team won (on Friday night).”