Yahoo Sports’ Jason Fitz and former Big 12 player of the year Marcus Morris Sr. react to the Spartans 71-63 victory over the Lobos in the second round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament.

Video Transcript

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.

Michigan State starts slow but ends up pulling away and they get a big win over New Mexico.

Marcus Morris Senior, I’m Jason Fitz.

Let’s break it down.

Michigan State wins 71 to 63, and Marcus, I feel like we’ve been talking about this for about a week.

It’s not any one player for Michigan State.

It’s the sum of the parts that continues to dominate and it makes them a tough out, particularly in the second half of games.

You said it correct.

The bench came and delivered 36 points from the bench.

Man, that’s a lot, bro.

I’m telling you, if they can get this production in the tournament, they have a real chance of going to the Final Four.

The bench almost had more than half the points in this game, man, if not all, if not half.

And, and I didn’t think coming into this tournament that they could survive a terrible night for Jase Richardson.

And that was tonight.

He couldn’t buy a bucket.

Even Izzo admitted that after the game.

I’m surprised to see JaceP so low on the overall box score and such a small part of the game and still see them find a way to pull away.

It just speaks to the fact that they have next man up mentality in the way that they built this entire roster.

Definitely they death is killer, man, you know.

We all know that Michigan State hang their hat on defense and we knew that it would be the point of time in this tournament where they couldn’t score, but they had a good senior guard play.

Jaden Aiken stepped up with a close game around 7 minutes and hit a big 3, and I felt like the lead just opened up for Michigan State.

Yeah, now they’re gonna get the 6 seed Ole Miss.

What do you think?

Ole Miss is playing really well.

Michigan State.

Surprisingly, man, they can win games without scoring the ball, it’s gonna be hard to beat this team.

Yeah, well, keep one thing in mind.

Michigan State is headed to the Sweet 16, and this is also a Sweet 16 for Izzo, as it is his 16th Sweet 16 appearance that is a level of dominance that we may never know again.

That is absolutely incredible by him.