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Was this the biggest upset of Tom Izzo’s career?

spt-120322-draymond

Mike Miller

With No. 1 seed Michigan State getting upset by No. 4 seed Louisville 57-44 in the semifinals of the West Region, Draymond Green’s basketball career will come to an end.

Plenty of words have been written this week about Green’s leadership and what he means to this Michigan State basketball team (personally, my favorite is this from Jeff Passan), but I would be remiss if I didn’t say that college basketball will be worse off without him. Green is a rare breed in that he’s just as much of a role model off the court as he is on one.

There is a reason that he was so popular among sportswriters.

But Green is no more for the collegiate ranks, as Michigan State became the first No. 1 seed to go down this season.

This also happens to be the first time that Michigan State failed to make the Final Four as a one seed in Izzo’s tenure, winning the national title in 2000 and reaching the Final Four in 1999 and 2001. When heading into the tournament as a No. 1 or a No. 2 seed, Michigan State has never lost to a team seeded lower than a two.

Until now.

In fact, there may be an argument that this loss was the biggest upset of Tom Izzo’s tournament career, unless you consider their loss as a No. 6 seed to No. 11 George Mason in 2006, the year the Patriots made it to the Final Four, a bigger upset. Izzo has made it to the NCAA tournament 14 times as the head coach of Michigan State. He’s lost to a team that made the Final Four ten of those trips.

Rob Dauster is the editor of the college basketball website Ballin’ is a Habit. You can find him on twitter @robdauster.