#WhatIf tournament: Michigan State returns to Final Four

Death, taxes and Tom Izzo in March.

Perhaps no coach in college basketball is better at having his team peak in the postseason than the Michigan State head coach. He proved his mettle again by leading the Spartans to the Final Four in the Review-Journal’s What If Tournament.

Xavier Tillman had 14 points and nine rebounds, but it was a defensive stop that helped send Michigan State to Atlanta as the second-seeded Spartans held on for an 85-83 win over No. 8 Florida in the East Region final.

After Michigan State’s Malik Hall missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 15 seconds remaining, Tillman swatted away Kerry Blackshear’s driving layup at the buzzer to preserve the win.

The Gators trailed 82-73 after Tillman’s 3-pointer with 3:52 remaining. Keyontae Johnson scored five points on a 10-2 run to get Florida within a point with 1:03 to play.

Aaron Henry made 1 of 2 from the line for the Spartans before Ques Glover missed a pair of 3-point attempts that would have given Florida the lead before Hall was fouled, setting up the last chance for the Gators.

Cassius Winston had 17 points and seven assists to lead five Michigan State players in double figures. Rocket Watts made 7 of 8 shots and scored 16 points.

Johnson had 16 points for Florida, which got 15 points and eight rebounds from Andrew Nembhard.

The Spartans became the first of two teams to advance to the Final Four in our hypothetical tournament on Saturday:

Midwest Region

(1) Kansas 79, (2) Creighton 59 — Devon Dotson had 14 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds to record the first triple-double of the tournament and wrap up the Most Outstanding Player award in the Midwest Region.

The Jayhawks clamped down defensively, forcing 18 turnovers and holding a Bluejays team that came in red hot from outside to just 4 of 21 on 3-pointers.

Kansas, which got 18 points from Marcus Garrett, led by as many as 27 points in the second half.

Creighton made just 31 percent of its shots. Ty-Shon Alexander led the way with a game-high 19 points.

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on Twitter.