MSU-Louisville: Spartans Put Their "Suton" Head Home for the Final Four.

In the first of two Elite 8 match-ups on Sunday, the Michigan State Spartans roughed up the No. 1 overall seed Louisville Cardinals 64-52.  The Spartans looked prepared and well-coached, dominating physically from the start.

It took the Cardinals, the same team that put 102 points on the Arizona Wildcats the game before, almost four minutes to get on the board.  This was a sign of things to come.

Senior center Goran Suton had another fantastic game.  Lousiville, famous for their tenacious zone defense, had problems locating Suton on the perimeter.  He paced all players with 17 points in the first half, guiding the Spartans to a 30-27 halftime lead.

Suton finished with 19 points, 10 rebounds, and four assists en-route to garnering player of the game honors.

Michigan State dominated the boards to the tune of 35-26, proving why they are the best rebounding team in the nation.

Louisville could never get into their press during the contest.  In the Sweet 16, the Cards used the press to blow out Arizona.  The Spartans would have none of that. 

Travis Walton played superb defense in holding Louisville's top scorer, Terrence Williams to just five points on one-for-seven shooting.  Williams looked frustrated all game and chucked up a couple air-balls to make matter worse. 

Point guard, and team leader Kalin Lucas had another solid game scoring 10 points and dishing out five assists. 

Durrell Summers added 12 points and Draymond Green grabbed 10 boards to pace a balanced team effort by the Big 10 champs. 

Earl Clark led the Cardinals with 19 points and Preston Knowles had 12 points off the bench, but that was about it. 

The tough-nosed Michigan State defense held Williams and star center Samardo Samuels to a combined 1-for-13 shooting for only five points.  On the season, they averaged 25 points a game. 

The game was played at State's pace throughout.  MSU has a record of 27-0 this season when holding an opponent under 60 points.  They out hustled the Cardinals the entire game and they could never match their intensity.

Early in the second half, the Spartans used a 14-5 run to take control of the game.  They then started to run the shot clock down on almost every possession.

The Spartans shot 46 percent for the game (50 percent from three) and committed only 12 turnovers while holding the heavily favored Cardinals to just 38 percent from the floor.  State's defense forced 12 turnovers and Coach Rick Pitino's team got beat in every facet of the game.

Spartans coach Tom Izzo will be headed to his fourth Final Four and will have the advantage of playing just 90 miles from East Lansing.  The Spartans will be the first team since the 1994 Duke Blue Devils to play a Final Four in that team's home state.

I give the Spartans a punchers chance against The University of  Connecticut in only the second meeting between these two schools to date. 

The Spartans have brought a heavy hand to the Big Dance so far.