March Madness: Ranking the Top 10 games of 2019 NCAA Tournament

By Adam Childs | Apr 9, 2019

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA - APRIL 08: Kyle Guy #5 of the Virginia Cavaliers celebrate his teams 85-77 win over the Texas Tech Red Raiders to win the the 2019 NCAA men's Final Four National Championship game at U.S. Bank Stadium on April 08, 2019 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /

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WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 31: Tre Jones #3 of the Duke Blue Devils reacts after his teams 68-67 loss to the Michigan State Spartans in the East Regional game of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Capital One Arena on March 31, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images) /

7. Michigan State 68 – Duke 67

Duke had all the draft prospects and Michigan State had all the injuries. This should have been Duke’s way to the Final Four again and a National Championship. The Spartans had other plans. Michigan State was considered a Final Four caliber team all year, but with the injury to Joshua Langford and Nick Ward (even though he came back), it looked like they wouldn’t have enough.

That didn’t seem to matter for the Spartans as they still won the Big Ten regular season and tournament championships, but they still looked vulnerable in a closer than expected game against Bradley in the first round. But they blew by Minnesota in the second round and LSU in the Sweet 16 to set up the matchup with a Duke team coming off back-to-back close calls.

Duke had escaped a last-second tip by UCF (more on that game later) and a missed layup to tie against Virginia Tech (again more on that later) to make it to the Elite Eight. This time they couldn’t escape with the win and the talented freshman in Zion Williamson, RJ Barrett, and Cam Reddish would go home without a trip to the Final Four. A pick by many to get the championship game, came up well short of expectations.

It looked in the first half that they could take control but a 13-0 run by the Spartans to close out the half would send Michigan State to the locker room up four. The second half would remain close as a four-point lead by Duke was the biggest lead of the half. It became the Williamson and Barrett show for the Blue Devils, but the lack of help from everyone else was too much for them to overcome.

Even with that they still had a one-point lead late when Kenny Goins hit a three-pointer with 39 seconds left to take the lead. A foul would send Barrett to the line, but he missed the first free throw and even though he tried to miss the second it went in. The Spartans were able to get the ball to Cassius Winston and he dribbled out the clock to secure the win. Winston led the Spartans with 20 points and more importantly wast he heart and soul for a Spartans team that just kept winning. It may not have had the last second shot, but this was a heavyweight fight and the Spartans got the knock out punch.

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