The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSET

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

THE lowest seeded team left in this year’s final four, Lourawls “Tum Tum” Nairn Jr and the Michigan State Spartans look to continue that upset-minded nature into the Final Four Saturday night.

The East Regional champions, the No.7 Spartans face the Duke Blue Devils, the No.1 seed in the South Region, at 6:09pm in Indianapolis, Indiana, on April 4. The game will be broadcast live on TBS.

Michigan State is making its ninth trip to the Final Four in school history, including its seventh under Tom Izzo.

The Spartans’ seven Final Four appearances in the last 17 seasons rank as the most in the nation. This is MSU’s third Final Four in Indianapolis, including capturing the 2000 NCAA Championship.

For Nairn, he becomes the third Bahamian in the modern era, since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985, to reach the Final Four after Rick Fox (1991) and Magnum Rolle (2006).

Lynden Rose reached the national title game with the Houston Cougars in 1981 with the first edition of the Phi Slamma Jamma, before the tournament expanded.

Michigan State is one of the best defensive teams in the NCAA Tournament and Nairn is one of the forces behind that improvement from the regular season.

Nairn spent most of Sunday’s 76-70 Elite Eight win over Louisville guarding Cardinals leading scorer Terry Rozier. Rozier scored just 13 points and shot 6- 23.

Nairn shared the team’s John E Benington Best Defensive Player Award with junior forward Branden Dawson.

As a team, the Spartans are holding four tournament opponents to a .339 field-goal percentage, ranking third in the tournament, and to .237 shooting from behind the arc, ranking sixth in the tournament.

Duke leads the all-time series against Michigan State (9-2), including a 6-2 advantage on a neutral court. The last six meetings in the series, and eight of the last nine, have all been decided by 10 points or less.

Nairn has become a fan and locker room favourite because of his energy and leadership has been one of the factors to propel the Spartans in a late season push since he joined the starting lineup since early February.

The team has gone 12-3 in that time span and that contribution doesn’t always show up in measurable post-game numbers. He is averaging 2.2 points, 2.3 assists, scored just seven points in the NCAA tournament, yet his teammates depend on him in many ways.

“He does so much for our team that doesn’t show up in the stat sheet,” Spartans leading scorer and senior guard Travis Trice said. “He helps break the press, he gets other guys involved. Tum’s also that energy guy. There are times where guys are kind of tired and Tum’s there with all the energy and boosts everybody up. Tum does a lot of things for us that people really don’t see.”

Number one seeds Kentucky and Wisconsin face off in the other half of the Final Four bracket.