With 48 seconds left, Kalin Lucas put Michigan State ahead.
The date was March 27, 2009. Kansas had the Spartans tied at 60 in the Sweet Sixteen when Lucas reached the lane, drew contact from Sherron Collins and scored. The free throw gave Michigan State a three-point lead. According to the Associated Press game report carried by Michigan State, Lucas finished with seven points in the final 49 seconds as the Spartans won 67-62.
That sequence is a useful place to begin as Michigan State prepares to honor Lucas. The university scheduled its Athletics Hall of Fame ceremony for September 11. The announcement lists him fifth in program scoring with 1,996 points and tenth in assists with 558. The Kansas finish puts a possession beside those career totals.
Lucas shot 5-for-15 that night. A difficult shooting game still left him responsible for creating against Collins with the clock running down. After the three-point play, Lucas made four more free throws to finish the win. Michigan State trusted the same guard through the misses and the closing possessions, and he converted the chances that decided whether its season continued.
Goran Suton supplied 20 points and nine rebounds in that win, the AP report records. Lucas's late scoring worked because Michigan State had stayed close enough to use it. Giving the finish its proper weight means keeping Suton in the story, too.
Michigan State's Hall of Fame announcement places Lucas on its 2009 and 2010 Final Four teams. His role in the second run needs its own sentence. He tore his Achilles in the second round in 2010 and watched the remaining games from the sideline. The team advanced without him on the floor.
The next season gave Lucas another substantial contribution to make. At the March 6, 2011 team awards banquet, both the team and media selected him as MVP. Michigan State reported averages of 17.0 points and a personal-high 33.1 minutes at that point in the season. It was his third straight year receiving team MVP recognition.
For a guard coming back to a college rotation, minutes describe a responsibility that a single highlight cannot. Lucas was carrying the team's largest scoring average again while playing more minutes per game than he had before. The university's September announcement confirms that he finished his senior season at 17.0 points per game.
CBR's college coaching debate weighs the people running the programs. Lucas's career supplies the other side of that discussion. Players have to make the late free throws and return for the next season's workload.
I'd begin his Hall of Fame case with the Kansas finish, then spend just as much time on the senior season that followed his injury.
