In the end, Michigan State's fatal flaw exposed.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

Albom

MINNEAPOLIS _ The game was lost, and the Spartans' band played a somber tune, as if standing on the Titanic. Cheerleaders, some of them crying, stood arm-in-arm, like mourners at a grave site. Fans in the stands, covered in green, looked stunned, their mouths agape. "What happened?"

Inside the Michigan State locker room, Charlie Bell, the senior who had just played "the worst game of my life" in the last game of his career, stopped in mid-sentence and looked to his right. A few chairs over, Andre Hutson had his head in his hands. He was crying. The sight seemed to put a hush over the whole room. Next to Hutson, Jason Richardson turned into his locker and lowered his eyes.

What happened? Out in the hallway, under a spray of camera lights, Tom Izzo tried to answer the question: How did his powerful team, the defending national champions, lose to Arizona by 19 points? He looked sad. He looked deflated. He looked resigned, grim, melancholy and reflective.

What he did not look was surprised.

"All season long, I thought about why it's so hard to repeat, why so few teams ever do it," Izzo said. "I guess, in a way, I was waiting for this shoe to drop the whole year."

The shoe that dropped, as it turned out, was less about what it takes to win than what it takes not to lose.