COLUMBUS, Ohio — Only 10 seconds remained, but Joey Hauser stooped down before inbounding the ball a final time to tie his sneakers anyway.
As he went from one shoe to the next, the chants of «Joey, Joey» came cascading down Nationwide Arena. Michigan State's senior forward saved one of the best performances of his career for his former team — and for one of the biggest stages.
And behind Hauser's double-double, highlighted by his critical late 3-pointer, the No. 7-seeded Spartans advanced to the Sweet 16 on Sunday with a 69-60 upset victory over second-seeded Marquette. «It's so fun to hear people chanting,» Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said of Hauser, «when people weren't chanting a couple of years ago.
I think he deserved every bit of it.» Michigan State entered Sunday with the third-best 3-point shooting percentage (39.4%) in the country.