MINNEAPOLIS -- Nobody could find Tom Izzo's backpack. Several Michigan State staff members searched the locker room and the various connected rooms. Izzo was holding court with reporters, but he'd stop talking eventually -- maybe? -- at which point he'd need to exit U.S. Bank Stadium for good. But not without his bag. Izzo had just coached in his eighth national semifinal and lost for the sixth time. So he knew what to expect once the final buzzer sounded at 10:07 p.m. CT. As the winning head coach -- this time, Texas Tech's Chris Beard -- addressed the media from a dais, Izzo was in an adjacent hallway with two of his players, Cassius Winston and Matt McQuaid. Behind closed doors, across from a table with soda cans and NCAA-approved cups, they sat on a black leather couch. Just outside, those affiliated in any way with Texas Tech, whose men's basketball program was appearing in its first ever Final Four, celebrated the 61-51 victory. "This is not a dream!" one person said. On the dais, the moderator dismissed Beard: "Coach, we'll see you again tomorrow." Izzo and his players took his place. "Very seldom in my career have we kind of got 'out-beat up,'" Izzo said. "And tonight was one of those nights." At 10:46, McQuaid took a seat on the rear-facing bench of an E-Z-GO golf cart and rode back to the locker room. A media relations staffer did most of the talking in the 100-yard ride, smiling and patting McQuaid on the back. McQuaid, a senior who’d just played his last game at Michigan State, stared at the carpet, expressionless. Izzo continued to field questions at the dais, saying that he could tell early on that Michigan State was in trouble and felt fortunate to be down just two at halftime. He talked about the Big Ten's title drought and Matt Mooney's incredible shooting. He put the game in the simplest of terms: "They made some plays. We didn't make some plays. We missed some shots." Back in the Michigan State locker room, the players were subdued but not sullen. Disappointed but not distraught. There were few, if any, tears. Players handled the defeat with class, crediting Texas Tech and answering every question. Long-time staffer Doug Herner doled out hugs. Freshman Gabe Brown opened a prepared meal, ignoring the broccoli and rice to take a bite out of a burrito, only to immediately question the choice. Nick Ward teased him about a particular defensive play during which Brown apparently almost rolled his ankle. Walk-ons, without the distraction of reporters' questions, scrolled through their phones. Izzo appeared, asking nobody in particular, “Where am I going?” before getting ushered to a BTN interview in a space between the stadium hallway and the locker room. “We got every inch out of this team,” he said, later adding, “I had a hell of a time this year.” Players left the locker room, sneakers in hand, commemorative posters sticking out of their backpacks. Most had several days’ worth of security tags on their bags, different colors for different days. They had hoped to add two more to the collection, but Texas Tech and Virginia earned that right. Izzo emerged at 11:13 and took his spot against a wall, a semicircle of reporters in front of him. Steve Mariucci, Izzo's good friend from their childhood days in Iron Mountain, in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, showed up. "Is that Izzo?" he asked, unable to see the coach in the middle of the scrum. Wearing a green Michigan State zip-up sweatshirt, he talked about how every team but one leaves this Tournament disappointed. He was in Chicago when these Spartans won the Big Ten Tournament. He didn't go to Des Moines, Iowa, for the first two NCAA Tournament wins, nor Washington, D.C. for the regional. He wanted to, but a nephew got married last weekend. "Who gets married in March?" he said. Izzo kept talking. “Boy, is he being patient,” noted a security guard, the same one who, at halftime of the game, alerted police about a drunk fan who’d snuck into the area and nearly made his way into the Auburn locker room. “Anything else, guys?” a media relations staffer asked, hoping the answer was no. But the questions kept coming and Izzo, as usual, was content to answer them. After nearly 19 minutes of talking outside the locker room and nearly 40 consecutive minutes of answering questions -- 85 minutes after the game ended -- he was done. With team personnel still searching for his bag, Izzo spotted Mariucci, who lifted his right arm. He had Izzo's backpack all along. "I'll be your caddy," Mariucci joked as they walked the hallway towards the team bus, leaving the Final Four earlier than they'd hoped. It was a walk Izzo knew all too well.<doc-sep>Minneapolis — Tom Izzo had questions. And as he stood in the hallway outside a quiet, somber Michigan State locker room late Saturday night, he promised there would be more. The Spartans had come up short again in a Final Four, and while this is the sort of shortcoming only a Hall of Fame coach could understand, it was something Izzo knew his team needed to hear as well amid the appreciative thanks and the heartfelt apologies that always follow a season-ending loss in the NCAA Tournament. “I’m a huggy-feely type of guy, but I also wanted to know what happened? (So I asked) ‘What do you think happened?’ ” Izzo said after Michigan State’s 61-51 loss to Texas Tech in Saturday’s national semifinal at U.S. Bank Stadium. “I’m gonna come back here someday, and hopefully it won’t take another four years. But I’m gonna get back here. And that’s one of the things I asked my team in the locker room. ‘Was it the prep bad? Were you tired? Was the scouting report bad? … Maybe it was the crowd. Maybe it was the excitement. Maybe it was the defense.” And maybe — or probably, Izzo admitted — it was a combination of all those things as the Spartans met the same fate as Gonzaga and Michigan had a week earlier in this NCAA Tournament. Texas Tech’s top-rated defense — a stifling scheme that’s impossible to simulate in practice — was too much even for his Michigan State team, a group that hadn’t lost in more than a month and was fresh off a thrilling Elite Eight win over Duke. Izzo lamented the fact his team was outmuscled by a more physical opponent Saturday night. (“They were the tougher team tonight — they just were,” he shrugged.) But this wasn’t the defiant Izzo of a few years ago, standing in a hallway in Tulsa after a second-round NCAA loss to Kansas with a freshman-dominated roster, promising “paybacks” and vowing, “We’re not gonna get outrebounded again in my life.” No, this was a coach who knew he’d gotten just about everything he could from the roster that finished the season. A rotation that was missing its second-best player in Joshua Langford and one that surely could’ve used the grit and shooting of Kyle Ahrens, who suited up and went through warm-ups Saturday — “I think he knew how much we needed him,” Izzo said — but never was going to play on that badly-sprained ankle he rolled in the Big Ten tournament final three weeks ago. “We were down on the perimeter, we really were,” Izzo said. “And tonight somebody took advantage of that.” Growing expectations But that’s where the sadness turned Saturday night. That’s a big part of the reason the postgame locker room didn’t feel like it did a year ago after that stunning loss to Syracuse. No, this one felt more like the one four years ago in Indianapolis, the last time Michigan State reached a Final Four. There were tears, sure. Just as there were then, when "Tum Tum" Nairn and Matt Costello broke down talking about sending the seniors — Travis Trice and Branden Dawson — out the wrong way. And there was a junior point guard — Cassius Winston now, Denzel Valentine then — reminding teammates about unfinished business. But there’s also a coach who understands that a loaded roster returning — four starters who’ll be viewed as possible NBA draft picks in 2020 — only guarantees higher expectations. It won’t guarantee results. It didn't in 2016, remember? “It’s hard for kids, especially when you’re 18 or 19 and you’ve got three years left,” Izzo said. “You always think there’s a tomorrow. … “I wish I could be a coach that could explain to my players that, ‘Don’t ever think about next year, because it may never come.’ ” The good news, however, is that his All-American point guard, Winston, seems to understand that. (“He said, ‘You know coach? You’re right,’” Izzo smiled.) And so do some of the younger players who’ll be counted on to take on much larger roles next season with the departures of seniors Matt McQuaid and Kenny Goins, and probably junior Nick Ward as well. The full 40 Michigan State wouldn’t have gotten to this point without the development of sophomore Xavier Tillman or freshman Aaron Henry this winter. Tillman averaged 13.3 points and 8.1 rebounds over the final 13 games of the season, winning Big Ten Sixth Man of the Year honors even as he emerged defensively as a game-changing interior presence in the starting lineup. But while he continues to develop his perimeter skills to become more of a pick-and-pop option this summer, he’ll also need to work on polishing his finishing skills around the basket. He’ll need to work on his strength and conditioning to finish games, too, a point Saturday’s loss drove home for Tillman, who admittedly was tired with his leg muscles cramping while playing 35 minutes against Texas Tech. “But that’s another motivation for next year,” he said, “to get to where I’ll be able to play Kenny-type minutes and be productive for those 40 minutes.” Henry looked lost for much of his freshman season, and he struggled to find his confidence after being asked to step into the starting lineup in mid-January. But his play down the stretch — averaging nearly 10 points and six rebounds while making huge strides defensively — helped spark the Spartans’ late-season run. He nearly did the same Saturday night after getting in early foul trouble against Texas Tech. “Aaron Henry, man, he made some big-time plays late in that game, and he really locked in defensively,” Izzo said. “What I really like about Aaron every day is when you challenge him, he responds. And that’s a great quality to have.” It’s one that another talented freshman, Gabe Brown, will need to show if Michigan State’s going to become the team that Izzo imagined this one might before the injuries set in. “Poor Gabe had the deer-in-the-headlights (look),” Izzo said after Henry’s foul trouble forced him into 14 minutes of action. “I mean, the kid, he works hard, but he’s just not experienced enough right now.” That won’t be an excuse a year from now, which is what the players were talking about as they sorted through the emotions Saturday. Izzo spoke up, and so did Winston. “Mostly talking to the freshman and I about this feeling that we have of defeat,” Tillman said. "And telling us to keep this feeling through the spring and summer workouts, so that we come into next year at a different level.” Michigan’s players were saying much the same thing a week ago after their season ended at the hands of this same Texas Tech team. And depending on early pro departures, both teams should be viewed as Big Ten favorites with preseason top-10 national rankings in the fall. Winston’s ball-screen prowess all but guarantees the Spartans will have an efficient offense once again. In December Izzo was thinking this also might be his best transition team since the 2000 national title squad led by Mateen Cleaves. Next year, with Langford back and Henry off and running, it should be. Still, there are no guarantees when it comes to that kind of promise. “Put it this way: We’ve got a lot of guys that gotta get better,” Izzo said. “And they gotta get better in a lot of areas.” That includes Izzo and his staff, of course, as they try to figure out ways to better integrate the talent and spread out the minutes. Winston needs backcourt help, whether it's Foster Loyer or top recruit Rocket Watts. Tillman's going to need a tag-team partner inside. But all of that is why the Spartans' season ended with answers laced with questions from the head coach. “I’m gonna make sure I really analyze this,” Izzo said. “Because there’ll be another goal to get back here next year.” john.niyo@detroitnews.com Twitter @JohnNiyo<doc-sep>ANAHEIM, Calif. — Earlier this season, Texas Tech coach Chris Beard said he received a letter from Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski. It arrived not long after the schools played at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 20. This was among the tidbits apparently directed at people who might be surprised, if not shocked, that Texas Tech is headed for the Final Four for the first time in school history after the third-seeded Red Raiders beat top-seeded Gonzaga on Saturday at the Honda Center. Unlike Gonzaga, Duke beat Texas Tech — by a score of 69-58, after Texas Tech pulled within 60-57 with 3:41 left to play — but the Red Raiders impressed Krzyzewski in the process. “After the game in the handshake line and in the hallway, Coach K had some great things about our team,’’ Beard recalled Saturday. “ ‘What a heavyweight battle. You guys are really good. Good luck this season.’ “Then he wrote me a letter.’’ Still dancing:Texas Tech earns first trip to the Final Four with defeat of Gonzaga It can happen:Three reasons Texas Tech will win the national title in Minneapolis The letter. And the love he got from other coaches. While the media may have missed on Texas Tech’s potential, Beard made it clear members of the coaching fraternity knew his team was talented. There was Rick Pitino, who Beard said visited Texas Tech’s locker room in Memphis after the Red Raiders beat the Memphis Tigers 78-67. “He talked to our players in the locker room after the game and he said, ‘I've had teams less talented than you guys make it to the Final Four,’ ” Beard recalled. “It's about the intangibles and the things you guys stand for. (Kansas coach) Bill Self in our league thought we were good enough to make a run in this tournament.’’ 'Bonehead':Play on inbound helps sink No. 1 Gonzaga late in loss to Texas Tech Final Four-bound:Texas Tech soaks in historic moment after Gonzaga win But the plaudits started before the season even started. When Texas Tech played Houston in a preseason scrimmage, Beard said Cougars coach Kelvin Sampson grabbed him “And he goes, ‘Chris, you guys are really good, your new pieces, you guys are really good and you can compete for a (Big) 12 championship,’ ” he said. Turns out this team is good enough to compete for even more.<doc-sep>
As Texas Tech’s Chris Beard climbed the coaching ladder over the past 20 years, he always kept an eye on colleagues he admired. Among those on Beard’s short list: Michigan State’s Tom Izzo. “Coach Izzo is one of my idols,” Beard said Monday on a Final Four teleconference call with reporters. “He’s somebody I look up to. He's been great to coaches. When I was a junior college coach, a small college coach, and a young assistant, I watched his teams practice in the open practices at the Final Four for years. “It's almost surreal that we'll be having a chance to coach and play against him.” That long-awaited opportunity will come Saturday night when No. 2 seed Michigan State and No. 3 Texas Tech will square off in the national semifinal at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. It’ll mark the first meeting between the head coaches and their programs. According to Beard, he and Izzo don’t have much of a history and haven’t crossed paths often. By the time Izzo took over at Michigan State in 1995, Beard was still bouncing around as an assistant and toiling in the small college ranks until he became an assistant on Bob Knight’s Texas Tech staff in 2001. In fact, Beard said he’s had the chance to talk to Izzo just once and that happened on the recruiting trail at a Peach Jam event where Izzo “went out of his way to be nice to me.” Still, it’s a moment that resonated with Beard and one reason why he reached out to Izzo on Monday morning to congratulate him on his eighth trip to the Final Four. “Just to his experience at Michigan State, when Coach Knight was in the Big Ten at Indiana, I think Coach Izzo has always gone out of his way to say nice things about Coach Knight, and I've always respected that from afar,” Beard said. “Talking to him on the phone was just really cool. People talk about Final Four moments, and I'm sure there will be a bunch this weekend, but it's pretty cool having a chance to talk to Coach Izzo.” The respect for Izzo doesn’t stop there. According to Beard, he has preached about the staples of Izzo’s Michigan State teams since he took over at Texas Tech in 2016. “In our program, we have terminology, Michigan State toughness, Tom Izzo rebounding,” Beard said. “These are things we tell our teams. “We have so much respect for his program. We're a program ourselves that tries to be blue collar and rebound and play defense and tries to be as tough as anyone. To me, in my opinion, that's Michigan State basketball.” And after beating top-seeded Gonzaga and No. 2 Michigan last weekend to become West Region champions, Beard and the Red Raiders wont be daunted by Izzo and the Spartans. Instead, they'll try to beat them at their own game. “The last two years, when we get to March, no matter who's in front of us, we've played against a team just as good in the Big 12,” Beard said. “So as good as Michigan State is — and believe me, they're really, really good, obviously — we have played teams this year, Kansas State and Iowa State, we have played Duke in the nonconference. “So, for us, it's another great game.” Final Four At U.S. Bank Stadium, Minneapolis Saturday ►Virginia (33-3) vs. Auburn (30-9), 6:09 p.m. (CBS) ►Michigan State (32-6) vs. Texas Tech (30-6), 8:49 p.m. (CBS) as Monday ►Championship, 9 p.m. (CBS) jhawkins@detroitnews.com Twitter: @jamesbhawkins