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Enjoy from my personal collection of NCAA Tournament games. After a great opening game to the second round between Kentucky and Syracuse, the Saturday slate continued with another intriguing game, Utah vs. Michigan State. Having played in the 1998 NCAA Championship Game, Utah was always a tough out behind Head Coach Rick Majerus, whose team included Final Four starters Hanno Mottola and Alex Jensen. After having made the 1999 NCAA Final Four, Michigan State was considered one of the teams to beat during the final go around of senior stars Mateen Cleaves and Morris Peterson. Through the first half of this game, Michigan State's dream of a national title was turning into a nightmare, with Utah outplaying the Spartans and leading at the break. However, as often has been the case with Tom Izzo teams out of the halftime break, the Spartans took control of the game in the second half, advancing to the Sweet Sixteen. As for LSU and Texas, I remember watching this game specifically for the matchup between Tigers' big man Stromile Swift and Longhorns' center Chris Mihm. Both players projected as high first-round picks during what would turn out to be an awful 2000 NBA Draft. With the Chicago Bulls expected to have several first rounders, Swift and Mihm were guys I was keeping my eyes on. Ultimately, LSU would pull out this tournament game, advancing to the Sweet Sixteen where the Tigers would seemingly catch a break in #8 Wisconsin, which was about to pull off a major upset and put me in a major depression later on this Saturday. :(
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