It's always good to be a Spartan, but the pain of watching Michigan State sports constantly let us down is unbearable sometimes.
On Friday, Michigan State hoops fell behind by 19 early and then claimed a lead in the second half before running out of gas and losing to UConn 67-63 with an Elite Eight on the line. On Saturday, Adam Nightingale and Michigan State hockey had a chance to salvage what was a lost weekend for the green and white by punching its ticket to a Frozen Four.
It had been 19 years since the Spartans last made the Frozen Four, and they were five minutes from a trip to Las Vegas, holding a 3-1 lead, but Wisconsin scored two goals in 34 seconds to tie the game and then immediately scored the game-winner in overtime.
It was a defensive disasterclass in the third period and overtime, but Trey Augustine gave up the worst goal of the game to lose, ending his Michigan State career on a sour note.
A team that was loaded from top to bottom and had potential to end Michigan State's national title drought choked away what was sure to be a Frozen Four run, and it was like watching your own death on national TV. This entire weekend has been death by a thousand cuts for Spartan fans.
Pain.
Adam Nightingale is rightfully going to catch flak for this loss
For a third straight year, a Big Ten champion Michigan State team fell short of a Frozen Four, and this is the second time that the Spartans were one win away.
Like last year's first-round loss to Cornell, Michigan State just choked away the game in the final minutes of what looked to be the program's first Frozen Four under Nightingale and the first since 2007. This was the most painful way to lose a game, and it just puts a rotten cherry on top of the spoiled sundae that's been this weekend of MSU athletics.
Nightingale has had more than enough talent to make a Frozen Four, but he's fallen short three straight times. He's going to rightfully catch a ton of flak for this one, but I don't doubt that he'll have the talent to get back once again in 2026-27.
Two Michigan State seasons were ended in heartbreaking fashion within the past 24 hours. Just a brutal weekend for the green and white.