This is not Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo's first rodeo. It is, in fact, his 27th rodeo in his 30th season at the helm in East Lansing. He has been in this position before, and it takes a little more than just a win in the Sweet 16 (his 11th) to get him excited.

"Elite Eights are great, but we don't put up any banners for Great Eights," Izzo said when asked about the magnitude of Michigan State's 73-70 win over Mississippi in Friday night's NCAA Tournament contest in the South Region Semifinals. "We put up banners for championships, and Final Fours, and national championships."

In other words, Izzo is not done yet this year.

In fact, on some level, he is just getting started.

As a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, Michigan State was basically "expected" to reach the Regional Final. MSU proved that their seed was accurate. That mission has been accomplished. When it comes to performance against seed expectation, Izzo is the best of all time.

But Izzo and the Spartans want more, and it's the next game where things start to get real.

"It's hard to believe that, in two days, we're playing for a chance to do one of the all-time great things in any basketball player's life - to play for a Final Four," he said. "I'm proud and happy for (the players). They've earned it. They deserved it. They did it."

This type of statement is standard procedure for Izzo.

Despite the fact he is one of the greatest college basketball coaches of all time, he is quick to credit his players and those around him.

It's not about him.

He never makes it about him.

He always makes it about "us."

Friday night in Atlanta was no different. When asked later about the impressiveness of his team's accomplishments, he eventually allowed himself to be a bit more retrospective, but not for long.

"Sometimes it's surreal," Izzo said. "I think of some of the guys that that I've idolized in coaching who have never been to one (Elite Eight). I'm just so pleased, but I'm so humbled by it, because there's so many good players, and my staff did a hell of a job."

Then he quickly pivoted to the team of people around him.

"Everybody's got to be involved," he continued. "We talked about our team being 'strength in numbers,' but our staff, our managers, our scout team, we've had (the) most strength of numbers as we've ever had here."

Izzo knows that when it comes to winning, the sum of the parts has to be greater than the whole.

"To get to an Elite Eight with a team that we all know isn't quite as talented as some as I've had shows you how important connectivity is," he said. "It shows you how important togetherness is. It shows you how important pulling from one another is, and that's what makes this so cool."

But earning the victory in the Sweet 16 was far from easy. Despite being a solid favorite over the scrappy, well-coached team from Mississippi, the Spartans found themselves with yet another slow start.

This time, it was almost the Spartans' undoing.

Michigan State trailed the entire first half of the contest. The Spartans' first lead of the game came with less than eight minutes on the clock. Michigan State did not claim the lead for good until the final few minutes.

"That team (Ole Miss) was the toughest, most physical defensive team that we played in years," Izzo said. "It reminded me of the old Gene Keady (former Purdue coach) or Clem Haskins (former Minnesota coach) teams when I started in this profession, and they did a good job ... we weren't the toughest team tonight, and it pains me to say that."

When asked about what was going wrong in the first half and what the conversations were like in the huddles, Izzo was direct with his answer.

"I asked them what the hell they're doing," he said. "We were not guarding. We were not doing a very good job offensively. (Ole Miss) had slips (to the basket). The real killer was the turnovers. We had turnovers, and they were kind of ridiculous. We gave up a missed cut off free throw. We gave up out of bounds plays. They're supposed to be a poor rebounding team and they kicked our butts. They had twelve offensive rebounds to our five."

Izzo gave Ole Miss a lot of credit, and he gave his own team praise for bouncing back in the second half.

Izzo's players did not disagree with their coach's assessment. In fact, freshman guard Jase Richardson, who led the Spartans in scoring with 20 points, agreed almost completely.

"For us in the first half, we were not being as aggressive as we should have been," Richardson said. "I feel like they were kind of just punking us in the beginning. We couldn't get to the paint. We were shooting decent shots, but not great shots. I think second half that really opened up for us. We were being more aggressive, getting downhill, and getting driving kicks. I felt like we were at our best in the second half."