Heading into Selection Sunday, Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo was concerned.

“Until 10 o'clock last night, I felt pretty good,” he said Sunday evening shortly after finding out with his team that they would indeed be heading to Charlotte, North Carolina to kick off MSU’s 26th-straight NCAA Tournament. “Then when that stuff came across the air that we're a bubble team, to be honest I was shocked and haven't slept since. It was one of the most anxious days in my career. The sitting back and waiting is really something. I haven't had to do it that many times. But you can't do anything about it. It's not waiting for a big game; it's waiting for your future.”

Izzo opened up about the frustrating part of working to get to the NCAA Tournament – you never truly know what the selection committee is going to value the most.

“For 29 years we tried to schedule some of the best non-conference teams,” said Izzo. “I felt good if you believed in the NET, I felt good if you believed in the strength of schedule, I just never know which one is valid. The other thing is, when you play a team like Wisconsin who was so hot when we played them, then they go and lose seven out of nine, they get so hot at the end. A lot of factors, really none of them matters right now I'm just so happy.”

Izzo knows that his team could 100% have done more to help its own cause.

“It has not been the year I was hoping it would be,” Izzo confessed. “Yet we're three, four wins and we could be a five or six seed. That's how tough it is right now. We lost so many games by a small number of points. But the uncertainty is over. Now we're playing and we got Mississippi State.”

It was a roller coaster of emotions for Izzo as he and his team watched the bracket unfold live before their very eyes, just like MSU fans were doing across the country. “When I saw we weren't going to be playing (in) Dayton, I said, 'uh-oh,' it was all or nothing,” said Izzo. “Then of course we had to be in the last bracket. I felt really relieved when they called our name at (seed) nine. I didn't care what we were, I really didn't. Right now, I'm just happy we're in and get an opportunity to keep playing. I'm hoping we can use the experience we've had to put some things together and see where it takes us.”

There were multiple times in the last couple weeks that Izzo was confident that his Spartans were in the Big Dance. But the confidence started slipping away as he saw all of the bid stealing going on Saturday and watched as his Spartans dropped and dropped on many bracket prognosticators predictions.

“This is how goofy I am,” Izzo said Sunday night. “After we beat Northwestern at home, I thought we were all but in, then we beat Minnesota, I felt even better when we gave Purdue the game we did. I did feel like we were in. Last night I went to a friend's house after the hockey game then saw we were a bubble team. That was too bad because that really ended the sleep.”

Izzo reiterated that he struggles with knowing what criteria the selection committee uses.

“Some make a big deal out of the NET, some make a big deal out of the strength of schedule, some wins and losses,” he explained. “That's what made it nerve-racking. As they say, when you go through it and its nerve-racking and you come out on the right side, you have a better appreciation for it. For me, after all these years there's been two or three, I had to sweat it out a little bit. I wouldn't have sweated this one out until last night.”

In fact, the nervousness Izzo felt today was definitely abnormal over the course of his 26-year streak.