Travis Trice Draws Praise For Lifting the Spartans and Himself to Elite Status

Travis Trice Draws Praise For Lifting the Spartans and Himself to Elite Status Lucas Oil Stadium Indianapolis, IN Travis Trice was called, “The best

Travis Trice Draws Praise For Lifting the Spartans and Himself to Elite Status

Lucas Oil Stadium

Indianapolis, IN

Travis Trice was called, “The best players in the tournament,” by legendary Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski earlier this week. That is high praise for a young man that nearly died earlier in his career with a brain infection, and has endured numerous other injuries and wasn’t highly recruited.

Trice was humbled by the kind words of the college basketball ICON saying, “I'm just thankful. That's the ultimate compliment, especially from a coach like Coach K, one of the greatest coaches to ever coach the game. But I just try and focus and do what my teammates need, what our team needs to win. That's all that's going through my mind when I'm out there playing, what do I need to do to help us win.”

The praise didn’t stop with Coach K. Badger big man (and the player I think should win player of the year) Frank Kaminsky jumped on the praise Travis Trice train that’s rolling here in Indianapolis. “We've seen Travis twice this year. We know how good he is. We know how he can inspire his team. He's the leader of his team. He knows how to get his guys going. In that Big Ten title game, it was tough chasing him around for so long. You saw against Virginia in the tournament how he got hot to start the game, set the tone for his team. He's a great player and he's doing a great job leading his time.”

While fans would say Trice was lucky or fortunate, Trice would quickly explain that he isn’t. He told me at the Big Ten Tournament, “I prefer to say blessed. Clearly all of my success has been a gift from God.”

I asked Trice today if he has taken any time to reflect yet on how far he has come as he sat on the dais with three other great players, one from each Final Four team.

The humble youngster from Huber Heights, OH said, “Not only this week, but just driving in here, even today, all the media, all the things we've had to do. I'm appreciative of it. After everything I've been through for the past four years, makes it that much more memorable.”

At Michigan State there have been many amazing players. But only two that remain immortal and ICONIC. Both point guards on national championship winning teams. Earvin “MAGIC” Johnson and Mateen Cleaves. Trice has a heavy load to carry his Spartans up to if he wants to cut the nets down Monday night, but at the end of that hike rests Spartan immortality. Can the Spartans do it?

Trice thinks the Spartans have a secret weapon. “I think our camaraderie is what's really gotten us to this point. We've kind of had an up-and-down year if you look at some of our losses. I think just staying the course really and never losing faith in our team or our abilities. We're constantly together. Like Frank said, the hospitality room, we were there till 12:00, 1:00 last night. You really got to fight us to get away from each other. I think that's a good thing and helps us in close games.”

Trice recognizes that even his coach admits the Spartans are not the most talented. He was asked about the level of talent the Spartans must maneuver through to win it all. “These are four elite programs. The other three teams here are number one seeds. They definitely have more McDonalds All-Americans, more star power than we do. At the same time I feel that's kind of what drove us to get here. Us against the world mentality, that's helped us get through the season.”

Standing in the way of Trice and his Spartans are the big picture of Duke, but Justise Winslow is the immediate concern of Trice. He had high praise for the Duke freshman. “He's a matchup problem. He played well early on. He kind of hurt us when we played him. He's gotten better since then, too. I think it's their entire team. They're a totally different team in a better sense than they were when we played them the first time. That's why we've been studying film so much.”

Trice understands the Blue Devil team these same Spartans lost to last November, here in Indianapolis is a different team. Just like his Spartans. He reflected on what he learned watching tape. “Yeah, we watched a lot of film last week on that first game, just looking at all the turnovers, a lot of mistakes we have. Duke is a great team. They were great then. We feel they're a better team now than what they were earlier in November.”

Duke senior guard Quinn Cook didn’t want everyone to think only his Devils have changed. He had high praise for the Spartans that have undergone a near metamorphosis. “They're a great team, we're a great team. All four teams here are great. We played them our third game of the year, still trying to figure ourselves out. I guess it was their second game. We're two different teams now. They're way better. I feel like we've gotten better. Everyone is playing at championship level. Watching film of that game, more recently from how they've been playing, they're playing as well as anybody. We got our hands full tomorrow or Saturday.”

The secret is out. Travis Trice is a star, with a chance to shoot out of the stratosphere if he can lead his Spartans to immortality. The road is tough, but it is not impossible. Especially when you have the little engine that could. The name is Trice. Travis Trice and don’t call him lucky, he’s blessed.