SHEEHAN: Get in the Car(r), kids, we're going to the Sweet Sixteen

This is going to sound cheesy, but honestly, at this point, who cares?

Get in the Coen Car(r), kids. Michigan State is driving to another Sweet Sixteen.

And if you’ve been around this program long enough, if you’ve lived through enough of these March weekends where your heart rate never quite returns to normal, you already know how this goes.

You look at the final score – 77–69 over Louisville – and maybe, from the outside, it looks controlled. Maybe it looks professional. Maybe it even looks comfortable.

But if you’re wired like most Michigan State fans, if you’ve lived through Iowa a few years ago or Rutgers a few weeks ago, then a 10-point lead with a minute left still feels like something you have to survive, not something you get to enjoy.

And yet, when it was all said and done inside KeyBank Center, this wasn’t just survival. This was Michigan State doing what Michigan State does in March.

This was Tom Izzo getting to his 17th Sweet Sixteen. This was a weekend that felt, in every meaningful way, professional.

The Coen Carr Game – Even Bigger Than Expected

Let’s not overthink where this starts.

It starts with Coen Carr.

Because yes, coming into this game, there was a sense that this could be a Carr game. Louisville didn’t have the kind of frontcourt that gives him problems in the Big Ten – not the Michigan, Illinois, Purdue level of size and physicality that can neutralize his athleticism.

But even with that in mind, no one saw this coming.

Twenty-one points. Ten rebounds. Two blocks. A steal. Fourteen of those points in the second half. A game that felt like it tilted entirely because of him.

And it wasn’t just the dunks, even though, yes, those were there too.

It was the full package.

It was Carr running the floor and finishing in transition seconds after Louisville talked at halftime about needing to stop exactly that. It was him carving out space on the low block, not with finesse, not with a deep bag of moves, but with pure force – bulldozing his way into position and figuring the rest out once he got there.

It was the and-one late in the half, immediately followed by a block on the other end.

It was the chaos play – the loose ball, the scramble, the fastball off a defender that turns into another Michigan State possession, and then a Jaxon Kohler three that stretches the lead to 63–50 and effectively flips the game into control.

And even after that, Carr wasn’t done.

A dagger three. Free throws. Finishing plays late in the clock. Every answer Michigan State needed, he had it.

There’s a tendency to reduce him to highlights, to the dunks that make it onto social media. But this was something more complete, more controlled, more dominant.

This was a game he took over.

Jeremy Fears Jr. – Not His Best, Still Historic

And somehow, in a game where a Michigan State player set a program NCAA Tournament record, he still wasn’t the story.

That’s how impactful Carr was.

Because Jeremy Fears Jr. finished with 16 assists – a new Michigan State tournament record – and it still felt like he didn’t have his A-game.

I've got a lot more written, but it's past the paywall. You should subscribe and read it.