Sports

Actions

Goins becomes ‘big shot’ in Elite 8 win over Duke

Posted at 10:05 AM, Apr 01, 2019
and last updated 2019-04-01 11:16:03-04

WASHINGTON, — Saturday at the Michigan State media availability, Kenny Goins, Aaron Henry and Matt McQuaid sat down in Cassius Winston's press conference.  Goins asked the Big Ten Player of the Year who he would pass to if he had to have a game-winning shot.

"Big shot, boy you are crazy," Winston replied to McQuaid.  "You know I'm throwing it to big shot."

Sunday night with the game on the line, it was Goins that hit the big shot, a three with 34 seconds to play that gave the Spartans a lead it would not relinquish in a 68-67 win over Duke that sent Michigan State to the Final Four in Minneapolis.

After the game, McQuaid had a message for Goins.

"He called me that (big shot) after the game," Goins said. "So he must be passing a little bit off on me."

McQuaid, a senior guard that shoots 43% from three, was happy to allow Goins to share the moniker after his heroics in the regional final.

"I am," McQuaid said.  "Especially because we are going to a Final Four."

"He is working his way toward that for sure," Winston said after the game.  "He might be big shot now after that one."

Goins was a member of the last Michigan State Final Four team in 2015 as a freshman.

"Just another day for Kenny," Spartans head coach Tom Izzo said. "We were on him all day about making shots and he kept saying I'm making the next one and the guy didn't lie."

"That's what seniors do," sophomore forward Xavier Tillman said. "They are going to will us to the win and that is what he did."

Goins is a fifth-year senior that walked on to Michigan State instead of taking scholarship offers to other schools because of his love for the Spartans.

Kenny Goins says, "that is what you dream of as a kid.

Michigan State will meet Texas Tech in the second national semifinal on Saturday in Minneapolis.