Tom Izzo knew his team had little room for error. “I’ve got a good basketball team that has played awfully well, and yet our margin for error is very slim,” he said a day before Michigan State’s opening-round matchup. He wasn’t wrong. When the final buzzer sounded, the scoreboard read 87-62, a 25-point victory that looked comfortable on paper. But reality told a different story. The 15-seed Bryant Bulldogs left everything on the floor—sweat, tears, and even blood.

Earl Timberlake, Bryant’s heart and soul, embodied that struggle. Chasing down a tough rebound against two Spartans, he took a hard foul and hit the ground, blood streaming from his forehead.

“Earl Timberlake left game briefly with cut on head. Was able to return and score two buckets 🙌,” House of Highlights posted on X. Timberlake, who came into the game averaging 15.5 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 4.7 assists per contest, disappeared into the locker room for stitches. Minutes later, he was back, bandaged and relentless, finishing with 14 points.

Bryant refused to go quietly. At halftime, Izzo and Michigan State clung to a 33-28 lead, unable to shake off the scrappy Bulldogs. Keyshawn Mitchell and Barry Evans chipped in seven points apiece, Rafael Pinzon added 21, and Timberlake battled through his injury to keep Bryant within striking distance. But in March, runs decide games, and Michigan State finally delivered one.

The Spartans’ depth became the difference. Jaden Akins, despite struggling from the field (4-15), chipped in 11 points. Jeremy Fears Jr. added 11 as well, while Jase Richardson dropped 15 on an efficient 5-11 shooting. But it was Coen Carr who powered Tom Izzo and his squad past its early struggles. The freshman forward dominated inside, bullying Bryant on the glass with nine rebounds and pouring in 18 points on 7-10 shooting.

Yet Bryant wasn’t some Cinderella thrilled just to get an invite. This was a team that carried itself like it belonged.

Izzo’s Spartans won, but Bryant proved it belongs

“There’s certainly a little bit of, like, you get there and this is bigger than normal, right?” head coach Phil Martelli Jr. said before the game. “But they’ve played against a lot of these guys. It’s not this, ‘My God, we gotta play this guy or play against this team.’”

Martelli Jr., in just his second season at the helm, had turned Bryant into a legitimate force. The Bulldogs rolled through the America East Conference, posting a 23-11 record and a dominant 14-2 conference mark. They stormed through UMBC, UAlbany, and Maine to punch their ticket to March Madness, earning just the program’s second-ever NCAA tournament bid.

Sure, their tournament history was brief. Their first appearance in 2022 ended in the First Four against Wright State. But this wasn’t that team.

This was a battle-tested group that had taken on tournament-level opponents. They faced St. John’s in December and lost 99-77. They traveled to Grand Canyon and were run off the floor, 112-66. Those weren’t pretty games, but they were lessons—lessons that turned a scrappy underdog into a team that wasn’t scared of the stage.

Leading the way was senior guard Rafael Pinzon, a walking bucket at 18.5 points per game. Timberlake was the heart. And the rest of the Bulldogs? They played with an edge, a hunger, an attitude that said: We belong.

They may have lost, but Bryant made one thing clear—this wasn’t their last dance. It was just the beginning.