Indy Race Finishes Under Green Flag

Cancel next weekend.

Rent the RCA Dome to a farm show.

Sell the Indianapolis hotel rooms to farmer-tanned tourists from Terre Haute.

It’s over.

No need to play the Final Four, because there’s already a Final One, and Iowa State has the tread marks and tears to prove it.

The stunned Cyclones watched the best remaining team in college basketball stalk away Saturday amid strewn bodies, cracked composure, and the most glorious five minutes of the season.

This was it. The tournament is finished.

Michigan State will be your champion.

Its 75-64 victory over Iowa State in the Midwest Regional final left players breathless, fans limp, and no doubt about one thing.

Said red-eyed Cyclone Coach Larry Eustachy: “That team we just played is the best in the country.”

Added wide-eyed Spartan leader Mateen Cleaves: “I pray to God we win the national title. But if we don’t, it’s going to take a tough team to beat us.”

Only, there’s nobody left in the tournament that will be tougher than the Cyclones.

They threw Michigan State around the floor like an old green rag. They harassed the Spartans into dumb fouls, silly shots, and five turnovers by the senior Cleaves.

They led by seven points with 5:49 remaining.

And, oh, yeah.

They lost by 11.

The Cyclone coach lost his cool, their shooters lost their touch, and one of their bruised big men occasionally wondered if he wasn’t losing his mind.

“I don’t think I’ve ever played in a game this intense in my life,” said Paul Shirley, who fouled out in only 16 minutes. “This was a hell of an environment.”

The reason could be found in the answer Michigan State gave to a question asked during those final minutes by its flailing, fire-hydrant-sized coach, Tom Izzo.

It was an answer repeated throughout a season in which this senior-filled, March-minded team had cut an unmistakable trail toward next weekend.

“Do we have heart? Do we have heart?” Izzo shouted on the sidelines.

Do they ever.

Senior A.J. Granger made a three-pointer. Senior Morris Peterson made a three-pointer.

The pro-Spartan crowd of 21,214 filled the Palace with rock-concert decibels, deafening both teams, with everyone screaming to be heard.

“It was money time,” Cleaves said.

The Spartans stuck their faces into sweat-darkened Cyclone jerseys. They climbed on the wide back of Marcus Fizer, and crept into the distracted mind of Jamaal Tinsley.

Said Tinsley: “I’ve never been in nothing like this.”

Said Spartan Charlie Bell: “We looked into their eyes, and saw they were tired, and we knew.”

Then came the meltdowns. All season, the cool Spartans have won games in the final minutes by causing meltdowns.

First, the officials melted down.

They called a foul on a good pick by Fizer with the Cyclones leading by three, his fourth foul.

Bad call?

“Oh, my gosh,” Fizer said.

They then disagreed after a collision between Shirley and Bell--one guy called charging, one called holding--so they embarrassingly assessed a double foul.

At that point, with the Spartans trailing by one with 3:43 left, Bell walked over to his coach with a long face.

“What did I do wrong?” he shouted.

“Don’t worry,” Izzo shouted. “You’re going to hit the next big three.”

Izzo was off by only one. Bell made an open two-point jumper about a minute later to give the Spartans a lead they never lost.

Peterson then slammed in a sideline-planned, alley-oop pass from Cleaves to give them an emotional edge they never lost.

Now it was time for the second meltdown, this one by Eustachy with nine seconds left and the Spartans leading by five.

He allowed his frustration over the two questionable calls to jolt him out of his seat and onto the court, where he shoved an official and was ejected.

The game was decided by then anyway, right?

Who are you kidding? Not on this night. Eustachy should have known better.

The Spartans could have missed their free throws. Michael Nurse could have thrown in another long three-pointer. Stranger things have happened.

A dumb move. A rookie move. Michigan State does that to people.

“I apologized to my team for that,” Eustachy said later.

Now it was time for one more meltdown, this by the crowd. It rattled the building for more than 10 solid minutes while the Spartans were throwing six consecutive free throws through the nets, then cutting them down.

“After the game, I go up to shake some hands, and there were people shaking more than I was,” Granger said. “I was seriously worried about heart attacks.”

But these fans are a weathered group. This was not the first time the Spartans had pulled off such a comeback this season.

Heck, it was not even the first time this week.

Against Syracuse in the regional semifinals Thursday, they outscored the Orangemen, 17-0, to end the game.

This time the final outburst was 20-3.

And now the Spartans travel to a place they visited just last year, a Final Four that will prove entirely irrelevant.

On to Wisconsin? Please. After Saturday’s semifinal win against the Badgers, they will have won only three fewer games against Wisconsin this season--four--than the Dodgers have won all spring.

Then in the final, they will meet the likes of, who, Florida? Maybe North Carolina? Oklahoma State? Tulsa?

Please.

Call it off. Save us the time. Save two perfectly nice teams the floor burns.

Michigan State already has won the national championship game. This was it. You had to be there.

*

Bill Plaschke can be reached at his e-mail address: bill.plaschke@latimes.com.