A Tough Decision

It had to be a tough decision for Mike Kebler of Okemos. Before the Final Four, he had to make a choice to either dress for the game against UConn, or to dress for a possible National Championship and hope MSU made it there. This is because MSU has 16 players on the team, but can only dress 15 of those players for any game. Kebler chose to dress for the UConn game, letting fellow walk-on Jon Crandell wait for the National Championship.

Kebler told the Detroit Free Press,

"Once the tournament started, I simply picked the first one of each weekend. The first one was Robert Morris. I picked that one so I could get in. I figured we'd blow them out. I got, like, a minute of playing time.

"The next time, I picked Kansas. One of the main reasons was that I wanted to be a part of everything that went on.

"Then I picked (the Connecticut game). I didn't play, but I wanted to be a part of the Final Four. It's definitely a dream. So when I had that choice of taking the first game or the second game, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to make sure I was on the court for the Final Four."

Because Kebler didn't play in the game, he is not included in the official box score. Crandell, however, made it into the box score of the championship game because of his 1 minute of playing time at the end.

So, Kebler got to dress for a MSU win in the Final Four, but not play. He does not get to be immortalized as officially playing, but he, his family, friends, and other Spartans remember an experience that cannot be taken away. Crandell lucked out and not only got to dress for a National Championship game, but play. Kebler made the "safe" choice, but was it the better one? What would you have done?