A few weeks ago, a Xavier Tillman-Ben Carter frontcourt would have seemed like the most unlikely combination possible for Michigan State in an NCAA Tournament game.
Carter sat out half of Michigan State's final 16 Big Ten games and averaged 3.6 minutes in the games he did play in. Tillman averaged 7.2 minutes per game in Michigan State's final 16 games of the regular season.
Yet the duo played more than five minutes together on Friday night in the Spartans' 82-78 win over Bucknell, as the team's oldest player and its second-youngest both emerged in a retooled rotation.