Don't say it. Don't you dare. Because even if does seem plainly clear from the box score that Charlie Bell (1-for-10, three points, five TOs) wasn't nearly Mateen Cleaves' equal at running the show, and even if the Spartans' perplexed, strained faces out there suggested that Bell wasn't nearly Cleaves' equal at gut patrol, MSU's loss to Arizona wasn't about a lack of leadership (this team had five seniors -- how many do you need?) or a lack of know-how (the Spartans were, after all, the defending champs). And it wasn't about toughness or heart or desire, or whatever spin Tom Izzo might want to put on it -- MSU outrebounded Arizona, including 16-8 on the offensive glass, as good a sign as any that the Spartans brought it.

It wasn't about any of that nonsense, no way. Because this wasn't about Michigan State. This was about Arizona. The Wildcats were, quite simply, quicker than the Spartans, more explosive than the Spartans, better shooters than the Spartans -- which, roughly translated in the context of a 40-minute basketball game, means they were BETTER than the Spartans. Whether Cleaves was around to guide the ship or not. Believe it. "We've never seen a team like this," frosh point Marcus Taylor told me after the game. "We knew their strengths, we knew what they could do, and we still couldn't stop them."

The loss hit the Spartans pretty hard all the same, of course, because when you're coming off a national championship, a Final Four loss seems like such a failure. Andre Hutson, the senior forward who woke up -- too late -- in the second half for 20 dazzling points, bore the signs of some serious emoting, even an hour after the game. He sat at his locker, hunched over, rubbing then covering then rubbing his eyes. Jason Richardson, the high-flying forward who hit rock bottom this game with a 2-for-11 effort from the floor, aimlessly picked at a piece of duct tape. Al Anagonye, the burly rebounding machine, stretched out in a steel folding chair, staring straight into the ground. I asked him if there was a difference in the way the Spartans played under Mateen. He said simply, "We were playing hard out there."

There wasn't gloom on Taylor's face, though. He was -- instantly -- intensely contemplative about the loss, wondering out loud why the Spartans had ball after ball picked off in the passing lanes and why the two freshman -- he and Zach Randolph -- played much more effectively than their two senior counterparts -- Bell and Hutson -- in the first half. And most of all, he wondered what he would do differently when -- not if -- he's back in the Final Four next year, as the Spartans' new lead dog. "It was very strange," Taylor said. "We didn't know how to react. I don't know why. I'll have to think about that some more."

When you do, Marcus, don't forget about Arizona. Because sometimes it's not about you. Sometimes, it's about them.

Scott Burton is covering the Final Four for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at scott.burton@espnmag.com.