EAST LANSING -- Kenny Goins isn't ashamed to call himself a mama's boy.

Every game, the Spartans' senior forward typically looks into the stands to find his mother, Laura. After games, he greets her with a kiss on the cheek outside the locker room before he greets all the other well-wishers.

It's been 12 years since Goins was told to walk into a hospital room and say goodbye to her, moments before she went into a surgery that doctors feared she wouldn't survive.

The sense of gratitude that she's still there watching his games hasn't faded all these years later.

"It's just a reminder every time you see her that miracles can happen," said Goins, 22.

A trip to the hospital

Ken Goins, Laura Goins and Kenny Goins (Courtesy of the Goins family)Courtesy of the Goins family

It started with a headache.

Laura Goins laid down after dinner on a typical Friday night in 2006, hoping some rest would ease the pain in her head. But when her vision started to fail, then her ability to speak, her husband Ken knew something was seriously wrong and called an ambulance to the family’s Troy home.

A CT scan at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak revealed what's called an arteriovenous malformation. Fluid couldn't escape her skull and was putting pressure on her brain, cutting off her neurological functions.

The only option was a high-risk surgery – so much of a risk that Ken Goins told Kenny and his sister, Caitlyn, that they needed to go into the hospital room to say their goodbyes to their mom.

She was unconscious, but a squeeze of the hand let Kenny know his mom had heard him.

"That's never easy to do, thinking that you're not going to see someone again," Kenny Goins said.

When she got out of surgery, Ken Goins was told his wife had a 40 percent chance of survival. After a nerve-racking week in the intensive care unit, though, it became clear she'd pull through.

Looking back at that night more than a decade later, Ken counts his blessings.

The ambulance driver recognized a neurological problem and knew which hospital to take her to. A neurologist happened to still be in his office there at 11 p.m., finishing up paperwork so he could attend a Michigan State football game the next day. That doctor had a brother pass away from the same condition, a fact that helped him quickly make a diagnosis and know how urgent surgery was.

"Everything fell in place for her life to be saved," Ken Goins said. "It's miraculous how things happened."

While Ken was grateful his wife survived the ordeal, it quickly became clear that life would now be different for everyone. Laura spent another six months in the hospital relearning how to walk and talk.

Ken tried to make life as normal as he could for his kids, but change was inevitable. Laura was the "cruise director" for the family, Ken said, always planning social events and keeping everything organized. He had no idea how much his wife did until it all fell on him.

Kenny, meanwhile, had to grow up quickly. No more fighting with his sister. No more having his mother pick up after him and do his laundry. He started taking care of himself, with no complaints as he watched his dad take on a second job while being the primary caretaker of his mother.

"He acted like a superhero for our family in what he did and what he still does," Kenny Goins said.

While many things changed, one of the ways to keep things normal was through kids' sporting events. While she was still hospitalized, Ken would beg doctors to let Laura leave to watch her kids' games for a few hours of normalcy. They obliged.

"That's what she lived for," Ken said. "You can't keep her away from her kids."

Now, going to games is still a staple of the Goins' family winters. Laura has missed just one of Kenny's home Michigan State games in four years. She's made it to several road games, too, including the Spartans' tournament in Las Vegas last year.

She still gets around in a wheelchair outside the house and has issues with vision and speech. But when family members talk about that night 12 years ago, they do so with gratitude.

"Ninety-eight percent of the people that have this don't live," Ken Goins said. "You're in a very small group that makes it."

A young Spartans fan

Kenny Goins and his sister, Caitlyn (Courtesy of the Goins family)

When he was in third grade, Ken and Laura Goins told their son he could redecorate his bedroom in any colors and theme he wanted. That he picked a Michigan State bed and wall décor surprised no one.

Goins was made a Michigan State fan early by an uncle who had season football tickets and took his young nephew to games. That fandom soon became intense: he would cry when the Spartans lost to Michigan, had an ongoing bet with his elementary school principal over Spartans-Wolverines games and refused to wear blue jeans for a time because of their color.

That fandom, though, eventually made for a difficult college decision.

Goins long envisioned himself playing football for Michigan State. That changed late in high school, when he realized that his future was on the basketball court. He earned scholarship offers from a host of mid and low-major schools, including most of the Mid-American Conference, but the offer from his dream school never came.

Aware of his family's financial situation with his mother unable to work and his father tackling medical bills, Goins focused on taking a scholarship. He zeroed in on Central Michigan, where his sister went to school and where his family could drive to watch him play.

Goins went on a visit there late in his senior year, prepared to commit to the Chippewas while on campus. But during that visit, Goins said the Chippewas took a commitment from a different big man. Suddenly his spot was gone.

Michigan State by that point had offered him a spot as a preferred walk-on. He fretted about turning down scholarship money until he sat down with his father.

"My dad, I remember him saying at one point, 'Don't even worry about the money thing,'" Goins said. "'If that's what's holding you back, don't even worry about that, just pick, and we'll figure out the money thing after."

Goins went to East Lansing as a walk-on in the summer of 2014, but that status didn't last long. Tom Izzo and the coaching staff quickly saw him as a future contributor and redshirted him his freshman year. A year into his time on campus, he had done enough to earn a scholarship

Goins got the news on a fall day in Izzo's office. He had to excuse himself and step outside as he called his family members, one by one, while overcome with emotion.

"I just couldn't stop crying for a little bit," Goins said. "It just meant the whole world to me. It was always my dream, but then it also just took a lot off of my family, the pressure off of my family, too."

Onto the court

Michigan State forward Kenny Goins (25) celebrates after a foul in the second half of their Big Ten basketball game against Michigan at the Breslin Center in East Lansing, on Sunday, January 29, 2017. Michigan State won the game, 70-62. (Mike Mulholland | MLive.com)Mike Mulholland

Izzo was right that he'd found a future contributor in his new walk-on. Goins' coming out party came in November 2015, when Louisville came to the Breslin Center for an ACC/Big Ten Challenge game. Up to that point, Goins was averaging five minutes and one rebound per game as a redshirt freshman.

It came as a surprise to everyone, then, when he recorded 13 rebounds to key a Spartans win. He also took a shot to the face that broke his nose, then finished the game with cotton stuffed up his nostrils

"Kenny did do a hell of a job on the boards, and that was the difference," Izzo said that night.

In the three years since then, Goins' career been more of the same: doing some unglamorous work to help his team win and fighting through injuries to stay on the court.

Knowing his offense wouldn't be his calling card, Goins dedicated himself to the program's fundamentals. He became a strong defender and one of the team's best rebounders to earn playing time. When Michigan State was short on centers, he played there against players far bigger than him. When Michigan State needed another perimeter body, he played there, too, even though it didn't match his skill set.

He did all that through two broken noses, two sports hernias, a torn MCL and a torn meniscus. He's played while wearing masks, glasses and knee braces.

"I didn't expect anything to be given to me," Goins said. "Either you're going to take it or you're going to watch games for five years or four years. It wasn't really what I wanted to do."

Now, as a senior, he's been a starter for the entire season. And as a 34 percent 3-point shooter who has had eight double-digit games this year, he's no longer just a defender and rebounder. He's become one of the team's most versatile players. Izzo said this week that he's seen Goins improve throughout this season as much as any player he's coached.

"He's grown in a season as far as he's become a little tougher, he's become a consistent rebounder, he's become a very good defender," Izzo said. "I don't think he gets the credit for that. And most of all, what's easiest to see, he's become a fairly reliable shooter."

Next Saturday, Goins will complete the home portion of his Michigan State career when he walks out onto the court for senior day celebration. The fact that he's finishing up a career at his dream school with his mother by his side is a blessing not lost on anyone.

“I tell him that you’ve lived a charmed life,” Ken Goins said. “Even when you’ve had tough moments, they’re not that bad. You’re still living a great life. You’re still living a great life, so enjoy every moment.”