WASHINGTON – Matt McQuaid raced around the court at Capital One Arena, a blur of green and white, screaming at the top of his lungs, “We’re going to the Final Four! We’re going to the Final Four!”

Over and over. He kept repeating that refrain, a sense of elation coursing through him and jubilation on his face.

Redshirt senior Kenny Goins, who hit the go-ahead 3-pointer with 34 seconds remaining, found McQuaid. Goins wrapped his classmate in a hug.

“I told you,” Goins said.

He sure did.

Michigan State’s 68-67 victory over Duke was special for so many people for so many different reasons. It helped the Spartans reach the Final Four for the eighth time under coach Tom Izzo. It helped the coach beat Duke for just the second time in 12 tries. It brought the Spartans back to the Final Four for the first time since 2015.

But for McQuaid’s legacy at MSU, there was something else in play, too.

The Final Four is a rite of passage for Michigan State players under Izzo. Only two players – Keith Appling and Adreian Payne – spent at least four years in the program and didn’t go to a Final Four. Basically if you walk at graduation, you can expect to cut down nets in March.

Goins already checked it off the college bucket list during his 2015 redshirt season. But entering Sunday’s game, McQuaid remained in jeopardy of becoming just the third player to slip through the cracks.

“We talked about it at the beginning of the season,” Goins said. “I said we’re going to go to a Final Four. Here we are. We’re going.”

McQuaid’s tournament experience before this season included only heartbreak: a stunning loss to No. 15 seed Middle Tennessee during his freshman year, a second-round loss to Kansas his sophomore year and another first-weekend exit to Syracuse last year.

Now, you can add a Final Four to that resume.

“We probably had the worst three-year run as far as winning games in this tournament,” Izzo said. “There’s been some reasons why. But they would have had to live with that, too. Now, they don’t have to live with anything.”

McQuaid is not someone who likes to talk about himself. Maybe it’s the coach’s son in him. He finds ways to deflect praise and refocus questions to be about the team instead of an individual.

But one of his roommates, Jack Hoiberg said he can sense how much McQuaid wanted to make a run during his senior season.

“You can definitely hear it when he talks to everybody how bad he wants it,” Hoiberg said. “Last year, it hurt him so bad losing in the second round. Now to finally make that jump that most guys in Michigan State make, I know how much it means to him and how special it is to him.”

When the highlight reel of this game is played decades from now, McQuaid’s fingerprints will be all over this win. In a game that featured a generational talent in Zion Williamson, a freight train on rocket fuel, it was McQuaid who produced two of the most electric moments.

Just over five minutes into the game, Cassius Winston zipped a ¾-court pass to McQuaid in transition. The senior took one dribble and then took off. He hammered a dunk over Duke’s Javin DeLaurier.

In the second half, the Spartans and Blue Devils were tied at 56. McQuaid blew past Duke’s Cam Reddish off the dribble. Again he met DeLaurier at the rim. This time, McQuaid spun and, with his back to the hoop, he flipped the ball up. It bounced off the backboard, the front of the rim, the side of the rim and then slipped into the hoop.

“The basketball gods were smiling down on me,” McQuaid said. “I just saw a shot-blocker come over. I tried to adjust my body and flick it up.”

After the game, green and white confetti crunched under McQuaid’s feet. The Final Four hat sat atop his head, flipped backwards with a piece of twine around it. The rest of the net hung around his neck like an Olympic medal.

And a wide smile of satisfaction stretched across his face. He was asked if his career would have been incomplete without a Final Four.

“I don’t know,” McQuaid smiled. “Because I’m going to the Final Four.”

There he was, saying it again. And he'll be able to keep saying it for the rest of his life.

RELATED: Couch: 3 quick takes on Michigan State basketball's win over Duke to reach the Final Four

RELATED: Michigan State vs. Duke: Turning point, unsung hero in Spartans' NCAA Tournament win

GET OUR NEWSLETTER: Sign up for our Best of the Big Ten Newsletter, which begins soon

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the LSJ through March Madness for as little as $3 for 3 months

Contact Mike DeFabo at mdefabo@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @MikeDeFabo.