MSU basketball recently has been on a roll winning seven games in a row to close out the regular season. Out of the seven games, six of them were Quad one win with them playing Michigan twice. After their three rough losses through a four-game stretch, the Spartans have been on fire.
Throughout their seven-game winning streak, they have whooped four ranked teams (Michigan twice) by an average of 10 points. This means they have been dominating all sides of the floor, whether it be their rebounding, defense, and or free-throw shooting. The Spartans this season have been historically bad from the three-point line, but these past few games they have been shooting way better than before.
When it comes to why the Spartans should be in the one-seed talk (Best 4 teams in the tournament) in March Madness, the Spartans have shown why they are one of the better teams in college basketball. They have the second most quad-one wins behind Auburn at 12 total. CBS Sports analytics state “But if Florida or Houston stumbles early in their conference tournaments, and Michigan State adds three more Quadrant 1 victories en route to winning the Big Ten Tournament, the Spartans would have a case to make. Based on current numbers, winning the Big Ten Tournament would likely have Michigan State with a 15-4 record in Q1 to go with a 5-1 record in Q2, which would have them sitting at 20-5 in the first two quadrants on Selection Sunday.”
With the Big Ten Tournament starting and going on during the week of March 13 the Spartans will play the winner of the Oregon Ducks and Indiana Hoosiers. The Spartans have beaten the Ducks but played horribly against the Hoosiers which led to a loss to them.
The Spartans most recently became Outright Big Ten Champions and received the trophy after the win against Michigan. The Spartans have completely dominated the Big Ten with a 17-3 record with the three harsh losses being in that little stretch to USC, UCLA, and Indiana.
“This marks MSU’s first Big Ten title since 2020 and first outright championship since 2018. The program now boasts 17 regular-season conference titles, with head coach Tom Izzo claiming his 11th, tying Indiana’s Bob Knight and Purdue’s Ward “Piggy” Lambert for the most in Big Ten history.” Tom Izzo, after winning the Big Ten, was named the Big Ten coach of the year.
MSU’s path to the Big Ten title was a complete team effort, driven by defense, depth, and chemistry. The Spartans’ defense, ranked No. 1 in the Big Ten and No. 6 nationally by KenPom, carried them through a grueling February stretch that saw them take down Illinois, Purdue, Michigan, Maryland, and Wisconsin in order. Each game followed a familiar MSU script: keep within striking distance, wear teams dow,n and strike when it mattered most.
Overall the Spartans are going to push with this momentum gained from these last couple of weeks into the Big Ten tournament and eventually into March Madness and try and make a run to the Final Four and give Tom Izzo his 9th Final Four appearance.
