10-year KenPom average ranking shows how spoiled Michigan State fans have been

Tom Izzo’s past decade at Michigan State hasn’t exactly been his best. The Spartans have had some truly disappointing seasons from 2020-2024 but even with those years, they’ve had one of the best programs in college basketball.

You wouldn’t know that by listening to rival fans, but Michigan State has been a top-10 team in college basketball over the past decade which is honestly impressive considering the Spartans have only one Final Four in that span.

It could be argued that the past decade has been the worst stretch of Izzo’s career, and yet his program is consistently near the top of college basketball.

Don’t believe me? Just check the average KenPom rankings from the past decade to show how spoiled Michigan State fans have been in the Izzo era.

Over the past 10 years, Michigan State is the No. 9 team in college basketball in terms of average KenPom finish. The Spartans are consistently a top 25 KenPom team and this average just proves that even during Izzo’s “down” years, this program is one of the top 10 in the nation.

For reference, Michigan State is ahead of teams like Villanova, North Carolina, and Michigan who have all won national titles during that span. Heck, even a program like Illinois that has claimed to be the class of the Big Ten is just 24th on this list.

The next time someone tells you that Izzo is overrated or that Michigan State basketball is trending downward, show them this. This program is elite, whether rival fans want to believe it or not.

Michigan State is still the class of the Big Ten

Everyone wants to discredit the program that Izzo built and it’s easy to do so when the Spartans have just one Big Ten title since 2020 and haven’t made a Final Four since 2019, but people also forget how difficult it is to win this conference and made the national semifinal in a 68-team tournament.

Michigan State has been KenPom’s second-best team over the past decade, trailing only Purdue which is the No. 3 team in college basketball during that span.

Michigan State and Purdue are going to be the class of the Big Ten until Izzo and Matt Painter leave, but that’s also not discrediting the work that coaches like Dusty May, Greg Gard, and Brad Underwood have done at Michigan, Wisconsin, and Illinois, respectively.

Before we complain about how bad Spartan hoops fans have had it lately, just realize that Michigan State’s “bad” is still better than 99 percent of college basketball.

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