5 reasons Michigan State basketball will be back in 2020 Final Four

Will Michigan State basketball make it back to the Final Four in 2020? We say yes and here are five seasons Tom Izzo will get another crack at No. 2.

Cassius Winston announced his return for a senior season at Michigan State and the outlook for the Spartans’ 2019-20 season drastically improved.

Almost every expert had pegged Michigan State as a top-five team before the Winston decision and after he confirmed he’d play his senior year in East Lansing, the Spartans rose to No. 1 in basically every poll.

That hasn’t changed over the past month as Michigan State has gotten its freshmen to campus — outside of Rocket Watts who will be there soon — and are hard at work.

The Spartans can make it back to the Final Four for the second straight year, and here’s why.

5. Incoming recruiting class fits perfectly

Although it’s not the most impressive recruiting class in Tom Izzo’s tenure, the 2019 class is a perfect complement to the current roster.

Michigan State is losing Kenny Goins, Nick Ward and Matt McQuaid and it has three arguably more athletic incoming freshmen to fill each of those voids.

Malik Hall is expected to be Goins’ replacement and he could be even more of an offensive option and an athletic specimen. There are high hopes for this kid from day one.

Rocket Watts is McQuaid’s replacement, of sorts, and he’s a much more athletic version who just needs to work on that defense because he’s got plenty of offense. He’s a scorer and that’s going to make life difficult for opposing teams, trying to game plan for another option off the bench.

And then there’s Julius Marble who could redshirt, but he wouldn’t be a bad option to take some pressure off the post players after losing Ward. He’s an underrated kid with plenty of talent.

This crop of freshmen is going to surprise some folks.