Michigan State basketball close to blue bloods in all-time NCAA Tournament wins

Contrary to popular belief, Michigan State basketball is close to the blue bloods in all-time production and NCAA Tournament wins.

There’s going to be an endless discussion about blue bloods in college basketball. Who deserves to be considered a blue blood? Some argue that there are only five or maybe even six true blue bloods: Duke, North Carolina, Kentucky, UCLA and Kansas — and maybe Indiana.

It’s hard to argue that list but there’s been an endless discussion about Michigan State making the cut. Are the Spartans a true blue blood? Not in the classic sense, but they have to be at least considered as a modern day blue blood.

Michigan State has a decent case with eight final fours since 1998, two national titles in program history, 22 straight NCAA Tournament appearances and a Hall of Fame coach at the helm.

And then there’s the list of all-time NCAA Tournament wins.

You would assume that the blue bloods top that list, and they do, but the Spartans rank just ahead of Indiana as the top Big Ten team in terms of all-time tourney wins.

https://twitter.com/marchmadness/status/1285278467093860352?s=20

Kentucky, North Carolina, Duke, Kansas and UCLA are far and away ahead of everyone else, but Michigan State is just outside of that group with 69 victories. That number would have almost undoubtedly improved by 3-4 wins, at least, in 2020 if the NCAA Tournament hadn’t been cancelled.

Tom Izzo has a good chunk of these wins and he’s done wonders in trying to get this program to the top and close to blue blood status.

I’m not trying to say Michigan State should be considered a blue blood because I think it’ll take another national title for that to happen, but this list of all-time NCAA Tournament wins shows that they aren’t too far away.

Let’s just come up with a new category: “Classic blue bloods and Michigan State”.