Michigan State Basketball: NCAA Tournament path, things to watch

The Madness is finally here. Michigan State basketball gets an intriguing matchup in the first round. The Spartans have their work cut out for them.

Michigan State Spartans are the No. 7 seed in the West region. They were ranked by the committee as the 27th-best team which is good for the third-best 7-seed behind both USC and Murray State, respectively, and one spot ahead of their conference foe Ohio State.

The Spartans’ path is not an easy one. Tom Izzo has led some underwhelming regular-season teams to the Final Four but this path will be brutal for the Spartans if they can get there.

In their first-round matchup, they drew a very good Foster Loyer-led Davidson team. Yes, that’s right, these Spartans will get to take on the former Spartan which will be a fun game to watch for fans watching their old point guard ball as he has been thriving throughout this season.

With Loyer leading the Wildcats in points and assists, he will have to do this with two solid point guards defending him in Tyson Walker and AJ Hoggard.

These two points guards are on the injury report, though. Walker is day-to-day and Izzo mentioned that he will not be practicing Monday or Tuesday because of an ankle injury he suffered in the Purdue game in the Big Ten Tournament. He went out early and never returned. Hoggard, too, sprained his ankle in the Purdue game. The difference, though, is that Hoggard was able to come back in and score a season-high 17 points. He will need to stay on Loyer and be able to move with him on Friday.

The play of Michigan State is reliant on having good point guard play and with both of them being on the injury list, this is something to keep an eye on through this week to see if they will both be able to play or be 100 percent for the game.

If they get the victory over Davidson, the Spartans will go on to face the winner of No. 2 Duke vs. No. 15 Cal State Fullerton. Once again, Michigan State is put in the same region as Duke. It’s almost like the committee gets enjoyment out of making these teams face off in March.

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Not only are these first two rounds a tough path for the Spartans, where they have to play will make these even harder. These first two rounds will be played in Greenville, S.C., which is only a two-hour drive for the Wildcats, giving them a home-court advantage. Then, of course, Duke being the higher seed gets the home-court advantage being only 3.5 hours away from Durham.

This arena will be flooded with red in the first round and blue in the second round, so these Spartans have to bring their A-game if they want to make it out of the first weekend.

Michigan State will not only have to go against Duke but if they can somehow get to the Elite Eight, they will most likely be facing a very good Gonzaga team that is the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament and the favorite to win the whole thing.

This region that Michigan State was placed in is a very tough region filled with star-studded players at every level. Izzo has been magic in March but can he do it again with the path that’s in front of him?

Tune in on Friday at 9:40 p.m. ET on CBS to watch the first-round match against Davidson.