Michigan State basketball: Tennessee scrimmage shows Spartans may be legit

Folks, Michigan State basketball might just be better than expected this year.

That’s a big might, however.

Other than a closed-door scrimmage down in Knoxville against No. 11 Tennessee, we don’t really know how good the Spartans are. Even after that scrimmage, no stats were released and no box score was made public so we just have vague quotes from Tom Izzo to rely on as well as rumors that the Spartans led at halftime and then lost by 5-7 late.

Izzo did say that Mady Sissoko played well and his team shot the 3-ball at a good clip, but that’s about it. He did also say he expects more from a guy like AJ Hoggard who played well but is capable of much more.

So what do we know about how good MSU is? Going toe-to-toe with the No. 11 team in the country is a fairly good sign.

Tennessee boosted Michigan State basketball’s stock with Gonzaga win

You might read that subheading and it probably wouldn’t make a lick of sense to you. How did Tennessee vs. Gonzaga boost Michigan State’s stock when that regular-season game never happened and it’s still the preseason? Because it was another preseason scrimmage.

According to Jon Rothstein, Tennessee demolished a top-10 Gonzaga team in a scrimmage on Friday by 19 points without one of its top players.

That leads us to believe that maybe Michigan State is pretty good.

If Michigan State can play a tight game and even lead the Volunteers in the second half without Jaden Akins, they can probably hang with just about anyone.

Sure, it’s just a scrimmage and the Gonzaga loss ultimately means nothing, but it could mean that Michigan State isn’t going to be a pushover this season like some believe because of the lack of depth.

Transitive property has us believing.