We are about 24 hours away from Michigan State’s first exhibition game against Bowling Green in East Lansing, and the excitement surrounding Tom Izzo’s team is palpable.
There have been several big moves this offseason like Jase Richardson to the NBA, Jaden Akins also to the NBA via graduation, and Tre Holloman and Xavier Booker to the transfer portal. The reigning Big Ten champs also lost Frankie Fidler, Szymon Zapala, and Gehrig Normand.
Izzo did bring in an impressive two-man recruiting class with a couple of top-60 prospects as well as a four-man transfer class led by Kaleb Glenn, Divine Ugochukwu, and Trey Fort.
The Spartans are an AP Top 25 team to begin the season, and they’ll get to prove that on Thursday night against Tum Tum Nairn and Bowling Green — they’ll hope to have better luck against the Falcons this season than they did a year ago when they nearly fell victim to an upset.
Michigan State seemingly has the pieces necessary to make another deep run in 2025-26, and college hoops expert Andy Katz agrees.
Katz released his list of 10 “Final Four dark horse” teams, and Michigan State made the cut.
Don't sleep on them 😴@TheAndyKatz picks 🔟 dark horse teams that could make a run to the Final Four 🔥 pic.twitter.com/s6FfxphnlO
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) October 14, 2025
It’s hard to call a preseason top-15 team a “dark horse” to make a Final Four, but Katz did that with UCLA, BYU, and Arizona. Iowa State, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan State are also ranked somewhere in that 16-25 range.
The only unranked teams included on Katz’s list were Oregon and NC State.
Michigan State has representation on three of Katz’s 10 dark horse contenders. Obviously the Spartans are one, Tre Holloman is on NC State, and Xavier Booker is on UCLA. There’s a decent chance that either the Spartans or a former Spartan will be in the Final Four this year.
Let’s hope Michigan State is in the Final Four, and I wouldn’t be too mad at a matchup with Holloman or Booker with a national title on the line.