Former Iowa star Luka Garza picks Michigan State basketball as his national champion

Luka Garza is a name that all Michigan State basketball fans know well. The former Iowa superstar had some intense battles with Xavier Tillman back in 2018-19 before he took it to the Spartans in 2019-20.

He was one of the greatest Big Ten players in the past couple of decades and it felt like he could've dropped 20-25 points every single night if he wanted to. And he usually did.

Michigan State gave him some really good battles over the years and you could tell that there was mutual respect between him and Tom Izzo.

So much respect, in fact, that Garza is picking Michigan State to win it all this year.

Michigan State has been an incredibly popular Final Four pick this season by almost everyone, including Clark Kellogg, but the Spartans have their work cut out if they want to make it out of the South Region with teams like Auburn, North Carolina, Creighton, Michigan, Texas A&M, and Marquette in the field, but Tom Izzo has been here before.

That respect for Izzo is probably why Garza believes that the Spartans will take down St. John's in the Final Four and Alabama in the national title game to give the Hall of Famer his second title.

While many think Michigan State has an "easy" path to a Final Four, I don't think there's an "easy" matchup in the entire region, and that includes Bryant and potentially New Mexico. The Spartans are going to have to grind out the tournament, but they have strung together long win streaks before, so why not six here in March and April?

Garza thinks it'll happen.