The initial NCAA Tournament bracket preview proved one thing: Michigan State has some work to do.
The Spartans are 21-5 on the season and 11-4 in the Big Ten, but their recent rough patch has doubt creeping back in. Some experts are starting to lose trust in Tom Izzo’s team but fans have seen this rough patch every single season. This team still beat Arkansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Illinois. It’s not like these Spartans aren’t tested.
Michigan State has a decent resume with some big opportunities approaching against Purdue and Michigan. If the Spartans were to win out, there’s a chance that they could be a high 2-seed and even be in that 1-seed conversation.
That’s asking a lot from this team because winning at Mackey against a top-10 team and at Crisler against the No. 1 team in the country are probably the two toughest tasks in the Big Ten. It doesn’t help that Mackey has been a house of horrors for Michigan State. The Spartans at least won at Crisler last year — and the year before.
Michigan State has some work to do, and the first bracket reveal proved that.
Michigan State is slightly lower than expected
The first bracket reveal showed that we may have been overvaluing the Spartans a bit, or the tournament committee is undervaluing them.
Michigan State was No. 14 in the first bracket which means that the Spartans are checking in as a 4-seed with five regular-season games left. That means there’s not a ton of time to make up a good amount of ground if they want to earn that 3-seed or even a two. Winning out would sew up at least a 2-seed, in my opinion, while losing to Michigan and Purdue but winning the rest would lead me to believe this is a 3-seed, assuming they don’t get blown out.
Worst-case scenario would be losing to Indiana as well and winning just the two remaining home games against Ohio State and Rutgers.
That would drop the Spartans to 23-8 and probably a 5-seed.
This team has some work to do.