Nineteen games into the 2025-26 season, Michigan State basketball sits at 17-2 overall and 7-1 in Big Ten play. The Spartans haven’t been playing their best basketball lately, but they’ve still managed to find a way to win five straight Big Ten games by 10-plus points.
Tom Izzo’s team is just running through everyone on its schedule, and it’s setting up for a massive showdown on Jan. 30 against Michigan in East Lansing.
A win there would surely give Michigan State some respect.
But right now, the Spartans are being wildly undervalued on the national level. Michigan State is a top-10 team in the country, as of this week, but you’d think a 17-2 squad would get a little more respect, especially when you consider their only two losses were to Duke by six — in a game that the Spartans gave away late — and Nebraska by two on the road. Both losses should’ve been wins.
If Michigan State was able to hold onto late leads in both of those games, we’d be looking at a 19-0 team with wins over Nebraska, Duke, Arkansas, Kentucky, and North Carolina. That team would have a legitimate case to be the No. 1 team in the country. Eight points make that big of a difference.
And yet, Michigan State is still talked about as a 3-seed while a team like Illinois who’s 16-3 with arguably a worse resume than the Spartans is getting 2-seed consideration. What gives?
Michigan State basketball continues to be disrespected
I saw a graphic the other day from a college hoops podcast that said that Michigan State was one of nine teams that can’t win a national title this year.
On Thursday, I saw another post on X from a college basketball fan who said that Michigan State was a pretender while several other programs, like Duke, Texas Tech, and Illinois were considered national title contenders or Final Four threats. Michigan State should’ve beaten Duke, but at the very least, the Spartans proved that they belong in the same conversation as the Blue Devils. As far as the Illinois love, I don’t think I’ll ever truly get why the Illini get so much national respect every year. It boggles my mind.
Here we are, another season under Izzo where his team that’s been blowing opponents out and recording the nation’s No. 1 defense and a top-60 offense, yet not getting any respect.
A tale as old as time.
March can’t come soon enough.