Who would have thought that at the midway point of the 2024-25 regular season that Michigan State basketball would be the highest-ranked team in the Big Ten and it would be sitting at 14-2?
Definitely not me although I did have a feeling that the Spartans would be better than we all expected. I didn't think that would mean the best start to a season in four years, a 5-0 mark in Big Ten play, and No. 12 in the country with a winnable stretch of games ahead, but here we are.
The Spartans have been playing some good ball and Tom Izzo has explained why that is, mentioning multiple times that his players like to be coached and they all like each other.
After securing two more Big Ten wins last week over Washington by 34 points and at Northwestern by 10 points, the Spartans moved up four spots in the AP Top 25.
Not only that, but Joe Lunardi of ESPN has updated his Bracketology this week and he moved the Spartans up a seed line to a No. 4 seed projection in the 2025 NCAA Tournament.
That's right, Michigan State is currently projected to be a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament and I think that could be more like a 2-3-seed in a couple of weeks, especially if the Spartans take care of business against Penn State on Wednesday and Illinois on Sunday.
The hype surrounding this team feels real and we'll know just how legit it is this week as the regular Izzone members return from Christmas break to try and help lead this team to wins over a couple of solid teams, including an Illinois squad that should be a top-five seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Another 2-0 week should have Michigan State projected as a 3-seed, at least, in my opinion.