For the past four years, Michigan State basketball fans have had to sweat it out on Selection Sunday, hoping the Spartans get the nod to continue Tom Izzo's impressive streak.
For four years, the team has fallen short of expectations and fans have been furious with the way the program has become OK with mediocrity. But following the 2023-24 season, Izzo stated that he wanted to get the Spartans back to deep runs in the NCAA Tournament "or die trying" and it looks like he's living up to those comments early on.
Michigan State is 9-2 on the year with a win over North Carolina and two blowout victories to begin Big Ten play. The Spartans are playing some of the best basketball that they've played in years.
The young guys are all growing the way fans had hoped and we're seeing Xavier Booker, Coen Carr, Jase Richardson, and Jeremy Fears all become stars on a team that needed a youth movement. Losing AJ Hoggard, Tyson Walker, Malik Hall, and Madi Sissoko did not hurt this squad and it seemed to only bring everyone closer together.
After a 9-2 start, ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi released his latest projection for the 2025 NCAA Tournament and Michigan State moved up two seed lines from a couple of weeks ago.
Lunardi has Michigan State sitting as a 5-seed in the East Region with a projected first-round battle against No. 12 Liberty. If the Spartans win that, hypothetically, they would face No. 4 seed UConn in the second round. No. 3 Oregon is also in that region.
It's good to be comfortably in the NCAA Tournament field, according to early projections, as opposed to flirting with the "last four in" like they have been for the past few years.