A few weeks ago, Michigan State basketball hosted an undefeated Iowa team, led by Ben McCollum, and the Spartans were able to run up the score and win by 19.
It felt like one of those “welcome to the Big Ten” moments for McCollum as he was tasked with playing at a sold-out Breslin Center for his first conference game as head coach of the Hawkeyes. He still has a solid team, and Iowa has since slipped into the AP Top 25 after a 10-2 start. They did lose another game after falling to Michigan State, coming up short against Iowa State, 66-62.
That four-point loss at Iowa State and subsequent blowout wins over Western Michigan and Bucknell led to the AP ranking the Hawkeyes for the first time in the McCollum era.
Still, they’re not quite on the same level as Michigan State.
That is, unless you look at the NET rankings.
The updated NET rankings as of Dec. 24 actually give a slight edge to Iowa. The Hawkeyes are up to No. 12 in the NET while Michigan State has dropped all the way to No. 13 from its previous spot at 10.
Honestly, I get that it’s a complicated algorithm that creates the NET rankings, but the fact that Iowa is slotted just ahead of Michigan State is a complete joke.
The resumes of Michigan State and Iowa aren’t even close
I don’t want this to come off as an article bashing Iowa because I actually like the Hawkeyes and I think they’re going to be dangerous come NCAA Tournament time, but I don’t think there’s a world where they should be ranked ahead of Michigan State in any metric.
I’m just pointing out the flaws in the heavily-respected and utilized NET rankings.
Iowa’s best win this season has been Xavier, Ole Miss, or Grand Canyon. None of those teams are on the verge of being ranked, but I think the NET is vastly over-valuing a four-point road loss to Iowa State. Michigan State’s best wins are Arkansas, North Carolina, and Kentucky — and apparently Iowa, too. The Spartans have four Quad 1 wins and Iowa is 0-2 in Quad 1 games.
Michigan State’s only loss was against the No. 4 team in the country by six in a game that it should have held on to win. Iowa’s losses were by 19 at Michigan State and by four at Iowa State.
One team has been much more heavily tested than the other.
Yet Iowa holds the NET rankings advantage somehow.
These composite-based rankings will just never make sense to me, especially since 9-3 Illinois is ranked ahead of the Spartans as well as Nebraska which has just one Quad 1 win.
I guess Michigan State still has some proving wrong to do.