Not many teams in college basketball have been as dominant as Michigan State on the defensive end of the floor through the first three months of the season.
Tom Izzo’s Spartans have the nation’s No. 1 defense on KenPom, and the efficiency rating is one of the best in Big Ten history.
KenPom and Torvik, two of the most respected college basketball analytics sits, offer offensive and defensive efficiency numbers. One Michigan State fan put them into a graph, and they prove a couple of things.
One, Michigan State’s offense isn’t nearly as bad as some people make it out to be. And two, Michigan State’s defense is, by far, the best in the conference, and it also happens to be one of the best in conference history, rivaling the defense of the Spartans’ last national championship team.
B1G Team Efficiency Ratings in Conference-Play
— dunc 🌎 (@SpartyWRLD) January 25, 2026
Michigan State is currently breaking the chart with the most efficient defense the conference has seen since ‘00 National Champion MSU 🤯 pic.twitter.com/sT04u7kz39
In conference play, Michigan State has a “generational defense” which is alluded to by the highest defensive efficiency number in the conference by a wide margin, and the offense is only fractions lower than the “elite offenses” in the Big Ten such as Illinois, Purdue, Michigan, and Nebraska.
To put it bluntly: Michigan State may have the most complete team in the Big Ten.
Is Michigan State’s offense as bad as people make it seem?
No.
I wish I could just leave the answer at that and move on, but I have to address the (false) rumors of Michigan State having a mediocre offense. Yes, there are points where the offense seems to settle in the half court and zones give it trouble, but the Spartans average 79.1 points per game — that’s two more points per game than last year and the most since 2017-18 when Michigan State went 30-5.
Michigan State’s offensive rating, per sports reference, is actually higher this season than it was in 2017-18 when Cassius Winston, Miles Bridges, and Jaren Jackson Jr. were running the show — and that rating back then was good for 15th nationally. Right now, it’s 56th.
This team is also 23rd nationally in assists, it shoots about 36 percent from three, and about 48 percent from the floor. To say this offense is “mediocre” because it’s not ranked in the top 10 would be disingenuous.
This offense is more than capable of keeping up with other high-scoring teams, especially since the defense is the best in college basketball, and MSU’s best (in conference play) since 2000.