Michigan State needed some help on Tuesday night as the regular season is winding down and a 2-seed is still in play. There are bracketologists who believe that Michigan State could legitimately be in the race for a 1-seed if UConn struggles before the Big East title game.
However, a 2-seed is the most likely at this point, but it’s not set in stone. The Spartans will need help.
Earning a 2-seed isn’t going to be easy, but that quest is off to a heck of a start heading into Thursday’s Rutgers game. The Spartans needed some upsets to happen on Tuesday night to really put them in firm control of their own destiny in the quest for a 2-seed, and they got a few big ones that will only help their mission.
Three huge upsets by unranked teams over potential No. 2 seeds may have just locked MSU in.
Tuesday night was upset city in college basketball
The Spartans had rooting interest in four games, according to Jonah Wilson of Spartans Illustrated.
The first was TCU over Texas Tech. It was a tough matchup for the Horned Frogs, but they bolstered their tournament resume by shocking the Red Raiders on their own floor. I’ll admit, I didn’t see this upset coming, but it just proves that March is a different beast in college basketball.
Next the Spartans needed Oregon to somehow take Illinois down, but that just wasn’t happening. The Illini rolled kind of like everyone expected, but Michigan State is still projected ahead of them.
Arizona State was then hosting a Kansas team that’s been teetering on 2/3-seed status for weeks now, but a loss to the Sun Devils likely takes the Jayhawks out of 2-seed contention. The Sun Devils shocked the Jayhawks after Bill Self was ejected and a furious comeback was nearly completed by Kansas. This helped the Spartans big time.
Lastly, UCLA needed to beat Nebraska in Los Angeles to complete a 17-1 home record for the season, and the Bruins did just that. Mick Cronin and Xavier Booker took it to the Cornhuskers, winning that game by 20 to drop Nebraska to 25-5 after a 20-0 start to the year.
All of these games, minus the Oregon-Illinois one, seemingly improved the Spartans’ chances of locking up a 2-seed in the NCAA Tournament.