Popular rankings system says Michigan State basketball isn’t a Top 25 team yet

We are just one week into the Michigan State basketball season, but the Spartans are already receiving their fair share of disrespect.

Michigan State snuck by a pesky Colgate team in the season opener, 80-69, before taking down the No. 14 team in the country on Saturday night to improve to 2-0 on the season. It felt like a positive opening week of play, and Michigan State improved relatively drastically from its first game to its second, leading to that top-15 win.

As one of the only teams in the country with a ranked win, Michigan State is likely to move up the AP Top 25 this week, but another popular rankings system doesn’t think so.

According to the Torvik rankings using just Week 1 data, the Spartans are apparently not worthy of a spot in the top 25.

Teams like Yale, Northwestern, High Point, New Orleans, Georgia, Stephen F. Austin, LSU, Oklahoma State, and Vanderbilt all appeared in Torvik’s Week 1 top 25, but this doesn’t take into account anything other than adjusted offensive and defensive efficiency. So playing weaker teams and dominating would help your ranking in this regard.

Michigan State’s offense hasn’t been where it needs to be yet, scoring 80 against Colgate and 69 against Arkansas, but the Spartans are shooting just 20 percent from deep and 41 percent from the floor. That has to be holding them back.

Defensively, however, it feels like Michigan State could be one of the better teams in the country. It plays with toughness, crashes the boards, and doesn’t give up anything easy — just ask Arkansas.

Maybe if Michigan State beats Kentucky and/or North Carolina this month, it’ll finally get some respect. After the Spartans beat Arkansas, the national media acted like it was because the Razorbacks need some time to gel, not taking into account MSU still needs to do the same.

Tom Izzo is no stranger to disrespect. It continues.