Michigan State basketball earns retroactive Quad 1 win at Maryland

Michigan State basketball is constantly looking to improve its NCAA Tournament resume and it did just that on Thursday and, no, it had nothing to do with the 80-72 road win over Penn State.

The Spartans actually retroactively picked up a fourth Quad 1 on the season with a win that took place weeks ago on the road. It happened to be Michigan State's first road win of the season, a 61-59 victory over Maryland in College Park. That was one of those gut-check wins that went down to the wire and Michigan State was able to secure it against an improving Maryland team.

Well, as of Thursday, Maryland is now ranked No. 75 in the NET rankings which means that they qualify as a Quad 1 win for road teams.

In case you're not familiar what qualifies as Quad 1, it's a home win over a top-30 team in the NET, a top-50 win at a neutral site, and a top-75 win on the road. Thankfully, Maryland got bumped up just enough after beating Iowa by 12 points on Wednesday night. This is only going to help Michigan State is the Terrapins can remain in that top 75 and continue to win.

Another Quad 1 win that's right on the brink of Quad 2 status is the home victory over Indiana State. The Sycamores are No. 29 in the NET so they need to keep winning and their ranking took a big hit after they lost at home to Illinois State in a massive upset earlier this week.

So four Quad 1 wins for Michigan State right now with a chance to secure five against Purdue or in the Big Ten Tournament? Tom Izzo will take that.