Michigan State basketball will be sweating it out on Selection Sunday - again

Anything that could've gone wrong, went wrong on Saturday. Four different bid thieves won their conference tournaments as NC State, Oregon, Temple, and New Mexico all punched their tickets to the NCAA Tournament while Michigan State basketball went from securely in the NCAA Tournament to right back on the bubble as one of the 'last four in' teams.

Michigan State felt like it officially punched its ticket to the NCAA Tournament on Thursday when it beat Minnesota and it had to feel even better on Friday with a near-upset of No. 3 Purdue.

The Spartans were preparing for their 26th straight NCAA Tournament.

But Saturday was a disaster for those tournament hopes. The Spartans went from comfortably in as a likely 9/10-seed to now hoping that the selection committee values their strong non-conference schedule as well as NET ranking compared to the other bubble teams. They went from comfortably in to one of the 'last four in' according to a number of bracketologists.

It's not a comfortable place to be. But this is nothing new for the Spartans.

In fact, this has been the case for the past four years. In 2020-21, the Spartans needed a late-season rally to make the NCAA Tournament and they did so as an 11-seed in a First Four matchup with UCLA. In 2021-22, Michigan State got a 7-seed and beat Davidson before losing to 2-seeded Duke in a second-round thriller. And in 2022-23, it earned a 7-seed again and beat USC in the first round before a round two upset of No. 2 Marquette. We all know what happened in the Sweet 16 against Kansas State.

This year, the Spartans are likely to be in the First Four yet again after struggling late in the season and losing 5-of-8 before the NCAA Tournament.

If that's the case, that'll make two near-missed NCAA Tournaments in the past four years and zero times earning a seed higher than No. 7 since Cassius Winston was the point guard.

If this isn't a sign for Tom Izzo to adjust to the times, I don't know what is.