Tom Izzo, Michigan State flat-out disrespected by college hoops media outlet

Every year, there are tiers of national title contenders in college basketball. There are the true contenders who will undoubtedly be there all year, there are the second-tier contenders who have exceeded expectations early and should be around all season, there are dark-horses, and then there are teams that are highly ranked but aren’t expected to do much.

According to one college hoops media outlet, Tom Izzo’s Michigan State Spartans fall in that final category.

OK, maybe I exaggerated what the outlet actually said, but it basically called the Spartans third-tier contenders in a category labeled “the rest of the top 12” which is a step below the actual contenders.

If you’re putting a team in the “the rest of the top 12” category, that means you don’t see them as true contenders, but rather teams that are highly ranked who aren’t expected to do much in March. And to give an Izzo-coached team that distinction is flat-out disrespectful.

Debunking Michigan State’s place on Field of 68’s tier list

When I saw that Michigan State was in the third tier of title contenders, I somewhat agreed — until I read the category labels. Is Michigan State a step below the top 3-4 teams in the country? Probably right now, especially after letting the Duke game get away, but that performance against the Blue Devils shows that Michigan State is for real.

Jeremy Fears Jr. and Coen Carr had their worst games of the season and Michigan State still should have won that game. The team’s two best players were off and a key rotational player (Cam Ward) was nursing a wrist injury, and Michigan State still should have beaten the No. 4 team in the country.

However, that was only good enough to give Michigan State a third-tier spot labeled “the rest of the top 12” by Field of 68. Make that make sense.

Michigan State takes a true contender down to the wire and out-plays them for about 35 minutes, but it’s not enough to be considered a real contender despite being 8-1 with three ranked wins.

It’s 2025 and Izzo is 31 years into his head coaching career and somehow still can’t get the respect he deserves. Maybe next year will be different.

I guess he’ll just have to make his ninth Final Four to earn some respect.